Or, how I found Messier 2, through trial and error.

Hello :] Well getting straight down to it, first make sure your telescope is at least roughly polar aligned. Then, load up your favourite astronomy software or get your archaic star charts out.

As I mentioned, my target was Messier 2 (M2, NGC 7089), a globular cluster in the constellation Aquarius. A quick search revealed it’s location to be handily above Jupiter, so I knew where to start looking. Another good reference point is the constellation Aquarius itself, with the four-star zig (circled below) being quite easy to spot.

So I pointed my scope towards the right-most star (Sadalmelik) of this formation as a starting point.

From here I followed an extended ‘line’ of the constellation. Past a first group of three stars, on to a second group of three stars.

These stars are part of an easy-to-recognise formation. Two lines of three stars, and a bright star above (which forms another line-of-three). I found the lower set-of-three and followed the line they made over two bright (and very handily placed) guiding stars until I happened upon my target: M2 =] I was rather glad to have been able to find it so easily!

Admittedly that’s not -quite- what it looked like through the 10mm eyepiece of my 5.1in reflector (thank you for the photo NASA/ESA/Hubble)… What I saw more resembles the image below.

But I very glad to see even this (I think I could make out a graininess to it) considering I live in a reasonably light polluted area, and the object is only apparent magnitude 6.5!

So what have I learnt about star-hopping and M-finding. Well I learnt that good software (or charts) makes the process much easier, when you can match up what you’re seeing EXACTLY to a map, even down to the colour of the stars. Easy-to-recognise formations, mini constellations, can act as great pointers to draw imaginary lines towards your target from. After looking at a small piece of sky you begin to recognise the star structures, making it easier to return to a known point if you get lost. And I’ve also learnt that, whilst not very professional, you CAN find fainter objects by basically waving your scope around randomly =]