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using an app to identify planets.


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Hello. I'm a little confused how you locate planets and stars with a telescope. I'm sure I'll get there soon. There just seems to be a lot to take in at the moment.

Could someone please tell me if it's possible to use an app on a phone to locate them? And then simply point and find?

Is this kind of how it's done with a chart? Or is it done with coordinates?

i'm trying to get things clear in my head before I get out there. Also, does the telescope (114mm) refractor) need collimisation during use?

Or would that only be necessary for more complicated telescopes?

I know that's a lot of questions. But answers are very much appreciated.

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Ok firstly, you don't collimate a refractor. That is done for relectors and sct's etc. Secondly, buy a star atlas or download an app for a smartphone. There are plenty of good ones that allow you to point the phone at the sky to identify objects. Try pUniverse, GoSkywatch or something similar. You can also download for free a program called Stellarium for your laptop/PC which will help you find things in real time. www.stellarium.org

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https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-night-sky/id475772902?mt=8

My kids use this app which is cheap £1 and is available for ipod, iphone or android. It is an electronic star atlas which will identify the planets against the star background with the appropriate direction but you still have to navigate your scope to the spot. If you use a red dot finder aligned to your scope this part of the job is easy.

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I have Stellarium for the laptop and my Android phone which are great for doing a virtul search of the heavens. Also Skeye an Googleskymaps are both free for Android and are accelerometer enabled which means that if you hold your phone above your head it shows you what it is pointed at.

However, Jupiter is really easy to find at the moment (it must be cos I can find it), really bright in the constellation of Taurus (up and right from Orion), look SE-Safter about 7 o'clock. If you look at it through binoculars you can just make out the 4 Galliean moons, and the planet itself is a bright disk.

Good luck

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If your scope is the 114 reflector I would not worry about collimating it yet, smaller reflectors like this one don't go out of collimation very often, if you can get focus and see objects fairly sharp with your lowest power eyepiece (25mm?), you should be OK.

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How about a planisphere...these have constalletions, as well as where planets should be at particular times.

Planisphere's don't have planets on them as obviously the planets vary their positions from year to year, they will of course show the constellations if you know what constellation the planet is in

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Some planispheres have the paths of the planets on the back, and where they will be on the planisphere at each month in the year, which is normally close to the eliptic. But i find this totally useless if you dont know where to look to begin with.

Normally, there are only 2 planets (if that) visible at any one time, like at the moment, Jupiter is the only planet visible (at a decent hour) and is fairly easy to spot as its the brightest 'star' in the sky at the moment.

Stellarium is very useful, better than any book imo and a must have. It will show you where everything is from your location so you can see what is where for planning an evening ahead.

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I managed to find saturn at 7 am, a really cool little spec with a disc :)

I was using a skywatcher 200p skyliner and a super 10 mm eyepeice, can i improve the image would a barlow bring it up bigger?

unfortunatly where i live there is some light pollution facing the south where saturn rises , would this help (Baader Neodymium Filter)

thanks

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I find the Neodymium very useful for Mars, good on Jupiter but prefer Saturn unfiltered. Others may find otherwise but I remember finding that it definitely didn't improve Saturn for me.

Stu

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I have a planisphere, Stelarium and Turn Left at Orion. As a beginner, I have the following to share.

The planisphere is great to give you a quick orientation of the sky and to pick out the various constellations. This is great if you don't have a pc to hand.

Stelarium is really great to give you a look at how the sky looks from your location and is a good bit more detailed than the planisphere. It is taking me a bit of time to get used to it but it is bit easier to visualise than the planisphere. My real question hen I look at it is what will be visible to me through my scope. This is just going to take time.

Turn Left at Orion is excellent. I feel it is really written for me. Lots of good advice and basic information and a great list of the first things I should try my hand at finding and enjoying.

All three of these make a great set of tools to get started. The bonus is that they don't cost the earth.

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To be honest I don't think it would take you very long to find most of them easily visually if you check their positions in a planetarium program such as Stellarium.

Mercury isn't visible that often, but is always fairly close to the horizon when it is and either rises just before the sun or sets just after it so there aren't that many stars around it to confuse it with.

Venus is exceptionally bright and therefore easy to pick out.

Mars is fairly bright and has a red/orange tint to it that looks obvious under a dark sky but may be tricky to differentiate with more light pollution.

Jupiter is very bright, though less so than Venus, and at the moment reasonably close to Aldebaran which is also fairly easy to spot and red/orange in colour.

Saturn is again fairly bright and though I'm useless at getting up early so haven't confirmed this for myself, ought to be one of the brighter objects in the sky just before dawn at the moment.

I've heard people claim Uranus is a naked eye object, but I've never seen it. Together with Neptune it's probably a target you have to find using charts and star-hopping or GOTO.

The bottom line though is that if you know roughly where in the sky it should be and pick the brightest target you can find in that area you'll almost certainly have the right one.

James

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Sorry. I should have added that I have had Star Walk for iPad for about a year and I think it is great. It has allowed me to identify Venus and Jupiter and this is to blame for me getting into the whole astronomy thing. It has a nice night mode that gives a red screen for use in the dark.

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After considering it for ages, quite a while ago I bought starmap pro for my iPhone. It was a bit expensive at £11, but it knocks socks off all other apps, free and cheaper, I've tried. I also bought the iPad version which as you can imagine is even better, I don't regret the purchase.

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I've heard people claim Uranus is a naked eye object, but I've never seen it. Together with Neptune it's probably a target you have to find using charts and star-hopping or GOTO.

James

Uranus is magnitude like 5.3-5.9 depending where the Earth is in relation. But like you say, ive never seen it with the naked eye. Only ever seen it once in the scope and then had to use goto to find it :/

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Uranus is magnitude like 5.3-5.9 depending where the Earth is in relation. But like you say, ive never seen it with the naked eye. Only ever seen it once in the scope and then had to use goto to find it :/

I wonder if it works as a point source in that respect? I think I'd consider it at the very limit of visibility most of the time. Perhaps the sort of thing you can see with averted vision if you know where you should be looking in the first place. On a good night I can see stars down to about 5.75 here, but that's close to the zenith. Perhaps if a very clear night coincided with it being near opposition it might be possible...

James

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At the moment, it is straight down from the 2 stars that make up the left hand side of the Great Square of Pegasis (probably moved a little by now though). This is a fairly dark part of the sky for me but i could never see anything. I think any kind of LP would most probably drown it out, being so dim.

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