What is Your favorite Messier Object(s)?

[Rule303]

Have you seen them through a telescope? What have you seen and with what equipment? Thank you for sharing your experience!

[Carlos_dfc]

I've 'done' all the Messiers - apart from a handful that are at too low a declination to see from my location (54.6°N, in UK)
Going to Southern Portugal next year, and plan to pick up the last few while there.

Equipment-wise - I've observed most of them many times, through various bits of kit - Binoculars, 4" apo-refractor, 6" EQ-newtonian, and 10" Dobsonian.
Faves are probably m57 (ring neb), m27 (dumbell), m31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - the pairing of m81 and m82 (Bode's and the cigar galaxies) are particularly nice in the same widefield view.
m13 (Hercules globular cluster) is fantastic in a big reflector.
I'm also a big fan of open clusters - m44 (beehive) is lovely in binocs from a proper dark-sky site.
The little chain of m37, m36, m38 open clusters up through Auriga are good - and look for the 'smiley=face' asterism of stars to the right of m38 (widefield binoc view)
Could go on and on, but don't wanna bore people - but a few no-Messier objects that are also great IMHO....
Perseus Double-Cluster (ngc869 and ngc884) - like two little clusters of diamonds on black velvet
ngc457 - the 'Owl' cluster (aka 'ET' cluster in USA) - in Cassiopeia. It actually does look like an owl.
Collinder 399 (coathanger cluster) - a very loose open cluster, of which the brightest stars appear in the shape of a dot-to-dot coathanger - in Vulpecula, between Cygnus and Aquila
ngc7789 - Herschell's spiral cluster - a faint-ish open cluster in Cassiopeia - with a good dark site, and just the right size scope, there appears to be a spiral structure to the cluster - it isn't really there though, just an effect you get under the right conditions - too small a scope, and you can't see the effect, too big, and you gather too much light and detail, and the effect is lost. 6" to 8" will show the effect under a good sky - 10" to 12" required if you have significant light pollution at your viewing site.

[Punk]

Messier 101

[Michael Steen]

My favorite is, by far, M42 in Orion. Plus, it's the only one I can find! I just got a 10" Orion scope, though, and I hope to go out searching on every clear night I can and start looking for them.
It's frustrating, initially, though, because until I find and identify a few, I'm not really sure what I should be looking for. After all, the view through the telescope isn't going to be anything like the photos in the books.

[admin]

Yeah love them all especially m31. I use a 10" dobson, however I wish i had a bigger scope for these and less light pollution.

Do light pollution filters work at all for these?

[Carlos_dfc]

Originally Posted by admin

Do light pollution filters work at all for these?

Light Pollution filters are very hit-and-miss.
If you have the right filter, for the lights in your neighbourhood, then they can be quite effective - BUT are very aggressive - they dim the whole image generally - so big aperture is needed.
Then you take your scope to your local club - their streetlights are a different wavelength - and your narrowband LP filter ceases to work very well.
Also, different types of target (galaxies, reflection nebulae, planetary nebulae, etc...) respond differently, to different filters
And at the prices - it's just not practical to carry a selection to suit different lighting and/or targets IMHO

I have found however - that the 'Baader Neodymium' filter can be quite effective, over a wide range of situations.
It isn't primarily a light-pollution filter, but is mainly a contrast booster, that also has a mild LP filtering effect.
Nowhere near as aggressive as the specific LP filters - it allows 95% transmission of 'good' light (so is OK to use with smaller apertures too)
The combination of contrast boost, and mild LP filtering - makes most targets stand out better against the background sky, allowing more detail to be seen in everything from open and globular clusters, through galaxies, and on to include most kinds of nebulae.

And when used in conjunction with a variable polariser (to dim planets' brightness) the contrast boosting properties also help bring out subtle surface details on Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

Best 'bang-for-the-buck' general purpose filter out there IMHO

Since I got the Neodymium to add to my variable polariser, I've hardly ever used any of my coloured planetary filters, and have never used my Celestron LPR filter again.

[admin]

thanks Carlos thats some great information.