North or South?

[mrphildog]

Last night we had some clear skies, well...part of the sky was clear so I got the binoculars out. I don't have a decent scope yet just a cheap supermarket one that my wife bought and Helios Naturesport 10x50 bins.

Anyway. I put the bins on my tripod and my 8 year old daughter and I spent a while looking at Orion, in particular Betelgeuse and Rigel. We were both stunned by how many more stars we could see through the bins compared to the naked eye. We also spotted 3 moons orbiting Jupiter which caught my daughter's attention quite a bit.

By the time my wife came to find us my daughter was enthusiastically able to give her a tour of the southern sky. She was proudly pointing out Venus, Jupiter and "Beetlejuice" which was great to watch.

The thing that struck me though was that we had to go into our front garden to do this as our house faces South. Looking at some books and star charts it seemed to me that most of the action in the sky throughout the year takes place in the southern sky (I'm in North UK). The northern sky seems to have Ursa Major and Polaris rotating around while the Southern sky is showing various things as the year progresses.

This made me wonder whether my north facing back garden is going to be useless for stargazing. I am hoping to buy the apparently crazily popular 200P but wonder if I am going to have to stand in full view of the neighbours in our front garden to get the most benefit out of it? This will mean dragging it through the house from the garden shed any time I want to use it.

So, am I being unfair on the northern sky or will I spend most of my time looking south while my neighbours start to worry about the weird bloke staring through a large telescope apparently pointed at their bedrooms?

[redneon]

I think it's fair to say I spend more time in the East-South than in the North-West. Obviously it depends what you're wanting to look at but I do find myself only pointing north when I'm polar aligning my scope.

Personally, I don't want objects to be in the west as I can only really observe the sky from my back garden which faces east and I feel uncomfortable stood at the end of my back garden looking back at the houses with a pair of binoculars and a telescope

[bullettooth]

there are things to be seen all over the sky. there's a few dso's around ursa major in the way of galaxi's that you will be able see with your scope when you get it. bode's nebula for example was a WOW for me, its two galaxi's that you can see in one fov

you should download stellarium its been invaluable to me.

good luck and happy viewing

[johnnyringo]

Hi There

It is worth noting that all of the planets and the moon and to honest a good proportion of the best DSO's rise in the East and set in the West so a view of the Southern sky is desirable.

As for the neighbours.... They're more likely to want a peek through your fantastic scope!

Cheers

John

[kenmyers]

You could dedicate yourself to the northern views and really get used to the whole area very well, their are a lot of DSO's in the north and you are correct, these constellations dont ever set from the UK. You may think you will become bored of the same sky but I have the ever changing south as my view from the garden and you really do need to know where to look to find anything at all so if you are a beginner I would enjoy the North sky and its eternal presence.

[mrphildog]

Hmmm - I wonder how the wife would feel about moving house...

Thanks for the responses. I've downloaded Stellarium and will have a play with that. I've a few apps on my iPhone that I have found useful too.

At the far end of our garden we can get some view of the South Eastern sky so we can probably make do - or travel - or use the front garden and charge the neighbours for a peek of Jupiter's moons. Plus it does sound like the North sky will still offer some things to look at.

The only problem is that I know the 200P would be awkward to get from the back of the house to the front on a regular basis but it is the scope I want. Maybe I need two scopes - that 130P flextube Heritage thing looks portable and handy for quick setup.... Hmmm. I'm not sure I'll get budget approval for two scopes though. This is how aperture fever begins isn't it?

Cheers!

[kenmyers]

The heritage is great but it sits very low to the ground. You will need a table or bench to rest it on to negate back strain. Also do your views not get ruined by streetlights in your front garden?

[kniclander]

(in the northenr hemisphere) south is better because planets are always in the south as is the moon (although re mars and the moon thy get pretty close to directly overhead). east is nice as it's nice to watch things rising IMHO.

[mrphildog]

... do your views not get ruined by streetlights in your front garden?

Yes to some extent. Though it's not really a problem for the bigger objects like the planets, and we had no trouble seeing a lot of small stars within Orion.

But yeah it's a good point, the back garden is definitely darker and our eyes would never get the chance to adjust to darkness in the front so we'd never see the dimmer DSOs or the Milky Way (with naked eye or bins - not sure about a scope).

It's not an especially bright street - it's quite a wide road for a side road and doesn't seem heavily lit but there are still streetlights...

[mrphildog]

(in the northenr hemisphere) south is better because planets are always in the south as is the moon (although re mars and the moon thy get pretty close to directly overhead). east is nice as it's nice to watch things rising IMHO.

Thanks. From the end of our garden we can see Jupiter above the house this week but Venus is too low so we can only view it from the front garden. The moon would be clearly visible over our garage from the back garden at some parts of the night (if it was around at the moment) and maybe over the house - I've never really noticed. It sounds like we'd see Mars OK but I've never knowingly looked at it.

I guess I need to spend more time with the binoculars and work out what I'll be able to see from the back garden when I do get my scope. Maybe we'll need to travel occasionally to get the best views.

[Gra]

Have you tried to stand at the back of your garden and look south, you may be surprised at haw much of the southern sky you will see? Depending on the length of your garden that is.

Edit (note to self), do not type out answer then use the phone then post quick reply. mrphildog you answered my reply.

[kenmyers]

Sounds to me like you should get in touch with your local astronomical society.

You would be able to bring your scope and view through other peoples and its a great evening out with the family, make it a monthly or weekly visit and you will soon learn the wearabouts of those awesome northern DSO's and also while you are their you will see the southern sky in all its glory.

Plus you never know, you may have a neighbour in the group who lives nearby and has a south facing garden

[mrphildog]

Have you tried to stand at the back of your garden and look south, you may be surprised at haw much of the southern sky you will see? Depending on the length of your garden that is.

Edit (note to self), do not type out answer then use the phone then post quick reply. mrphildog you answered my reply.

That sort of this happens to me all the time.

Thanks for the reply anyway - the garden is not very long but I'm definitely going to have to experiment at night to see how much I can see from there over the coming weeks.

[mrphildog]

Sounds to me like you should get in touch with your local astronomical society...

Yeah, I agree. It's definitely on my agenda, I think it would be useful in lots of ways.

[Moonshane]

my garden faces East which for me is good as this is where the darkest skies are - facing the Peak District. to my NW is Manchester and to my West is Stockport so thanksfully they are behind my house! I have a poor view of the south as I have a 6' fence in that direction but I still see a lot.

don't forget that a lot passes right overhead or close to so wherever you are there will be lots to see, plus at the zenith the sky is generally best anyway!

[mrphildog]

Thanks Moonshane. That is reassuring. When we were outside last night it was a bit cloudy directly overhead so we didn't really look up very far, certainly nowhere near the zenith. It's something I will obviously have to explore; we got a bit transfixed by Orion and Jupiter really, we were just so impressed that even modest binoculars opened up the sky quite a lot and they were obvious easy targets.

I appreciate everyone's input here so thanks again all.

[Moonshane]

If you can see Orion well enough then there will definitely be plenty so see as there's a lot between Ursa Major and Orion even currently and that general area fills with constellations through the year. Don't worry!

[mrphildog]

If you can see Orion well enough then there will definitely be plenty so see as there's a lot between Ursa Major and Orion even currently and that general area fills with constellations through the year. Don't worry!

Yeah, my worry was that to see all of Orion we had to go to the front garden as it was obscured by the house next door when viewing from the back garden. Sounds like it won't be a major problem though and I will still find things to look at from the back garden.

[bullettooth]

i think you should be able to see auriga from your garden, its around the zenith,it has alot going on in and around there so makes for good viewing check with stellarium and go look if its clear.

good luck

Martin

edit; it is towards the south but it should be high enough for you to see.

[mrphildog]

i think you should be able to see auriga from your garden, its around the zenith,it has alot going on in and around there so makes for good viewing check with stellarium and go look if its clear.

good luck

Martin

edit; it is towards the south but it should be high enough for you to see.

Great. Stellarium looks like a handy tool. I've had a quick look at it and from what I've seen so far there is more to the sky than meets the eye... so to speak... It looks like on a good day I should have a few constellations to look at. At least on cloudy days I can use Stellarium to let me know what would have been available if the sky was clear and over time I should be able to get an idea of what sorts of things should be in my line of vision.

EDIT: Looking a Stellarium for about 10pm today I should easily have Auriga in my view and Cassiopeia and some other stuff if there are no clouds.

[kenmyers]

If you can see cassiopia you are only a small hop away from the Andromeda galaxy M31 and a few excellent star clusters as well as a bunch of other DSo's I havent even had time to find yet. You will be fine and if you really are desperate it seems your binos are FTW!

[bullettooth]

EDIT: Looking a Stellarium for about 10pm today I should easily have Auriga in my view and Cassiopeia and some other stuff if there are no clouds.

thats great. another tip then if you can see cass, between cass and perseus there is the double cluster. it is an amazing sight through my scope, so through a wider fov by way of your binns it should look pretty impressive.

again look for it on stellarium so you know where to look in the sky.

when i 1st started (few months ago) i had no idea how much there was to see in the sky.

stellarium was the 1st thing i downloaded and once i got used to using it i used it to plan my sessions and still use it to confirm what i have seen. as ive said before its totally invaluable to me.

[mrphildog]

If you can see cassiopia you are only a small hop away from the Andromeda galaxy M31 and a few excellent star clusters as well as a bunch of other DSo's I havent even had time to find yet. You will be fine and if you really are desperate it seems your binos are FTW!

I was thinking that the binoculars would be a temporary thing to get me to the point of getting a good scope...that was until I used them. Now I know I'm gonna keep them and even with a scope they will still get used.

thats great. another tip then if you can see cass, between cass and perseus there is the double cluster. it is an amazing sight through my scope, so through a wider fov by way of your binns it should look pretty impressive.

again look for it on stellarium so you know where to look in the sky.

when i 1st started (few months ago) i had no idea how much there was to see in the sky.

stellarium was the 1st thing i downloaded and once i got used to using it i used it to plan my sessions and still use it to confirm what i have seen. as ive said before its totally invaluable to me.

I feel that way - it occurred to me that there's been all this stuff above my head for 41 years and I hadn't really looked at it. I knew some basics about the universe in terms of what it's made up of but I hadn't really considered the fine detail of just how much of it could be seen from a garden.

[kenmyers]

I am a strong supporter of bino's. They reveal an almost magical view of the sky unnatainable by most scopes. You will see things quickly and easily with bino's and on very dark nights you will be able to locate deep sky targets which you can point your scope at for a closer look. Anything that looks like a blurry fuzz in your binos will be worth pointing the scope at.

I hope you have some great views tonight, looks like a clear night.

[mrphildog]

Well I've just been into the back garden. Auriga, Cassiopeia and more are easily seen and through the binoculars I could pick out a bunch of other stars not visible to the naked eye so it does look like the northern sky has more to offer than I feared.