Stood in the dark for 20 minutes trying to decide between Andromeda or the Orion Nebula last night

I had my telescope set up in my backyard in Denver, and the sky was finally clear enough to get a good shot. Picked Andromeda because it was higher up and I figured I'd have less light pollution to deal with. Got some decent detail in the spiral arms, but now I'm wondering if I missed a better shot with Orion - has anyone else had to make that call on a short winter night?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinperez18d ago

Honestly, this feels like a lot of hand wringing over which cool light blob to look at for a few minutes. Both of them are just fuzzy patches in the sky unless you're hauling some serious gear. You got a good look at Andromeda, so why torture yourself over what you might have missed?

andrew91618d agoMost Upvoted

Man last week I spent like 20 minutes trying to find the Triangulum Galaxy with my cheap binoculars and I think I was just looking at a random smudge on the lens the whole time. My buddy @gavinperez laughed his ass off when I told him I spotted a new nebula. It was just my dirty fingernail catching the streetlight.