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Hello from East Yorkshire, United Kingdom

bbwonder

By bbwonder
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bbwonder

bbwonder

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Hello!

I'm Andy from the UK, I impulsively bought a 5" Newtonian scope (Celestron 127EQ) at the weekend, sadly after some brief google research it doesn't appear to be a well regarded scope.. but so far I have achieved something I am quite pleased with - locating & getting a crisp focus on Saturn.

I even got a 'point-a-camera-in-the-eyepiece' photo, although it definitely lost detail & sharpness.

But..

That's where my discoveries have ended.. (hence my journey to SGL :smiley: )

Other than seeing white pin pricks on a black canvas, I havent really found anything (I know this is skill / experience based!)

Although I did see a very colourful, kaleidoscope deep space object (guessing) but once I got my scope up to 500x magnification (f/1000, 4mm EP, 2x Barlow) I couldnt tell whether my focus was in, or whether what I was looking at was mirror distortion.. it looked like a purple/blue cloud with shards of glass pointing out of it. (From the UK @ 11pm, it was maybe 10deg above horizon, SSE)

I'm using Google Skymap to locate / get me started and it worked quite well to start with, but now I think it's clear I need to do some proper research before I can go much further - i.e. understanding what I'm looking at. :smiley:

Having looked around SGL, this seems like a great resource! Glad you're here & look forward to being part of the community.

Andy (bbwonder)

post-30845-0-93613500-1370337439.jpg

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HIP3802

HIP3802

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Hi, Andy, and welcome to SGL! One of the great resources many people on here use is the free programme "Stellarium" which is customisable for your local area and sky conditions, and will show you what is available in the night sky and where to find it. It is downloadble from here: http://stellarium.org/ I would also recommend joining a local astronomy group. If you look under the 'social' tagbon the website there are a number of groups listed under 'Yorkshire' - most would be only too pleased to help out with a scope and with advice on getting the best out of it. You can, of course, also ask on the forums here - I'm sure others will have experience of your scope and be able to help!

Martin

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alanjgreen

alanjgreen

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Hi Andy,

Welcome to SGL!

I would recommed you buy a book called "turn left at orion" (it is great for beginners and helps you find things and shows diagrams of what you will actually see in your eyepiece view)

Alan

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DirkSteele

DirkSteele

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Welcome to the SGL.

I woulld suggest that 500x magnification is well above the capabilities of your scope, as well as, beyond the quality of the atmosphere we suffer/enjoy here in the UK. The usual rule of thumb for maximum useful magnification is 50-60x per inch of aperture (or 1.5-2.5x per mm of aperture) so for your scope that would be a maximum magnification of around 250x, and that will be more often than not, limited by the stability of the atmosphere. Magnification is not the be all and end all when it comes to astronomical observation as a great many objects in the heavens are actually fairly large. I find I conduct most of my observing in the range of 100-160x.

The object you describe sounds like a de-focused star which is scintillating (the atompshere causes diffraction of the light, i.e acts like a prism which spreads the light into a rainbow, and because the atmosphere is constantly moving it causes the colour pattern to vary), especially as you say the object was only about 10 degrees above the horizon. The lower the object in the sky, the more atmosphere you are looking through and the more likely these effects are to manifest.

I would also recommend the book "Turn Left at Orion." It is a great beginner book, which will teach you not only how to find the objects, but explain to what you are looking at as well as what to expect to see through your scope.

Clear skies,

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bbwonder

bbwonder

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Hi, Andy, and welcome to SGL! One of the great resources many people on here use is the free programme "Stellarium"

Martin

The object you describe sounds like a de-focused star which is scintillating (the atompshere causes diffraction of the light, i.e acts like a prism which spreads the light into a rainbow, and because the atmosphere is constantly moving it causes the colour pattern to vary), especially as you say the object was only about 10 degrees above the horizon. The lower the object in the sky, the more atmosphere you are looking through and the more likely these effects are to manifest.

Thanks for the advice on magnification, I'll stick to lower Eyepieces and do some more educated skywatching!

I've just had a play with Stellarium, and I'm pretty sure what I was looking at was Anteres, it was very bright and had an orange hue to it before I started hyper-zooming :)

Hi, Andy, and welcome to SGL! One of the great resources many people on here use is the free programme "Stellarium" which is customisable for your local area and sky conditions, and will show you what is available in the night sky and where to find it. It is downloadble from here: http://stellarium.org/

Martin

Downloaded! Using it! Wow, this is a wonderful tool! Like Google Skymap but much better :)

Thank you all for comments, I look forward to snapping & sharing some photos when my camera mount arrives :)

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ronl

ronl

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Hi Andy welcome to the lounge,

it takes time to learn this great hobby, but that is one of

the fun things, no scope is a bad scope, you need to learn

it's limitations, large or small scopes, they will all show you

what's out there, plus the quality of the eyepieces you have

maybe not the best, it's all about trying things and if it didn't

work out ask, and someone will help.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's

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damnut

damnut

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Hi Andy,

Welcome to SGL, another vote for Stellarium, if you can get copies of 'turn left at orion' and 'sky & telescope pocket star atlas', these will help guide you round the sky. Nothing wrong with your scope, great to start with, the only realy bad scope is one that does not get used and some lesser brands such as seben. :smiley:

Clear Skies

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bbwonder

bbwonder

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Was outside til 1:30am last night.. Saw a brilliant view of Saturn, I could even spot two moons, after your kind suggestions. :)

I made a list of things to find after playing with Stellarium, first on the list - The Pinwheel Galaxy, Ursa Major..

But despite my best efforts and hours of tweaking, I couldn't find it.. (mainly due to difficulties getting my scope at near vertical elevation)

Quick question.. Could I simply be struggling with light pollution?

I'm pretty sure I was scouring the right location..

Thanks :)

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