Finding your way

The Realm is jam-packed with galaxies, so how can you be sure you’re looking at the right one?

Today, many amateur astronomers use computerised Go-To telescopes that find objects automatically. That’s good for suburban observers when it comes to the Realm of the Galaxies, where few stars will guide you to targets the old-fashioned way with a finderscope, especially in the galaxy-rich area encompassed by the stars Epsilon and Nu Virginis. Go-To may make finding galaxies easy, but it doesn’t make identifying them simple. Even accurate Go-To telescopes don’t always place target objects dead centre. In the heart of the Virgo Cluster, there are often multiple fuzzballs in the eyepiece. Which is the target? One helpful tip is something I used to call ‘eyepiece hopping’. An eyepiece-field-sized chart, with each galaxy labelled, makes it easy to identify the quarry; you hop from galaxy to galaxy in the eyepiece…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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