Hi all, My new astronomy blog is launched! Pls see it at http://deseretnews.com/blogs/1,5322,10000034,00.html and offer any comments you'd like. Patrick, Kurt and Howard are "stars" of the first one! I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you knowledgeable folks can give for future blogs. Best wishes, Joe --- On Mon, 1/19/09, Jim Gibson <jimgibson00@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Jim Gibson <jimgibson00@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] M 74 To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Monday, January 19, 2009, 5:12 AM Jay, Getting a head start in the Messier Marathon huh? Good man. This is a good time to practice up getting down the first few objects. Because, like Patrick said, it can be hard to find unless you have favorable conditions, and if you don’t get the first one and, M74 is usually recommended as the first to locate during the marathon, then it is a ticker. Once you get to Eta Piscium and assuming you have about 1 degree (real) Field of View put Eta Piscium at the 6 O’clock position. There are 3 stars there in pyramid shape all about mag 9.25 or so. If you see more than 3 stars (fainter stars), then you are seeing down to the level of M74. If seeing conditions are such that you can’t see those 3 stars you may not be able to see M74 at mag 10.5. I don’t know if M74 gets brighter as we approach spring but the limit on binoculars is around 9.5. However, I know that Dave Burnson (sp?) can find all the Messier objects with binos and it sounds like Patrick can too. So, either my information on M75 being 10.5 is wrong or it won’t be an easy find. If you found the 3 star pyramid then move them to either 4 O’clock or 8’Oclock and M74 will be in your field of view. There is something else that has fuzzed out of my memory with time so if someone can explain this it will be a refresher to me. I once asked Brent Watson what a mag n.n (like 10.5) meant for an extended object; that is a non-point source of light. If I recall correctly Brent told me that if you take a point source of light like a star of 10.5 then spread it over an area like 7.25 arc minutes, which is about what M74 is then you can imagine it will be much less bright. So, in light of what Patrick told you, I am thinking that mag 10.5 is wrong for M74 because people can see it in binos. It still is not gong to be easy in SL valley or with a small scope. Jim Gibson alias The Rambler _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com