What can I realistically expect to see with my Nexstar 8SE telescope?

[ILoveKnowledge]

Hi all! I have had my 8SE telescope for about a month and a half now. I haven't been able to take it somewhere away from the night sky of the city yet, so I understand my viewing capabilities will be severely limited until I do so (even though I have an urban city filter). Anyhow, I can of course see the planets beautifully and even star clusters; but I have not been able to yet see galaxies or nebulae. What kind of deep-sky objects can I expect to see with my 8SE both in the city and then away from the city?

Thanks in advance for your input!

[Mr Q]

For city or light polluted skies, the below link will give you a list of what you can expect to see:

http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/urban/urbanld.html

This link shows you what each type and size scope can see under varying sky conditions:

http://www.astronomics.com/main/category.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name

/V1X41SU50GJB8NX88JQB360067/Page/1

Hope these help you out

[Charon]

Great links Mr Q.

[Mike73]

I live fairly close to Plymouth and my back garden has a ELM of about 5.2 so when I view from home I restrict myself to viewing planets and clusters, I can see some of the brighter galaxies and nebula but I tend not to bother with them as I know I will see them so much better from a dark site.

Best advice I can give is just to wait a little longer till the evening get dark again, fill your tank up with gas and get to a dark site. You'll easily pick out those faint galaxies and nebula with your scope and compared to viewing from somewhere with LP it will blow your socks of!

[Disco]

Hiya,

Grey blobs!

Seriously though I would recommend you get the book "Turn left at Orion" as that shows you realistically what you can see with and 8in scope.

If you can find a dark site then some of the the messier objects are great to observe (may need a UHC filter). The great thing about the 8se is it's portability and as its a alt azimuth it only take 10 mins to set up

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Qualia]

I've got a scope with half the aperture, live in the centre of a half million populated city with an average ELM of between 3 to 4 and I'm able to find - more or less - the Messiers I'm hunting out less the galaxies (have pretty much given up), brighter kinds of NGCs, have great views of the Moon, Venus, Saturn and about five of her moons, Jupiter shows cloud belts (not in great detail) and her Galilean moons, Mars hasn't been that great this year and star clusters, doubles and the such are a breeze. All things being equal, I figure if a 4" can do this in a city and offer really nice views, then your 8" will have no worries. I'm itching to get to a dark site, but I can't work out how I can lug about my gear. I don't drive.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have a Celestron C8 on Vixen EQ mount, I have bagged 546 DSOs to date, many from my suburban back garden (which is quite dark by city standards), others from a dark site. If LP is not too bad, galaxies can be seen from the suburbs, but a dark site is what you need. For emission nebulae like planetaries, a UHC filter can help a lot. I even got very diffuse objects like the California Nebula from my garden. Note however, that I started observing more than 30 years ago, and you get better and better at spotting fuzzies. I know I have spotted stuff which many other people simply could not (yet) see. Start out with bright galaxies, like M81 and M82, and work your way to fainter objects from there.

Clear skies.

[ILoveKnowledge]

thx so much for the replies!

[andrew63]

I've got a scope with half the aperture, live in the centre of a half million populated city with an average ELM of between 3 to 4 and I'm able to find - more or less - the Messiers I'm hunting out less the galaxies (have pretty much given up), brighter kinds of NGCs, have great views of the Moon, Venus, Saturn and about five of her moons, Jupiter shows cloud belts (not in great detail) and her Galilean moons, Mars hasn't been that great this year and star clusters, doubles and the such are a breeze. All things being equal, I figure if a 4" can do this in a city and offer really nice views, then your 8" will have no worries. I'm itching to get to a dark site, but I can't work out how I can lug about my gear. I don't drive.

Do you have a pair of binoculars? You can take them anywhere and they give some great wide-field views .

andrew

[Pingster]

I live in London and when i first got my 8se i was really dissapointed as it really looks the business and my mind went into overdrive dreaming up all the cool stuff i would find. I had almost 1 month of cloudy weather so it gave my mind even more time to dream up amazing stuff i was gonna see! So natually my first light was 'interesting' but pretty dissapointing.

In general from a city the planets look great. The moon, stunning. But most DSO's are dissaointing as the 8se lacks resolution.

Then i took the scope to a dark site.... wow... its amazing! The stuff you see will be so much brighter.

But take care in what i say. The longer you own a scope the more your expectations become more realstic... and views that will normally dissapoint you.... will take on a interesting view. You must read turn left at Orion. As it keep your expectations within the ability of your scope. And teaches you the joy of understanding what you are seeing.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The 8SE does not lack resolution on DSOs. Resolution is what you need on planets and the moon. Aperture is what you need on DSOs (and 8" is great, but more is better), but more importantly, dark skies. My best views of the Veil, M31, M33, and the North America Nebula and Pelican where with a little 80mm F/6, from a dark site in the French Alps. I must admit I had resigned myself to planetary, solar and lunar stuff from a suburb, but as I stated before, I have been doing well on the DSO front. London is of course a different matter. The really nice thing about the 8" SCTs is that they are ver easy to take to a dark site.