NewStart in London - please advice what to look at

[RolandKol]

Hi guys,

 

Recently I have received quite a nice toy "Skywatcher 250 DOB GOTO" and now simply learning how to use it correctly.

 

It is quite a big one, so I am able to use it from my back garden only, so I am able to see SOUTH, SE and SN directions.

 

At the moment I use just a default 26mm EP without any other items, - I do have Bluer Filter which is left in the box till the moon will show up.

 

During last two weeks I have managed to look at bright stars and M45 only, I always failed to see Andromeda, GOTO system helps me to find the location, but I do not see anything.

 

I am not sure what can I see from back-garden in London as it is quite light polluted, can anyone advise me, please?

[David Levi]

Sounds like a great telescope. I'm a beginner as well and there are far more qualified people on this web site to give you great advice but I have to recommend the book Turn Left At Orion. As far as I'm concerned it is a must have when starting out with astronomical observation. It explains everything you need to know at the start of your observing experience and lists and tells you how to find hundreds of interesting objects in the night sky.

[popeye85]

Welcome aboard, and must say nice wee(OK maybe not so 'wee'!) Scope,

you should be able to see Andromeda even with the light pollution that I'm sure you have in your part of the world. Providing that your goto is all set up properly one of the possible reasons might be your expectations m51- like all deep sky stuff- will just appear as a faint smudge of light on your ep, don't expect to see when you might have seen in magazines or online. This is a good read when starting out.

You will also have plenty of people recommending you to download a program called 'stellarium'. This is a fantastic Origen that will show you exactly what is in your sky at your location at any time, plus it's free! 

Good luck!

Popeye

[ronin]

You might be "seeing" Andromeda, just not realising it. I am assuming that you have onlythe eyepieces that came with the scope and that means a 25mm. That will give 28x and that in turn will deliver a view of about 1 degree. Andromeda is 3 degrees across, so all you get is the central core. Which being sort of uniform and structureless is not going to stand out.

What can you expect to see? My advice is to get Stellarium set up for your location. Press F5 to set the time to when you observe, then press F4 and set the DSO magnitudes to 6 or 5 or even 4 and apply it. The smaller the number the brighter.

Then you have a picture of the brighter objects.

Yesterday I attached a copy of a few ideas for someone, minor problem is no idea what the post was called or where it was. Titled something like: Beginner, any help ? Just several words more as the subject. Grab a copy of the .doc file as whatever is in it is relevant to you.

Other ideas, find the Baker Street Astronomers and wander along, leave the scope at least initially. They meet in Regents Park once a month.

[RolandKol]

Thanks guys for prompt replies.

Ronin:  I do have "Stellarium"  app on my PC, but I did not know the options you mentioned, I just simply scrolled with a mouse.

also thanks for the list:

 

David: I will definitely look for that book "Turn left at Orion".

 

As per Andromeda, I have expected to see something like in this picture below or even more blurry.

I was not sure if it can be seen in Light Polluted area at all.

The only conclusion I can make now, - I just simply haven't found it due to the lack of experience.

Will have to play a bit more with my GOTO or go Manual

 

[Davey-T]

Hi Roland and welcome to SGL.

I'm not far from you in South London and M31 is visible as a fuzzy blob in 10x50 binoculars, the more magnification you use the dimmer it becomes and it is less visible than your picture.

At the recent SGL Starparty it was much better and I could easily make out the arms and dust lanes using a scope.

Dave

[rockystar]

I think that's a reasonably good idea of what you'll see, maybe a bit bigger, but dimmer.

sometimes you can have objects in View and not realise until someone points it out. You shouldn't have this issue with M31 though, it should be obvious, even in London.

are you sure you've aligned the goto correctly?

there is a book called The Urban Astronomer, which will have some good targets for LP viewing.

also check out the Astronomy League's urban observing program.

nice scope by the way, should keep you busy for many years - but a dark site will make it shine like nothing you'll see from your back garden, I try to make it out every couple of months or so.

[Owmuchonomy]

As above, that instrument is very capable but will truly perform well under dark skies not a city location.  I had the 300P version and a dark sky made a massive difference to my viewing experience. An obvious question but have you collimated it recently?

[Highburymark]

We are limited in London, but there's still a lot to see. Moon and planets are just as good as anywhere else. More accessible dsos like M45, M44, M42, M13 are viewable. Lots of double stars. Many of us also get into solar - either white light or make the step up to ha. With your scope there will be enough to keep you busy for a long time - though take it out of London and you'll see a dramatic improvement in what you can see

[brantuk]

I have noticed in London that if you can get above the light pollution you can see a lot more of the night sky (constellations at least) than down at ground level. On a hotel top floor in Ilford - only 4 floors up - it's an awful lot clearer. I'd suggest you take the scope up to the top of Greenwich Hill and find as dark a spot as possible - perhaps hedge screened or behind trees - and see what you get - I'm sure your scope will work better. Elsewhere it's just moon and bright planets.

[PeterW]

I would practice playing with the foto making sure you do it properly and that it is working as expected.... sometimes small errors or user errors can get the scope heading off in the wrong direction. You should see something for m31. Try m45, m42, if there's not an obvious thing in the eyepiece then it's not gone to! Add a stray light shield, filters, higher magnifications and try to maintain dark adaption. All helps, taking your scope south would be good too, see where the local Astro societies go and join them... good sized scope to do observing sessions with!

 

good luck

 

peterW

[Linda]

 If you stay up late, you can look at M42, which is easy to find and to recognize and very bright. Could be a good test for your goto system. And it is a very impressive object.

[RolandKol]

Very BIG Thank you ALL for all the tips and advises.
 
At last, I had quite a clear evening/night and I have managed find and see some objects in the Heavens
 
I was able to see Andromeda even at 19.00 o'clock with Moon and all neighbour lights on, - I could even see shadows on the ground at that moment
 
Of course, I presume it was not a perfect one, but I could clearly recognise it as a blur cotton wadding.
 
I do not know, what I did incorrectly previously, - but all went fine yesterday.
 
I have hunted down Andromeda, Orion Nebula with babyborn stars inside and M36/M38/M37. Just for fun, - tried to hunt down Uranus, and of course failed.
 
It was the first evening I could look at the Moon since I have received the scope and I was seduced to make some pics with my Samsung Note 2 and play a bit with Registrax later.
 
Clouds came and I was amazed as I could see Capella even through the clouds... How come?
 
I found it quite difficult to check my printed notes about targets then it got really dark, so I spent more time to adjust my GOTO system as at the start it was quite inaccurate even if I been jumping back and forward between Rigel and Capella.
 
(Sometimes it managed to target scope back so I saw it through the EP x26, - but the target was quite far away from the centre. And sometimes, I was even made to adjust direction with my Finderscope).
 
Finally, I got frozen to the bone and my lady been constantly calling me back inside,
 
So made next experiment, -  I have "Parked" my GOTO as per manual, - let's see if it will remember it's position next time.
 
 
 
 
(Capella even through the clouds... still cannot believe it...)

[Astro Imp]

Sounds like you had a great night and well done on your moon image, you've caught some good detail.

[RolandKol]

Managed to wake up earlier and catch the Jupiter!

I could not stop staring at it and I can only imagine how Galileo was amazed to see that Giant with 4 moons hanging weightless in Heavens! Amazing!

I was constantly switching between my 25x and 10x EP and was angry I did not buy even the cheapest x2 or x3 Barlow (or something in the middle).

I think. I will buy x2.25 Barlow to test, as I simply cannot imagine Jupiter twice bigger in EP.

 

At 5.52AM ISS showed up to congratulate me with Jupiter's hunt.

And of course, my curiosity whispered me to hunt it down also. I was lucky as I had 5min in total, I thought it will be quite easy as it rose from West and went almost through Zenith directly East.

I was wrong!

I managed to catch ISS in my x25 EP only 3 times, it was for a second or two only I could not figure out any details, I saw something bright, just like Jupiter, but moving at enormous speed.

Anyway, I am childishly happy

[popeye85]

I'm jealous! Jupiter is without doubt my favourite target in the night sky! The more times you look at it the more you see.

I've not seen it since before the summer but now that it's starting to show herself in the early morning i might have to start seeing my alarm clock.

[ronin]

Can you actually "park" a goto dobsonian ? Something about the idea seems strange  They are just the one type that I would have expected to be moved indoors and out again and so the idea of "park" seems at odds.

Netune is or will be a very dim green dot, so making it very easy to miss. It is another of those that falls into the catagory of: "Is that actually Neptune ??"

Did the scope not come with a barlow, they usually throw one in. Cannot suggest one as I do not use them, preference is for single eyepieces.

Sounds like the time is arriving where you will need to contemplate the purchase of a few more eyepieces, the 10 and 25 are it would seem limiting the observing.

Depending on the intended outlay you have ones like:

Vixen NPL Plossls @ £44-53, FLO

BST Starguiders @£49, Skies the Limit,

Celestron X-Cel LX's @ £59, FLO,

Vixen SLV @£120, FLO,

ES68's and ES82's @ £96-250, FLO (cost is similar for 68 and 82)

After that the cost escalates for the TV Delites, Delos, Pentax etc.

If you attend a club and star party or public evening it may be worth getting a few reasonable but lesser cost items for use at such events. There are some frightening tales of what can occur at a star party. People "cleaning" the top lens with a finger before looking down it is not uncommon, and there is worse, much worse.

[des anderson]

Observing from London is not easy,but you have done very well so far.When I lived in London many years ago.....what helped me was a light pollution filter.

Des