Finding objects in the sky

[tomo1515]

So last night I went out to observe for the first time with my new telescope in skies with absolutely no light pollution, no clouds, and minimal atmospheric turbulence, and still I could not locate any deep sky objects. The moon was up however and I've read that the moon can 'drown out's fainter objects. Is this why I couldn't see anything or was it likely to be user error? And also what do you recommend for finding objects in the sky? I used an iPhone app but I found it hard to point the telescope in the area that the phone was telling me.

[webboid]

Patience,  practice & more practice. They are all up there finding them is best done with a star map like sky & telescope pocket atlas. I use a red dot or telrad type finder first to get in the right area. Then use a regular finderscope or low power eyepiece to star hop to your chosen target. Even if the Moon is up you should see a good few things with your scope. I was out last night with friends at a dark sky location. Even in an 85mm refractor of my friend we saw globular clusters, galaxies & nebulae. Allow your eyes to get adapted to the darkness by avoiding bright lights from phones, street lights, ambient lights in fact any white light. I use a dim red torch to read the map. In my 12" dob I was able to tease out a bit of detail in some galaxies last night too.

Happy hunting

[tomo1515]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them ago when the clouds decide to clear. I regret going in now as the conditions were perfect, now there's going to be clouds until Wednesday. At least I saw Saturn for the first time which was impressive. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

"Patience,  practice & more practice". Thats about it really. Its always a special moment when you see Saturn for the first time. You will remember it for the rest of your life.

[Gazabone]

Could you tell us more about the scope and mount you have? If you have an eq mount with decent size setting circles, they are very effective in finding faint targets. The other thing to bear in mind that you will not get a similar view of a faint object comparable to looking in an astronomy book, sounds silly but finding targets is only one part of the equation; you also have to practice looking through the eyepiece. If you have a local astronomy club or society I would strongly encourage you to contact them, they are invariably a wealth of information and guidance about looking at the skies.

You'll soon be getting the wow factor but like most things worth doing in life, it takes practice.

Happy viewing

[LukeSkywatcher]

Could you tell us more about the scope and mount you have? If you have an eq mount with decent size setting circles, they are very effective in finding faint targets. The other thing to bear in mind that you will not get a similar view of a faint object comparable to looking in an astronomy book, sounds silly but finding targets is only one part of the equation; you also have to practice looking through the eyepiece. If you have a local astronomy club or society I would strongly encourage you to contact them, they are invariably a wealth of information and guidance about looking at the skies.

You'll soon be getting the wow factor but like most things worth doing in life, it takes practice.

Happy viewing

The clue to what scope is being used is in the fact that its a Skywatcher Skyliner 150P. Its a 6" Dobsonian.   

[Qualia]

You'll find what I write below elsewhere on SGL but it's always handy to go over some general advice:

• Stellarium - useful for planning sessions, seeing what is about, learning the positions of constellations and much more.

• Star Atlas - quite literally, you’ll be lost without one.

• RACI Viewfinder - helps when it comes to hunting out deep sky objects.

• Telrad or Rigel helps to aim your scope in a given part of the night sky.

• Low Magnification Eyepiece helps detect objects and might be your star-hopping workhorse.

• Observing Chair - to be patience you need to be comfortable and so you need to be seated.

• Red Light - helps retain night vision when you need to see something like your map etc.

• Eye Patch - keeps both eyes open while observing, since squinting strains the working eye.

• Light Pollution - the single worst enemy for stargazing is light pollution. A small telescope in the countryside will show faint objects better than a larger scope in the city. In effect, darker the night skies, brighter the deep sky objects

• Dark Adaptation - the human eye takes time to adjust to the dark. If you have planned an evening with deep space objects, try not to observe any bright celestial object such as the Moon or planets with your working eye.

• Averted Vision - looking directly at deep space objects might not be the best method for observing them.Practice by centering a dim star or DSO in the centre of the eyepiece’s field of view and concentrate your attention on an area just a little off to one side or above. Alternatively, place the object a little to the side or below the centre of vision. Either method should work, but finding your sweet spot will be a matter of trial and error.

• Don’t Squint, Jiggle and Breath - try not to squint when observing celestial objects, for by doing so you are not only straining your working eye which can lead to fatigue but also limiting your powers to detect faint objects. There may also be occasions where you are certain you have the specific area where you think the deep space object resides but it appears to be lurking under the limit of visibility. If this is the case, tap the telescope or eyepiece just a little to make the field of view jiggle. It’s not guaranteed but you might find the object revealing itself. Again, when you are concentrating you might find yourself holding your breath without realizing it. Limiting the oxygen to your brain, even for just a few seconds, compromises night vision. So while observing its good practice to breathe steadily and deeply but in a calm and relaxed fashion.

• Aperture and High Power - when it comes to viewing deep sky objects, aperture rules.

• Sketching and Log Book - better to be a visitor, rather than a tourist. There are two essential features to visual astronomy. The first is to find the object and the second is to observe it. The former process involves star-hopping and reading star maps, the latter requires you to slow down and to engage yourself with the complexity and beauty of what is being observed. It's been said many times before but anything glanced at will always look like a featureless something or other but the trick is to go beyond this style of looking and practice picking out features and textures. It is important to slow down from time to time and sketch or write about what you are seeing.

• Planning - a session is a good idea and part of this is to check out sketches by other observers. Drawings should give you an idea of what the object will more or less look like if you were to use similar aperture and magnification.

• Sketches - check out sketches to have some general idea of what the object looks like. Needless to say, astrophotos will not help. 

• Patience - master patience you'll be master of yourself and the night sky is a good teacher. If you don't succeed one night, or you can’t go out for weeks on end, don't be down hearted. In most cases, during that time you've probably discovered something new about yourself and those stars and DSOs will be back to give you another chance, another day.

• Cloudy nights - is a hobby that can be a tiresome road and one can suffer for it and be grieved, but the worst you can do is add to this frustration and curse those things beyond your control. Cloudy or uneventful evenings are just that, nothing more and when older they will appear as a singular, non-descript events, yet shining from them like a host of gleaming stars will be those evenings where everything just seemed perfect and the universe could murmur to you its secrets.

Getting in some practice next week while the Moon is up, you could always check out double-stars in Bootes, for example. They're really very pretty and hopping between them will hone your star-hopping skills. You could also try 'hopping' between features on the growing Moon and see if you can identify Cassini's division on Saturn's ring and the belts around its planet.

Then on the next clear night when there isn't a big Moon about to wash out what you're looking for, maps at the ready, you could start a simple star-hop and hunt out some of the Messier objects like M 104, M 13, M 5, M 3, M 51 etc.

If you need any further help, maps, etc, just let us know. And please, let us know how you get along.

[Tinker1947]

if you have Stellarium on a PC  then download the free Telrad maps, turn the Telrad circles on in Stellarium and compare to what you see on the maps, hold a map up to the sky and things will fall into place, its does take time but once learnt there is to remember.....