Find It By Star Hopping !

[Mr Q]

   So often is star hopping mentioned in this and other sites, its about time to learn this valuable observing skill. Its not hard to do with the proper equipment - the hardest to obtain is a set of star charts, which can be printed out from:

http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/triatlas.html

   Use the charts for 9th magnitude for ease of use.

   The next steps are covered in the below links. Being an avid star hopper for many decades, I chose the best sites below to learn this valuable skill. Have fun learning and then using this new tool for observing. Its a lifetime skill that will reward you for many years to come, and then some!

http://www.nightskyinfo.com/star-hopping/

http://washedoutastronomy.com/content/star-hopping-tutorial-lesson-one-m57

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/physics/astrocourses/AST101/labs/tl_starhop.html

[Langy]

I'd like to learn the star hopping, especially as my RDF is not exactly easy to use and what I see with the eye is far less detail than through the scope on my back garden.

Being new to the hobby, I've clicked the first link to what seems an extremely busy and packed page, so where does someone totally new go on there? So many links that would be for someone with a little more experience to know what everything is.

[Paul M]

I've never used a finder and until I got my shiny new NEQ6 last year never had goto. Everything was found by star hopping.

I don't think I ever even fitted the finder to Ye Olde Fullerscope and the much better one that came with my new SkyWatcher newt only got mounted the once to see if it fitted ok. Never looked through it.

Sky Atlas 2000 was my posh star chart but quit often I printed off custom charts or used finder charts published in Sky & Telescope for specific objects.

It's probably the most fun you can have with a telescope. And how often do you come across something so nice you forget what you were actually looking for!?

Goto is nice but inevitably there will be occasions when I can't be bothered aligning accurately enough and just use the handset for slewing!

[Pint Of Stellar]

Thanks for the links Mr Q 

[Kirscovitch]

Nice post. Thanks for the links.

[Mr Q]

I'd like to learn the star hopping, especially as my RDF is not exactly easy to use and what I see with the eye is far less detail than through the scope on my back garden.

Being new to the hobby, I've clicked the first link to what seems an extremely busy and packed page, so where does someone totally new go on there? So many links that would be for someone with a little more experience to know what everything is.

   The site is a little confusing but easy - scroll down half way to the links section (orange/white panels), then click on "A set, second edition" om the right to download (then print out the charts you want). Click on the second link ("index to A charts") to download and print out an index map page to select which chart you want to print out. For the U.K., I would guess about 15-18 charts for the U.K. area as a complete, useable set. The above instructions are for the 8 1/2 x 11 " page size.

[Mr Q]

   BTW, to calculate your field of view in degrees, use this link below

http://www.astrobuysell.com/paul/fov.htm

[proflight2000]

Great post indeed, many thanks

[Langy]

Thanks Mr Q.

Being new I don't know many of the stars so I've relied on Stellarium and my mobile app to roughly point things out.

A couple of questions.

Do these charts change as we go through the year and if they do will the charts repeat themselves for when you get back to the same month?

If they are repeated or always the same then I may print them as work on a good laser printer and then laminate them.

Also I could raise another topic here, my RDF is pretty poor so I rely on just trying to get the scope in the general direction and then try and find the object. Even Jupiter with my 20mm (1 deg FOV) can still take me 30 seconds plus to locate (which the brightness coming from outside the FOV points me in the right direction when close). So other than getting another finder (which may come in the future) would a wider FOV EP help me more? If so I have the Astromaster 130EQ what is the widest FOV EP I could buy for the scope that gives a true FOV for that EP? Would a cheap brand wider EP be worth the money? The 20mm EP I have is great compared to my 10mm, may be down to the eye relief as it is a nice wide opening and you don't need to sit your glasses right on it. So the 20mm is the preferred EP where I only change up when I am on an object and want to take a quick look closer.

[Mr Q]

   Langy - These charts do change (the actual motion of the stars through space) but these changes are so small, star atlases are good for many years. The last "epoc" (last sky survey) was 2,000 and the one before was 1950 so only a few seconds of arc movement of most stars is nothing to be concerned about.

   AS for the "best" EP field size, I would chose one very close to 1 degree if possible. But there is no "standard" size - anything you can determine with whatever EP you use will work. The one LP EP I use is around 1 degree and I choose a hole from a circle template that is the proper size for the atlas I use. On every page of my atlas, I have dozens of objects plotted - most are 1-3 FOV from a bright pilot star while a few are up to 6 or morew FOVs from the pilot star.  To cut down on confusion, I make one circle on the edge of the pilot star, then "(  )" to the object with one more full circle at the object.

[Langy]

Many thanks, this has all been a great help.

I will start printing and laminating next week.

I think like most things it will be start simple with finding an object on the maps I know and start star hopping close by to find things before I get the full use of them.

[baggywrinkle]

Thanks for the Triatlas link,  very good indeed.

[Fatrick]

Thanks for the links. Currently printing off the A and B sets TriAtlas. Just need to make up some FOV templates and get them laminated and into a ring binder

[ToTheWorld]

I was just thinking about looking into this a few moments ago. I just got back in from my first proper viewing in the back garden - I managed to find Jupiter, but it took 20 minutes of scanning all over in the general direction to find it - and unfortunately I couldn't lock it into place as I still don't fully understand the controls for the pitch (?) of the telescope yet!

I'm sure it would have been much easier if I had a way to jump star-to-star to it. Thanks very much for this!

[Langy]

Jupiter being just about the brightest thing in the sky at the moment will be the equivalent to a starting point at the moment.

If your 114 is the same as my 130 with the EQ mount (not knowing much about things myself) leave all the clutches unlocked and use a wide FOV EP. When you do get close to Jupiter you will see the glow of light in the edge of the EP allowing you to go in the right direction.

Even with clouds tonight it only took be a couple of minutes.

Make sure you roughly polar align the scope and when you are locked on the object you should only need to move one of the slow motion controls.

It will certainly be good to learn the star hopping for more hidden objects.

[Mr Q]

I was just thinking about looking into this a few moments ago. I just got back in from my first proper viewing in the back garden - I managed to find Jupiter, but it took 20 minutes of scanning all over in the general direction to find it - and unfortunately I couldn't lock it into place as I still don't fully understand the controls for the pitch (?) of the telescope yet!

I'm sure it would have been much easier if I had a way to jump star-to-star to it. Thanks very much for this!

I was just thinking about looking into this a few moments ago. I just got back in from my first proper viewing in the back garden - I managed to find Jupiter, but it took 20 minutes of scanning all over in the general direction to find it - and unfortunately I couldn't lock it into place as I still don't fully understand the controls for the pitch (?) of the telescope yet!

I'm sure it would have been much easier if I had a way to jump star-to-star to it. Thanks very much for this!

   More times than not, letting the object drift through the field of view brings out more detail as your eye has to keep moving while following it.

   True, star hopping is for "deep sky" objects only - the planets are constantly moving across the background stars so using this method is a waste of time.

   Try this site, where you can print out monthly sky charts including the locations of the brighter planets as well as lots of other useful info:

http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

[Langy]

Another quick question on this, the Index map has two wavy lines running through the map.

I guess this may be something to do with the season or northern / southern hemisphere?

http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/TriAtlas_A_Index.pdf

[Thomas]

The two lines are the Ecliptic and the Galactic Equator.