How to find things?

[Jon Sales]

You also can't go wrong with a copy of Turn Left At Orion.

[peter12]

Are these books relatively cheap and child friendly (lots of pics not words)

[sandyshaw]

Are these books relatively cheap and child friendly (lots of pics not words)

Public library.  Cheap as in free there.

[RichM63]

When I was about his age back in the days when folk went jogging on the Moon, I had a Ladybird book entitled "The Night Sky".

Great book for kids (and adults), showing constellations for the various seasons + other illustrations.

Published long before the days of AP.

Well worth hunting down a S/H copy, I would guess for pennies.

HTH,

Rich

[johnd]

Just adding to the OP's questions that I'm sure will be the next questions he might have as a fellow newbie?

Just been reading these and lots of good advice for a fellow newbie. I’ve got the “Turn Left at Orion” and now got Stellarium working on my home Laptop. I’ve looked at constellations over the years so I’m ok with the main ones and can use these as my starting points. But, as an example I wanted to have a look at some DSO’s (or the easier ones) and set my goal at M65/66 in Leo and located Chertan but couldn’t find them. I’m using my 25mm EP but I think it’s the moving away from the main star I find it difficult to see where I am in my view. So I have been looking for info that would show me what a 25mm EP and my 1500 focal length would show and plot the starts away from and too the M65 object. I think Stellarium would do this but not sure of setting the view in the Telescope and Lens section? I enter my 1500 and 305 in the settings but not sure of the EP settings for my 25-12 and 5.5 Barlow view? Is this how I’d use Stellarium to plot my way from Starting star to target Mxx objects?  I’d have thought a star map of detail would be good but only if I can limit/see the view I’d see in my EP?  

[johnd]

Just adding to the OP's questions that I'm sure will be the next questions he might have as a fellow newbie?

Just been reading these and lots of good advice for a fellow newbie. I’ve got the “Turn Left at Orion” and now got Stellarium working on my home Laptop. I’ve looked at constellations over the years so I’m ok with the main ones and can use these as my starting points. But, as an example I wanted to have a look at some DSO’s (or the easier ones) and set my goal at M65/66 in Leo and located Chertan but couldn’t find them. I’m using my 25mm EP but I think it’s the moving away from the main star I find it difficult to see where I am in my view. So I have been looking for info that would show me what a 25mm EP and my 1500 focal length would show and plot the starts away from and too the M65 object. I think Stellarium would do this but not sure of setting the view in the Telescope and Lens section? I enter my 1500 and 305 in the settings but not sure of the EP settings for my 25-12 and 5.5 Barlow view? Is this how I’d use Stellarium to plot my way from Starting star to target Mxx objects?  I’d have thought a star map of detail would be good but only if I can limit/see the view I’d see in my EP?  

Oh and forgot to add that with my new Dob I'm finding the whole upside down and moving about not that easy especially when I'm trying to move slowly as I describe above.

[Langy]

There are some good star maps here which I've printed and laminated.

Some people make a small template to scale the size of the map to that of the EP FOV. An easy way to visually see that is look at the moon with your widest EP. For me the moon fills about half the width of my FOV meaning that I can see 1 degree FOV in the EP.

You could then use a piece of card to cut a whole within scale of the map as one option.

Star hopping is not easy for a beginner, I'm sure like all things time and practice will make it a lot easier, but I've struggled so far,

[johnd]

There are some good star maps here which I've printed and laminated.

Some people make a small template to scale the size of the map to that of the EP FOV. An easy way to visually see that is look at the moon with your widest EP. For me the moon fills about half the width of my FOV meaning that I can see 1 degree FOV in the EP.

You could then use a piece of card to cut a whole within scale of the map as one option.

Star hopping is not easy for a beginner, I'm sure like all things time and practice will make it a lot easier, but I've struggled so far,

Hello, Re-Template -   yes that's what I've heard of from another poster here but the bit I'm not clear on is how to set the template size i.e. with my 25mm EP the moon is about 2/3's of it. How do I work out how many degrees that is and then say use the same system for my 12mm?

[johnd]

Hello, Re-Template -   yes that's what I've heard of from another poster here but the bit I'm not clear on is how to set the template size i.e. with my 25mm EP the moon is about 2/3's of it. How do I work out how many degrees that is and then say use the same system for my 12mm?

Hi, again I just looked at that Chart site and looks very good and free!  As an example in my described problem in Leo above. I took a cut of the Chart that I'd use i.e. Chart 36 in the B-section and highlighted 2 things, the starting Star Chertan and a square where M66 is. If I could workout the square (or what portion I'm seeing) in my 25mm/12mm view and use that as a template then that would go a long way to help me move to the Mxx object. So in your example would you pretty much see the red squared area as its 1 degree?

[johnd]

Forgot to actually post the section - Doh!

[Langy]

Firstly you want the A set as they will not show too many faint DSO.

If you look at the left or right edge of the maps they show the scale in degrees. There is a calculation on how to calculate the FOV for an EP but I'm not sure on that and it may differ from each manufacturer of EP, which is why I said to use the moon as an example.

The moon can vary from 29.3 arc minutes to 34.1 arc minutes depending on where it is in its orbit to the earth, so it is roughly 0.5 degrees give or take a bit.

Your 25mm EP has the moon fill 2/3 of the FOV, therefore making the FOV on that EP roughly 0.75 degrees. I wouldn't even bother trying to work out any higher magnification EP as you would hardly use them when looking at a star map. Even your 25mm EP is quite a narrow FOV. The narrower the FOV the harder star hopping will be.

To create your template print one of the maps and measure the distance between the lines on the side of the map to work out the scale. For example 5 degrees may cover 1cm, therefore you need a hold in a piece of card as small as 1.5mm. Only a very rough example but you can see how small a narrow FOV will be.

If I use my binoculars I get somewhere near to 5 degrees, so you can see how much more you can see which is why I suggested using bins and a scope together.

[johnd]

Firstly you want the A set as they will not show too many faint DSO.

If you look at the left or right edge of the maps they show the scale in degrees. There is a calculation on how to calculate the FOV for an EP but I'm not sure on that and it may differ from each manufacturer of EP, which is why I said to use the moon as an example.

The moon can vary from 29.3 arc minutes to 34.1 arc minutes depending on where it is in its orbit to the earth, so it is roughly 0.5 degrees give or take a bit.

Your 25mm EP has the moon fill 2/3 of the FOV, therefore making the FOV on that EP roughly 0.75 degrees. I wouldn't even bother trying to work out any higher magnification EP as you would hardly use them when looking at a star map. Even your 25mm EP is quite a narrow FOV. The narrower the FOV the harder star hopping will be.

To create your template print one of the maps and measure the distance between the lines on the side of the map to work out the scale. For example 5 degrees may cover 1cm, therefore you need a hold in a piece of card as small as 1.5mm. Only a very rough example but you can see how small a narrow FOV will be.

If I use my binoculars I get somewhere near to 5 degrees, so you can see how much more you can see which is why I suggested using bins and a scope together.

Hey Paul thanks for that explaination it really helps and I think I'll use my 10x50 as you do also. My set up has a 25mm EP having used my Rigel finder (really good for the starting star) then its straight to the 25mm so I think that's the problem as it looks a little different from eye to 25mm

[Langy]

Hey Paul thanks for that explaination it really helps and I think I'll use my 10x50 as you do also. My set up has a 25mm EP having used my Rigel finder (really good for the starting star) then its straight to the 25mm so I think that's the problem as it looks a little different from eye to 25mm

I've found it very hard, but if you have the bins looking at the same object as the EP (why they are better on a tripod) you can see more and know where the next star is that you need to hop to.

having a MD on the scope can help if you take too long at the bins as the sky can move rather quickly when further away from the zenith.

I think the easiest way to start may be to find something on the maps with not too many stars plastering one very small area. I've only tried it looking for M81 / M82 and failed with the scope but believe I found them in the bins.