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Why are the stars so tiny?

Pottage

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Pottage

Pottage

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Alrighty, I bought husband a celestron 127 slt for Christmas and with this being the first clear night we have had we thought we would go outside and have a poke around.

Given up with trying to set up the goto for a bit (3 star alignment keeps failing and the only star I know, Polaris, does not seem to be in the menu of stars I can pick, which seems flippin' stupid) and thought we would just have a poke around at what is out there.

Anything we point it at is tiny, you get a better view with the naked eye :D

We are clearly doing something wrong, can anyone help before the whole thing goes in the wheelie bin please!

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mallorcasaint

mallorcasaint

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You are doing nothing wrong. You will not magnify stars as they are too far away! Try looking at the moon or Jupiter and you will see the difference. What you will see is MORE stars as you are collecting more light with the scope. Also try Pleides and you will see lovely star groups.

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John

John

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You can never see stars as anything more than a pinpoint, even with the largest scopes. They are just so far away.

Have a look at the Moon or Jupiter - they will certainly be far, far better than you can see with your eyes !

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Pottage

Pottage

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Can't see the moon from our stupid back garden. Husband has just informed me he has finally got 3 star allignment tho, whoo hoo. We've only been trying since 6pm!!!

Tried looking at (what is possibly) mars and that was tiny too.

Right, I'm back off out to freeze my bits off and get annoyed at it some more for a bit. Thanks John!

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mallorcasaint

mallorcasaint

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The first thing you need to do is identify objects in the sky. You can download free software such as stellarium (google it) and it will show you what is there. Alternatively, if you have an iphone get the app pUniverse and you can point it to the sky and it will identify objects for you. Jupiter is that really bright thing in the sky at the moment. :D

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John

John

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Oooo I *think* we might have just seen a bit of the andromeda galaxy. Can't see that with the naked eye :-)

I can just about, on a good night !

It's a big object despite it's massive distance :D

Binoculars give a nice view of it too.

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cantab

cantab

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Stars will always appear as points. Use low magnification and point at a rich area of the sky, for example Orion, Cassiopeia, or the Pleiades, and you'll see a lot of them though!

Planets do look small through the eyepiece, often surprisingly so, but get a good focus and look carefully and you should see some details on Jupiter and Saturn; Mars is trickier. I've read that the planets through a telescope are typically comparable to the Moon with the naked eye. The Moon itself looks great through a scope of course, and as it goes through its phases it shows detail in different areas from day to day.

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Pottage

Pottage

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Oooooo ooooooo jupier and one of it's moons, I think :D Black nucleus looking thing with light shining around it, with another round dot to the top left hand side? I may have just done an excited dance around the garden, I hope none of my neighbours are out!

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Ant

Ant

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Welcome to SGL :D

To get yourself going you do not need the star alignment and goto - just point the scope at the moon, focus and enjoy :)

Other things that should be fairly easy is Venus (quite low in the west after sunset - but bright) and Jupiter. Jupiter is the bright star about half way up and due south at around 11pm.

Personally I've never done a three star alignment.

Cheers

Ant

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John

John

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Oooooo ooooooo jupier and one of it's moons, I think :) Black nucleus looking thing with light shining around it, with another round dot to the top left hand side? I may have just done an excited dance around the garden, I hope none of my neighbours are out!

Could be Jupiter but it should not have a black nucleus :D

Sounds like an "out of focus" issue but not much of one - you will see that black shadow when the scope is just out of focus - it's a very fine business to get correct focus.

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nightfisher

nightfisher

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Can't see the moon from our stupid back garden. Husband has just informed me he has finally got 3 star allignment tho, whoo hoo. We've only been trying since 6pm!!!

Tried looking at (what is possibly) mars and that was tiny too.

Right, I'm back off out to freeze my bits off and get annoyed at it some more for a bit. Thanks John!

The moon is not very well placed at present, very low in the sky, but it will improve, and you will be so amazed at the detail you can see with your scope

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M4lcs67

M4lcs67

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I always seem to struggle with 3 star alignment so I usually go for 2 star and that does the trick. Maybe not as accurate as a sucessful 3 star, but if you cannot get 3 stars then it is pretty pointless.

Saturn will be coming into view at a reasonable time in the coming weeks so that should be fantastic.

I remember my brother and I using a friends 40 year old reflector back in March. We saw Saturn for the first time. What a memorable experience. We were leaping around going mad with excitement.

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Dunkster

Dunkster

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The stars are just pin pricks of light, but some are amazingly beautiful!

Have a look for Albireo or Almach - beautiful colourful double stars. Also clusters are quite fascinating and there are plenty you can see with this scope.

Even nebulae - it's a bit out of season now, but the first week I had mine (also a 127) I got a view of the Ring Nebula M57 which totally blew me away. Looking forward to the late spring when it rises in the east again (I have only an easterly view from my garden)

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Dunkster

Dunkster

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Stellarium is great - if you have a laptop, tape some red film over the screen so as not to ruin your night vision andcrank the brightness down.

Alternatively, if you have a smartphone or iPad, there are several good astronomy programs with "night mode" that you can use while you're out. I use SkySafari on iPhone, useful for finding those pesky SAO numbers that Nexstar needs to look up most stars :D

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onesmallstep

onesmallstep

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Hi

For 'Polaris' look under 'alpha ursa minoris' as that is the officially recognised name for that star. Look at the following link for star naming: Ursa Minor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HTH!

Alrighty, I bought husband a celestron 127 slt for Christmas and with this being the first clear night we have had we thought we would go outside and have a poke around.

Given up with trying to set up the goto for a bit (3 star alignment keeps failing and the only star I know, Polaris, does not seem to be in the menu of stars I can pick, which seems flippin' stupid) and thought we would just have a poke around at what is out there.

Anything we point it at is tiny, you get a better view with the naked eye :p

We are clearly doing something wrong, can anyone help before the whole thing goes in the wheelie bin please!

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brantuk

brantuk

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The interesting thing about stars is the colour which reveal their composition and phase, and gravitational proximity which reveals a "star system". I don't know which wavelengths correspond to which elements, but I do know Beetleguese has a distinct red hue to it, and Alberio is a double star with one gold and the other blue (though they appear as one without a scope).

Some doubles are in fact "double doubles" and it's fun splitting them. And of course it's also interesting to resolve individual stars within globular clusters. Amazing how many there are sometimes. :p

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