Telescope.

[outlash]

Mmmm, I remain unconvinced! I don't think M6 is much better tbh... Do you go down to Olly Penrice's place in France by any chance do you?

From memory, M74 is tricky (again low, but pretty small & faint), M1 (small nebulae), The two in the Leo triplet and some of the Virgo/Coma aren't easy either. Been while since I tried though, increasing light pollution here just kills DSO observing for me.


Tony.

 

[PaulRide]

I nearly booked a week at Olly's last year. But he only had space when there was lots of moon, and Mrs R was a bit nervous at the extent to which it was going to be a purely astro and cycling holiday. We had a week in the Lot valley, which was pretty good in terms of dark skies.
(This was from the poolside)

M1 has been no problem from London, likewise M65 and M66 in Leo (they were my target the first time I ever used a go-to system) but no M74 for me yet.

 

[outlash]

Nice star colours there , you can see the LP though .

I'd be interested where abouts in London you are, from my back garden in Cambridgeshire (limiting mag 3ish, probably worse now) M1 was tricky in a 10" scope and the leo triplet wasn't do-able.


Tony.

 

[byegad]

Yes picture the glow over the trees in that photo, then move that up to within 20 degrees of directly overhead with increasing LP as you move down to the horizon. That will give you an idea the seeing near my home.

 

[PaulRide]

^^I'm in Forest Hill, just south of the South Circular next to Catford. The LP is problematic, of course, but that's mainly to the north of us, and we regularly get better than mag3 conditions - M31 can be a naked eye object for example, and I did once (only once, mind) see the Milky Way in Cygnus one clear frosty night. Those 2 Leo galaxies do require reasonable conditions but they're not as hard as M1, for which I've found cranking up the magnification helps, perhaps because it makes the background seem darker.

The LP in that shot above was from the little town of Fumel about five miles from where we were staying. It was barely noticeable until I started taking longer exposures like this one.