Deep space

[mikephoto]

If i wanted to look into deep space viewing what would people suggest i do?

[narrowbandpaul]

well to gather enough light to make deep sky objects visible, you will require a telescope

do you have one?

if so,

stick an eyepiece in, point at a bright star, turn the focus dial near the end you are looking, until the star becomes a small point. Hey presto, you are looking at least 20 light years.

you can get planetarium software to show you where the various cool objects are. Part of the fun is just finding them!

Best of Luck

Paul

[mikephoto]

Ha yeah i know that but i mean deep space, so i can see things like nebulars and all the cool colours my scope is a Meade Bresser RB70

[Psychobilly]

the bad news is .....

And theres no easy way to put this....

Forget cool colours visualy

The colorful images you see may take many hours of exposure with CCD's and are further processed to bring out the vivid colours .....

Sorry

[Kai]

Im afraid that you are not going to be able to see the colours in Nebulas etc ,this is only really possible if you plan to image.

The best one to see to begin with is The Orion Nebula M42 as its very bright and easy to find in your scope.If you are lucky you may be able to pick out a green tinge.The problem is that at the moment its a early morning sight , so set your alarm clock for 3am and look south

[Doc]

The only deep space objects you will see in your 70mm are the M42, M45, M13.

Thats about it realy.

For deeper you should get a dob of about 8" in aperture.

[EA2007]

There are a whole host of things to view. Remember that even though you may have a 'small' aperture, you still have the option of changing the eyepieces and even using a barlow lens. If you combine your scope with a different eyepiece or use a barlow lens then you should be able to make out:

M42: The Orion Nebula

M45: The Pleiades

M27: Dumbell Nebula

M13: Great Hercules Cluster

M92: Hercules Cluster

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy

M11: The Wild Duck Cluster

Also remember that if you have a telescope and are taking it outside from an inside storage location then you need to let the scope tube 'cool down', by this I mean allow the air in the scope to match that of the ambient outside air, this will reduce what is known as thermal currents and your view will be sharper. The average time is around half an hour but all scopes are different.

[Astroman]

The only deep space objects you will see in your 70mm are the M42, M45, M13.

Thats about it realy.

For deeper you should get a dob of about 8" in aperture.

This is nonsense. I've seen all 110 Messier objects in an equivalent scope of 70mm. True, some are less than inspiring, but they were there. And true, it helps to be in a dark site, but there are any number of open and globular star clusters easily seen in a 70mm, AND from a less than ideal site. Even many galaxies can be seen. In fact, a view I had of M83 was better in an 80mm refractor than in my C8 one night!

Patience and persistance are the keys, and training your eye to observe and not just see. The more you look, the more you'll see.

[jonbarr87]

Still I do believe the key thing here is..... wont be "hubble colour"... Unless of course you have a new fancy high tech bionic eye!

[Talitha]

Patience and persistance are the keys, and training your eye to observe and not just see. The more you look, the more you'll see.

Steve:

[John]

I started out in this hobby, like many people did, with a Tasco 60mm refractor on a rather wobbly mount and to start with I thought the brighter planets and the moon were my only possible targets. I then discovered that my scope (a 1960's F/13 version) was pretty good at showing double stars so I started to pick off a number of those and was pleasently suprised at the views.

I then sabotaged my parents old binoculars and made a low power "wide angle" eyepiece, started to scan the skies again looking for some of these mysterious Messier objects. Rather to my suprise I found I could see quite a lot of open and globular clusters then some of the brighter nebulae and (much to my suprise to be honest) even some galaxies :shock: . Messier 81 and 82 blew my mind when I found them - OK only faint patches of light but definately there and you could see that M81 was a different shape to M81 - wow !.

Your 70mm scope gathers 36% more light than my 60mm did and probably has better coatings on the lenses so you have a lot of potential objects you can see. OK you will not see any colour in the nebulae (although you will be able to detect different colour stars in open clusters such as the Double Cluster in Perseus) and many objects will look like faint smudges of light but you can see them, with your eyes and with your scope, which for me was the big thrill.

A book I found very useful was Astronomy with a Small Telescope by James Muirden - it's possibly out of print now but it would be worth seeing if your local library had a copy - if focusses on what you can see with scopes up to 3 inches in aperture.

It's well worth trying to find some darker skies (ie: away from streetlights and other forms of light pollution) to do your deep sky searching to give your scope the chance to pick up these "faint fuzzies" - even large scopes struggle to see much when the skies are light polluted.

Good luck

John

[scotastro]

I seem to remember from another post you were going to get the book "Turn Left at Orion" - did you? If not this will help you find the brighter deep sky stuff as a start and will help you learn to observe.

I teach people about the night sky and the next biggest problem to finding objects is interpreting what they see at the eyepiece. Being able to see faint smudges is something that takes practise and effort - even more so with a small aperature scope. I found this site on the net which might inspire you to have a go. http://www.astrosurf.com/l60/en/L60_deep_sky.html .

Mike

GAC

Galloway Astronomy Centre

www.gallowayastro.com

[mikephoto]

Aw that was just me being naive then Well i will be taking my scope to a bunch of fields soon so i can start getting a hang of things. Thanks everyone for your input, asusual its been a great help.

I have not picked up the book yet got to wait till pay day then i will be ordering both off the net so i can get reading.

thanks again

mike