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New user, new scope, what star have I found?

giltbrook

By giltbrook
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giltbrook

giltbrook

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Hello all.

I have been lurking for a few days, and reading some very helpful hints and tips after ordering my first scope, so thanks everyone, the scope arrived late this afternoon. I have opted for an Acuter DS Pro spotting scope, with a 100mm objective lens, which I picked up off eBay, as new, for a reasonable price. I intend to use it in various ways, including sky watching, and coastal use for ship spotting.

Itching to try it out, I looked out of the bedroom window and as the moon wasn't in view, I found a bright star, (I think), and managed to focus on it reasonably well, but I don't know which one I have found for my first spot. I managed to get a photo of it through the scope by using my compact camera, hand held, which has given me a reasonable reproduction of what I was viewing through the lens. The star was pretty bright, South West of Nottingham, at approx. 18:30, high in the sky, and descending. I took it with the scope set at 20x magnification, which looks a reasonable size cropped to 1/4 frame, (so equating to 80x magnification) but to fill a full frame, I would expect it would need to be 360x to 400x, any ideas what I have found.?

Here is my pic, slightly brightened.

post-33587-0-04290800-1386187839_thumb.j

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giltbrook

giltbrook

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"High" in the SW would more likely be Altair. Vega would have been almost due west. Other than Deneb there wasn't much else in the SW quadrant.

My guess is an out of focus Altair.

Thanks for the welcomes and feedback, the bands? viewed through the scope appeared much thinner and clearer. When I first picked it up, it appeared to have 3 'bands' or lines, with one looking like the equator in the centre, and the other two similar to the tropics, then more lines appeared. The hand held camera would have ruined the focus with camera shake as it was only a 1/8 second exposure.

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JamesF

JamesF

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I think the bands might be an artefact of some kind, or an obstruction of the view.

I'd discounted Vega for the reason it would be too far north, but Altair out of focus is perhaps a better choice for something high in the sky.  It would have been a fair bit higher than Venus.

James

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giltbrook

giltbrook

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I had never heard of Altair, Vega and Denab before today, but having a look at some pics on the web, their positions in relation to each other would be similar to the view I had, The view through the scope seemed to give me a very clear circular shape, which would seem to rule out Altair which is apparently doughnut shaped, but that is assuming the scope could distinguish the shape, There was another bright star to the right, and lower, which is similar to the position of the stars on this link.

http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/three-easy-to-spot-stars.html

The star I was focusing on appeared to be the top one of the triangle but I am not sure from the description on the page which one that is, perhaps this could narrow it down.

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Paul M

Paul M

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One thing to point out is that all stars appear as points of light even in the biggest (conventional) telescopes so talking about "shape" is only confusing!

If a star looks like anything other than a point of light through your telescope the first probable cause is poor focus followed by optical defect.

It can be that a star that is grossly out focus takes on the appearance of a sharply defined disk. Banding can be an optical artifact and sometimes a magnification of natural and harmless defects in the observers eye.

I pretty sure that's whats happening here. A grossly out of focus star! :)

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LouisJB

LouisJB

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you'll never discern any star "size and extent" with a home telescope. One of the nearest, largest Reg Giants (Betelgeuse) is barely discernible as a disc with surface rather than a point of light only in the very biggest telescopes that exist.

Probably if not a planet, then a defocused star is the most likely suspect.

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Steve Ward

Steve Ward

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Almost certainly Deneb or Vega well out of focus , Venus was pretty much set at 18:30 and is showing a distinct crescent at the moment too.

Would recommend you download the brilliant free planetarium package called 'Stellarium' , it's invaluable for finding out what you can see and when at a particular time from your own location.

Here's a screenshot of the sky you describe at 18:30 from Nottingham ....

post-21219-0-78665000-1386196962_thumb.p

You can find Stellarium here ...   http://www.stellarium.org/

  

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giltbrook

giltbrook

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From the information provided here, (thanks to all), I have just found this image:-

http://www.rocketmime.com/astronomy/fig/SummerTriangle.gif

According to this, the bright star I could see to the right, and lower of the star I was focusing on would be Altair, in which case I would have been looking at Deneb, with Vega (which I didn't notice) to the right of Deneb. It was starting to cloud over as I was trying to get a decent image so some of the stars were coming into view and then disappearing. It seems like ScottS, Paul M, and James F get the star prizes for helping me find out what I had found with my new (to me) scope, and my first attempt at stargazing/astrophotography.

Now I need a mount for the compact camera, (Canon SX210is), and I have been looking at the Seben DKA2, which seems to give the versatality and adjustments I would need, any views from users of this as it seems a good price and spec.

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giltbrook

giltbrook

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Almost certainly Deneb or Vega well out of focus , Venus was pretty much set at 18:30 and is showing a distinct crescent at the moment too.

Would recommend you download the brilliant free planetarium package called 'Stellarium' , it's invaluable for finding out what you can see and when at a particular time from your own location.

Here's a screenshot of the sky you describe at 18:30 from Nottingham ....

attachicon.gifstellarium-001.png

You can find Stellarium here ...   http://www.stellarium.org/

Thanks Steve, Stellarium is exactly what I need, and it seems to confirm it was Deneb that I was viewing at the time, with Vega being the bright star to the lower right, which seems to be the opposite to the last image I posted, but yours has the credibility of being viewed from Nottingham at 18:30 tonight, which is where I was :smiley:

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