Jay, A little more info: Author Mallas puts M74 at mag 8.8. Brent Watson lists some magnitudes lower in his cards than "The Messier Album" by Mallas and Kreimer, I have found many examples in the card set we have at SPOC, perhaps he considers angular size and does some sort of calculation, M74 is listed at 8 mins. They list the central core as "starlike" and fairly easy to see, and early observers (1861) thought it resembled a globular cluster. I woud suggest that next time you look at M74 go to Alpha Piscium (Al Rescha) first, it is a close double star that requires 150-200X to get good view. When Al Rescha is high enough that also puts M74 in a good viewing location, Eta is also called Kullat Nunu. Erik --- jayleads@gmail.com wrote: From: JayLEads <jayleads@gmail.com> To: Utah-Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] M 74 Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:58:48 -0700 Just was wondering if anyone could help a newbie. M 74 has eluded me this winter though I have attempted to find her several times. I know I am in the right area based on star charts and tonight I thought using averted vision I saw a very small core, but it faded out as I moved my eye back. This best describes the route I have tried though I have tried another also: I start from Hamal (Alpha Arietis); and from this star, I follow a line via Beta Arietis to Eta Piscium (mag 3.5); M74 should be about 1/2 deg N and 1 1/2 deg E of Eta Psc; Is it just too hard an item to see unless I'm in a dark site? Thanks, Jay _______________________________________________ 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