Thread: Object identification

Ok, so what looks like a blurry star with almost a cloud like around it?

I was messing around with the telescope and came across an object near a group of stars that appeared to be a glob of light. Kind of like a star with dust all around it. It was not a bad size compared to the stars.

Star . this object o

In any case I'm not sure what it was/is. No matter where it was in the viewfinder it looked the same, so I know it wasn't the optics. The stars were crystal clear and sharp. This object wasn't.

I don't think my little 80mm scope would have picked this up, it was pretty faint.

You can tell just how little I know about any of this.

A nebula or a star cumulus?

That's all I can guess.

Well I couldn't make out any distinct points of light, then again it may have just been too far away. I downloaded some software that might help me locate it again and ID what it is. Whatever the case may be it was interesting as I had never been able to see such things with the 80mm, this one is 114 mm and appears to do a lot better job. I also opted for some ok quality meade eyepieces that appear to do a nice job.

Is it possible to see any galaxies with such a small scope?

Well it appears to me that it was one of the M class nebula. What one, I have yet to figure that out.

Starrynight (starrynight.com) is a very detailed software. It can be helpful if you can recall the exact spot in the sky and time you saw it.

Good luck with that.

I actually installed Stellarium. It gives you a very cool view of the night sky with labels on everything and sample photos of what the object should look like. It also uses OpenGL to do the 3D, so it works on Windows, Linux and Mac's. The best part is that it's 100% free.

http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/

I'm not sure how it compares to more commercial software, but I'm not at all disappointed.