New to astronomy - Stellarium help

[martynshore]

Hi everyone,

I have been using a pair of bins for about a year now and I am looking to buy my first telescope.

I have found Stellarium very useful to predict what will be available and when in the night sky.

I understand with Stellarium you can simulate what the intended target will look like through various astronomical telescopes and, as i am still undecided which telescope to buy, I would like to simulate a number of different ones as a guide before I buy. 

I am struggling to understand some of the info you have to put in to simulate the telescope you have.

Has anyone used it? If so how do I add for example a Skywatcher Explorer 150p, or the 130 or the 200p? And then how do I add the different eyepieces and lenses. I am confused by some of the technical info it asked for in Stellarium.

Is it useful? It seems it could be but, hey, I am new to this.

And also any other general advice on buying a first scope would be great.

Thanks

Martyn

 

[Dave In Vermont]

Could you tell us the questions it is asking you that have you mystified? I can walk you through it easier this way - the old 'teach by example.'  imagine you are stuck on such info as focal-ration - the 'F/?. Often people are unsure what all these odd numbers and letters need to be explained - which is thankfully a process that is quite easy to learn.

Dave

[John]

Hello and welcome to the forum

I would be very cautious about simulations of what can be seen through telescopes of various types and sizes. Many of the issues that affect what you can actually see though a scope and an eyepiece at any particular time are external to the scope, ie: viewing conditions, light pollution levels, observer experience etc so can't be simulated.

Its probably more useful to read reports of what people are seeing though various scopes in the observing section and to have a look at the sketches that people have made in the sketching section as these represent what the eye sees much more accurately than images or computer sumulations.

Here is a link to the observing section:

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/7-observing/

And here is the sketching section:

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/21-sketching/

It's also worth having a read of the eyepieces primer piece here to understand how those work with scopes:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/43171-eyepieces-the-very-least-you-need/

Do ask questions as well of course but a little reading in will help you know what questions to ask !

 

[skywatcher58gb]

Why not try an alternative free programme which is very easy to operate, 12 Dimensional String, link attached here

This has a very good list of scopes and eyepieces plus cameras and barlow to choose from. Good luck.

[rockystar]

You need to set them up in the Occulars plugin. Open the Configuration Window [F2], Go to the Plugins tab, find Occulars and check the "Load at startup" box. Restart Stellarium, go back to the Occulars and then you can Configure them.

Just be warned though, that the Occulars will only show you the True Field Of View for each combo. There are other settings available for Light Pollution, but as John mentioned, atmospheric conditions on the evening play a big part.

[martynshore]

Thanks everyone for the replies. in the past week I have since figured out Stellarium but I also agree that sometimes it is not knowing which question to ask. I have been doing some background reading and feel I am moving forward. Will of course post another question when one comes up.

 

Thanks again everyone

 

Martyn

[Linda]

Stellarium does not give a good picture of what you see through your scope. I was checking on epsilon Lyrae, which is a couple of double stars. In Stellarium with my scope and eyepiece; I only saw 2 single stars.

Like John, I also recommend looking at sketches. You can also take a look into www.deepskylog.be, where people describe their observations with used equipment.

[DHEB]

I respectfully disagree  IMO Stellarium does a very reasonably good job in simulating field of view and magnification. One can even tweak the maximum magnitude observable and light pollution. In these conditions it provides a very reasonable simulation if one is able to understand its limitations. Then, as we see, frustration can arise from the mismatch between what a program can do and the often unrealistic expectations that users have of it. Stellarium is a good tool, but it is just a bunch of formulas and algorithms, it is not reality and not a magic crystal sphere. Once this is clear all problems vanish ?!

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I was JUST using Stellarium to show my kid amd wife M5 which I was looking at last night.  It did a reasonable job. Less fuzz and a flatter view.  Not the exact same thing though.

[psamathe]

On 30 May 2016 at 21:06, martynshore said:

Hi everyone,

I have been using a pair of bins for about a year now and I am looking to buy my first telescope.

...

I understand with Stellarium you can simulate what the intended target will look like through various astronomical telescopes and, as i am still undecided which telescope to buy, I would like to simulate a number of different ones as a guide before I buy. 

...

Thanks

Martyn

 

Not trying to "split hairs" or anything BUT, packages like Stellarium (and many others) can show you how large the object would appear in your field of view BUT cannot show you "what the target will look like".  What these software offerings do is to take imagery (often from some quite spectacular telescopes) and superimpose circles (or rectangles) showing you the size of the target.  But you will not always "see" what is shown.  It might be that size but not that bright.

e.g. Look at e.g. M81 in your planetarium software and then look at the same target in the sky and ... notice any difference ?

Ian