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becoming familiar with the night sky

deadfraggle

By deadfraggle
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deadfraggle

deadfraggle

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Hello everyone! I've always been fascinated with the night sky, but had a hard time orienting pictures of star charts with what I was seeing. But then I found free astrological software I could load on my netbook and take out with me in the field. Now I can readily identify a few planets and about a dozen stars, and I'm learning more each night. Before, I could only pick out the big dipper, but now I see Ursa Major. Orion sticks out like a sore thumb.

I'm hoping to glimpse the Great Nebula in Orion this weekend, if I can figure out how to use my dad's telescope. With a cheap pair of binoculars, I took a peek this evening, but the with Moon brightly shining, it appeared only as a faint star in a faint fuzzy dot. I remember seeing Orion's belt in January and wondering why some stars seemed to have an extra glow. Too bad I didn't think to use my binoculars then.

My next toy will be a pair of image stabilizing binoculars so I can do more casual browsing of the sky on my nightly walks with my dog.

So I have some newbie questions.

- Will galaxies I see with binoculars will look like stars?

- Are there any spots that one can see colour (Northern hemisphere, spring/summer)?

- Also, when browsing Google Sky & Wikisky, one finds many background galaxies in the images that don't seem to be cataloged, even though many are imaged better than some of the galaxies do have a designation. What's up with that?

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. I would refer you to this site and also to this one as well to give you an impression of what objects you should target for. The ability to see any galaxies that are so faint and far away will ultimately depend on the aperture of the optical equipment you are using and therefore the ability to detect the shape and structure of your chosen target. Orion's belt (M42) is relatively close to use and is about as good as it can get. Many other types of diffuse, planetary and extended nebula will require special filters to be able to see which are availalble for scope use rather than for your binos. With the exception of very large scopes, you will not be able to see any colour as our eyes are not sensitive enough. The only celestial objects that will provide you with any colour will be planets and specific types of star with colours ranging from blue, green, red and orange. Lastly, many galaxies are imaged for aesthetic and scientific reasons and their notation will depend on the catalogues that are being used. I'm not sure what Google uses to be honest but I'm sure that nearly all objects that are viewable by us at an amateur level have been referenced. Perhaps some of the objects seen in Hubbles ultra deep field images have yet to be 'named' but I'm not sure what, if anything is remaining.

With regard to you wanting to purchase some stabilizing binoculars, have a look at this article by Sky and Telescope (half way down) that gives some useful commentary. Lastly, I would recommend Stellarium as a very useful planetarium. Its free, easy to use and can be configured from exact viewing location. Its rendering of the night sky can be calibrated along with many other features (Date/time advance) that is great for plannig your observation session.

Here's wishing you clear skies.

James

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deadfraggle

deadfraggle

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By far, the best welcoming ever! @JBM1165, great info. Stellarium is awesome, but I wasn't sure if mentioning 3rd party software was allowed. It's installed on a 10" netbook I carry when walking the dog. I also tried Google Sky Map on my Android tablet, but didn't care for it as much.

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