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Turn left at orion


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I've been using turn left at orion to help me find objects. The book comes highly recommended, so you can imagine my surprise when after a couple viewing sessions I couldn't find any of the objects I was looking for. So I gave up and returned to looking at planets and the moon. Tonight I decided to give it another go, while looking at some of the pictures I realized that they are drawn inverted, but I have a correct image finderscope. I turned the book upside down and almost immediately found M41, later I found M46 and M47. I was ecstatic, really amazed I was able to see M46 from my light polluted neighborhood. I feel really dumb for not catching that earlier but, hey now I can recommend the book to others. If any other newbies like me are struggling using this book maybe try turning it over lol! 

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Tell me - do you have Stellarium yet? This is an excellent planetarium-program which give one an accurate view of their night-sky from their location (you enter this). It can be as simple, or as complex, as you wish. And it's completely free.

Please let us know?

Dave

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Well done and so happy you have found "Turn left at Orion" a useful and educational aid to your world of star gazing. Turn left to me was an real eye opener to how may objects are out in the universe and visable to a small telescope, but also how to find them with a simple but effective star maps. But also nearly as important, is to know what you are looking for, As some of the faint fuzzy objects are difficult to see especially under light polluted condition. So with the book turn left it also gives you a really good idea by there illustrations of what type of picture of an image you are going to see through the scope, as people starting off in the hobby seem to think sometimes they are going to get these beautiful image picture that you see from Hubble ,Cassini orbitor  pictures. I am afraid this can be very misleading.

Also to aid you finding objects I really do recommend are telrad finder as this can really speed up and simplify star hopping/DSO location.

Hope the above helps☺ 

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6 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Tell me - do you have Stellarium yet? This is an excellent planetarium-program which give one an accurate view of their night-sky from their location (you enter this). It can be as simple, or as complex, as you wish. And it's completely free.

Please let us know?

Dave

I do not have it where could I find it? 

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How about right here? Here's my 'Copy & Paste' to walk you through it:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this link is the main page for downloading Stellarium. Choose which version is correct for your computer. Here you go:

http://www.stellarium.org/
 
As for instructions, a full copy of them is bundled with the program that you download. But if you need another copy for some reason, these can be downloaded here:
 
https://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/files/Stellarium-user-guide/0.15.0-1/stellarium_user_guide-0.15.0-1.pdf/download

This program is quite large, so download when you have a few minutes. I'll leave you with a screenshot of mine, and also one of the screen approximating - roughly - of how it looks when you begin. Please know that I am an experienced user. I do this to help you understand the immense range & versatility of this amazing software-program.


In the beginning:

58ca89a2aa723_StellariumScreenshot-BeginningScreen.thumb.png.58bf4e76450be246479ed087838db7f7.png

 

And my more advanced version:

stellarium-281.thumb.png.426d7118fa6cab59cc3b6c0d1b99e984.png

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy!

Dave

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1 hour ago, Dave In Vermont said:

How about right here? Here's my 'Copy & Paste' to walk you through it:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this link is the main page for downloading Stellarium. Choose which version is correct for your computer. Here you go:

http://www.stellarium.org/
 
As for instructions, a full copy of them is bundled with the program that you download. But if you need another copy for some reason, these can be downloaded here:
 
https://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/files/Stellarium-user-guide/0.15.0-1/stellarium_user_guide-0.15.0-1.pdf/download

This program is quite large, so download when you have a few minutes. I'll leave you with a screenshot of mine, and also one of the screen approximating - roughly - of how it looks when you begin. Please know that I am an experienced user. I do this to help you understand the immense range & versatility of this amazing software-program.


In the beginning:

58ca89a2aa723_StellariumScreenshot-BeginningScreen.thumb.png.58bf4e76450be246479ed087838db7f7.png

 

And my more advanced version:

stellarium-281.thumb.png.426d7118fa6cab59cc3b6c0d1b99e984.png

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy!

Dave

Thank you! I continue to be amazed ny how friendly and helpful people are on here. Are all astronomers like this?  I was a bit nervous about joining my local astronomy club but it seems people within this hobby are just so friendly and helpful it's starting to alleviate some of my concern! 

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  • 4 months later...

Im a newbie to astronomy having great fun with my Skywatcher Heritage 130p Dob.  Ive had it out 4-5 times as weather has been rubbish up in Scotland. So far Ive seen Saturn & the moon but I fancy seeing some nebulae & clusters so Ive ordered Turn Left also. It should be here by the end of the week so Im very excited as it gets good reviews & the new edition has a special section for Dobs!!

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Ok, i was thinking about book as well, but i can confirm that the first time i started to use Stellarium since i think February i can identify or find objects in the sky even if i can't see it at all by my eyes or using scopes, at first i was only looking atv planets and i gave up to see the nebulae or cluster or whatever DOS are there, zooming in from Stellarium and it tells me where are the DSO i need or by search, but i couldn't figure out where in the sky in the real, until about 2 weeks ago or maybe 3, i gave it one more try and VIOLA, i saw M45 and even saw M42 region without the nebula itself, so i know exactly the area, also i know the Cygnus zone too so i know what kind of DSO i can find there regardless i can't see any nebulae, i live in alight polluted area, but seeing the stars of those DSO is all what i need, and thanks for Stellarium to tell me where exactly.

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Just to give you an idea about how did this Stellarium helped me with, here are 2 images i took as quick handheld single frame shot of what i am talking about, can you identify them? :wink: :grin:

https://s26.postimg.org/eq3jwhqd3/DSC3024.jpg

https://s26.postimg.org/jg4k5m4dz/DSC3041.jpg

 

Those 2 images gave me a big hope that if i can get the stars by unmooded single frame then with my astro mono CCD camera with long exposures subs i will get a lot, i thought in my light pollution area i can\t see anything at all, and just now this year i remember clearly which stars i saw when i was younger about 15 years ago i think.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎04‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 18:58, TareqPhoto said:

Just to give you an idea about how did this Stellarium helped me with, here are 2 images i took as quick handheld single frame shot of what i am talking about, can you identify them? :wink: :grin:

https://s26.postimg.org/eq3jwhqd3/DSC3024.jpg

https://s26.postimg.org/jg4k5m4dz/DSC3041.jpg

 

Those 2 images gave me a big hope that if i can get the stars by unmooded single frame then with my astro mono CCD camera with long exposures subs i will get a lot, i thought in my light pollution area i can\t see anything at all, and just now this year i remember clearly which stars i saw when i was younger about 15 years ago i think.

 

First one is the Pleiades, second is Orion.

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