Star Hopping

[Stu]

A couple of other things I've just remembered. Very close to M81 is a lovely little double which can skip your attention if concentrating on the Galaxy, worth looking for.

Within hopping distance of both is a nice red, presumably carbon, star, VY Ursae Majoris, again, worth looking for.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

This may be a bit late, but a couple of tips I found very useful for my early DSOs:

• Use a red-dot finder, it doesn't reverse and mess up the image. I still use the half broken one which came with my 1st telescope a lot. It's only at longer focal lengths that it will become too inaccurate. 
• Use geometry. I find the easiest way to find something is to find a pair of stars pointing towards it, or some stars the DSO's location makes a neat triangle with. By remembering the shapes/lines involved, you can easily find the object again without too much bother.
• Always use the lowest power eyepiece you have to find objects. You can centre the object easier then, and switch to higher power if needed.
• Us averted vision. Especially with dim objects, looking slightly to the side of the centre of the FOV will make them a lot easier for your eye to see. Essentially your eyes see contrast better at the sides.

This is the easiest method I know for finding the Andromeda Galaxy, from the Westernmost stars of the "W" (Cass) to Andromeda and then down to the West, North through the pair above, and hit the galaxy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then for M81 & 82, make a line between the opposite stars of the plough "bucket", then extend that line by an equal amount, but slightly bent towards Polaris, and you get the galaxies. 

 

Hope these help!  

John

[Ed in UK]

Thanks John, really like the idea of forming lines or shapes to find stuff. I think that may work well for me ?

Stu, the more i look at your posts and Sky Safari the more useful it appears. Goggle seems to show several different versions, which one do you use ?

[Stu]

38 minutes ago, Ed in UK said:

Thanks John, really like the idea of forming lines or shapes to find stuff. I think that may work well for me ?

Stu, the more i look at your posts and Sky Safari the more useful it appears. Goggle seems to show several different versions, which one do you use ?

One very popular hop to M31 is in this image, works very well every time. I find the ones that are most effective don't leave you guessing how far to pan too much.

Skysafari is excellent, no doubt about it. I use 6 Pro, but I believe Plus is more than enough for most situations. I do get a little confused about the differences, but Plus includes more stars over the basic version and telescope control which I use a lot with my AZGTi mount. Pro basically just adds many more stars and objects. There is a nice 'tilt to pan' feature which allows you to Pan the mount whilst viewing through the eyepiece, very intuitive and no need to find buttons in the dark!

The ability to setup your kit and easily add fov circles is really useful, you can also fine tune the display so that it matches the fainter stars you can see. That makes star hopping even easier.

Be aware that they do do half price promotions every now and then, often around events like eclipses etc so if you buy at full price, don't be surprised to see it on offer! Can be a little annoying. Also there is no upgrade path from one to the next, you have to buy it again to move from Plus to Pro say.

[scarp15]

20 hours ago, Ed in UK said:

Cosmic Geoff, thank you for your support but unfortunately can't stretch to a Goto system but oddily enough really enjoying the challenge of trying to find stuff. Just not enough clear nights.

Walking the Dog at 10pm the other night I was looking up and realised how much I've learnt since the start of Dec last year. 

Still loads to learn and discover ?

 

Firstly perhaps do not consider searching for objects through star hopping as a challenge, consider instead, as an absorbing period of concentration. Take time to just sit or stand and gaze upwards, visually positioning a pattern or star profile. Determine in your minds eye where the object that your are looking for will be. Sometimes this is determined with conviction, at other times with a little uncertainty. Just enjoy taking your time, check and re-check your sky chart and accept that sometimes there are blunders, yet making mistakes is appealing, as this pursuit is a learning curve and therefore necessitates occasional errors of judgment. If you are able to access a dark sky, some objects are made very easy, because you can see them.

I like to venture to dark sky locations, much of the time whilst there is spent not with the scope at all, just gazing upwards (and sipping coffee) working out in my mind where things are. I enjoy this, because it makes the search and eventual encounter more intimate as I understand the placement. Like anyone I sometimes make blunders, yet never for a second have I thought that I would want goto assistance, I think that I would rather not find what I am looking for. See it like this, when you make a new friend, you relate to someone based upon common ground, common interests, their personality. In some ways star hopping is no different, you base your empathy and understanding more fully in the process.  

[Ed in UK]

After finishing work much later than expected I finally got a chance to try out my star hop last Thursday. 

Starting at Mizar & Alcor I attempted to "Hop" to M101, following the route 81, 83, 84, 86, M101

 

Don't ask me what went wrong but the first 2 or 3 attempts saw me getting to 83 then somehow returning back to Mizar 

A few more attempts had me getting down to 86. Biggest problem was estimating the magnitude of the stars. I adopted the approach of should the next start be brighter/dimmer/similar to the current star,and that soon got me going. After a few more attempts I was quite surprised that I managed to quite easily pick out the stars that I needed.

Finally the target of M101 couldn't be found but I put that down to the moon being out and street lighting still on.

Really pleased with the hoping results.

I also tried using the Setting Rings to try and get to M101 and I was really pleased that I managed to find my landing spot of K & l (or i) just below and left of 5474 shown on the chart.

Feel like I'm slowly starting to find how to use the charts with the scope. 

Now I'm compiling a list of brighter targets, starting with M81/M82 (as recommended) and work out hops etc to them.

Thanks everyone for your help. 

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Ed in UK said:

After finishing work much later than expected I finally got a chance to try out my star hop last Thursday. 

Starting at Mizar & Alcor I attempted to "Hop" to M101, following the route 81, 83, 84, 86, M101

 

Don't ask me what went wrong but the first 2 or 3 attempts saw me getting to 83 then somehow returning back to Mizar 

A few more attempts had me getting down to 86. Biggest problem was estimating the magnitude of the stars. I adopted the approach of should the next start be brighter/dimmer/similar to the current star,and that soon got me going. After a few more attempts I was quite surprised that I managed to quite easily pick out the stars that I needed.

Finally the target of M101 couldn't be found but I put that down to the moon being out and street lighting still on.

Really pleased with the hoping results.

I also tried using the Setting Rings to try and get to M101 and I was really pleased that I managed to find my landing spot of K & l (or i) just below and left of 5474 shown on the chart.

Feel like I'm slowly starting to find how to use the charts with the scope. 

Now I'm compiling a list of brighter targets, starting with M81/M82 (as recommended) and work out hops etc to them.

Thanks everyone for your help. 

Great stuff, Ed. It’s a brilliant feeling when you get it right  

[Stu]

Nice one Wd. Finding out your own way is best I think, just take the advice and make it work for you, which seems to be what you have done.

A couple of questions. Were you hopping with your finderscope or through the eyepiece? Do you have clear how the field of view of each (or both) relates to the map?

I confess, this is where I find Skysafari so good, because you can set the magnitude of stars visible to match what you see through the eyepiece, then it is simple to match up the star patterns. S&T Pocket atlas shows down to Mag 6 ( or whatever) so doesn't show all the fainter stars which are visible in the eyepiece.

[Ed in UK]

Thanks guys.

Stu, I struggle a bit with the RDF but do manage to get the scope on targets that I can see through  it.

All the 'hopping' was done through the EP (25mm) as anything after Mizar couldn't be seen with the naked eye.

I did use the RDF post hop and use of setting circles just to double check that I was in roughly where I wanted to be.

My chart shows stars down to 6.5, or at least it does when the cat isn't sat on it playing with the torch.........????

?