Celestron omni xlt 150

[Jazzo111]

Hey guys, struggling to find any deep sky objects atm can only find double stars, currently trying my hardest to see m13, can anyone tell  me what im supposed to see? Will it look like a star or something? 

Is  my telescope capable of seeing detail of such dso? 

[Stu]

Your scope is absolutely capable of seeing M13 and showing you some detail. Alot depends on the quality of your skies though, if you have very heavy light pollution you may struggle to find it. Also don't forget that at this time of year it doesn't get dark until late, if at all, so wait for it to get as dark as possible.

First off, is your finder aligned? Getting this sorted makes a huge difference to your ability to find targets, even getting the moon in a narrow field of view is not as easy as you might think.

I found M13 last night in a tiny 50mm spotting scope; even in that at x30 it looks nothing like a star, it is a fuzzy ball, brighter towards the centre. If your scope is properly cooled and collimated, and conditions are good, I would expect you to be able to resolve stars around the edge of the cluster.

Plenty of other targets out there to try for such as M3 and M27 for instance which should be possible to find. M13 is a nice easy one though as you basically just follow a line about a third of the way between Eta and Zeta Herculis, closer to Eta and you will find it.

[John]

With a 150mm inch aperture what you might see is shown in the images below. The 1st is at very low magnification or even with a 50mm finder / binoculars. The background sky is paler because of light pollution but you can see that the globular cluster is not a star. The 2nd image is starting to show some resolution (which a 150mm scope can show) and is what M13 might look like at around 120x-150x magnification:

[Jazzo111]

I have no idea where im going wrong then my telecope is cooled, colimated and is under very hard skys with no light polution. 

Im using a starguider ed 8mm which is roughly 93 mag so maybe i need more magnification maybe im slightly off the target.. whos knows 😕

My finder scope is a riger Quickfinder and im strugglong to align it.. im sure thst doesn't help.

Atleast i know what im looking for now

[John]

Use your lowest power eyepiece to help with the finding process. Try and get the Rigel finder as closely aligned with the view through the main scope as possible. You can do this in daylight using a target that is a mile or so away such as a tree top, church spire etc, etc. Thje Rigel view won't show M13 but if you can put the "bulls eye" where shown on the star chart below, M13 should be in or near the field of view with a low power eyepiece in the scope:

 

[Jazzo111]

I have a low power 28mm 2 inch explore scientific ep i use for finding it, only issue is it brings out so many stars i have tremendous trouble finding the correct target.. so finding the main stars that make up hercules is difficult.

The riger quickfinder is to dim to line up in the day it has to be dark i will make it my mission tonight to try and align riger im thinking it needs to be in the exact same area as my old standard finder scope was. Currently my finder is higher up the teleacope tube.

[John]

The finder can be anywhere on the scope tube that makes it convenient to get your eye behind it. The alignment with the main scope is achieved with the 3 small round knobs on the front side (facing the sky) of the finder. I use a Rigel Quikfinder next to an optical finder on my 12 inch dobsonian. It works very well either on it's own or together with the optical finder.

 

 

[Jazzo111]

Update, i went out managed to align my rigel and found it much easier to from there.. still not sure if i was looking at m13 tho.. it was a  bit cloudy and the detail through higher mag can be a bit dark.. hopefully the weather clears up a bit soon and i can try again 

[John]

At low power it is quite unmistakable though perhaps unspectacular if you were expecting more. Pretty much as per the top photo that I posted earlier in the thread.

 

[Jazzo111]

Took your guys advise and believe i found m13 magnified it looks like a puffy cloud i was to low i mistakes the hercules consolation for something else.

Is m13 magnified supposed to look a bit like a cloud im almost sure its the object tho

[Stu]

31 minutes ago, Jazzo111 said:

Took your guys advise and believe i found m13 magnified it looks like a puffy cloud i was to low i mistakes the hercules consolation for something else.

Is m13 magnified supposed to look a bit like a cloud im almost sure its the object tho

Sounds like you found it. a roughly round grey blob, brightening towards the centre. I would expect you to be able to resolve stars around the edges at least in your scope at higher powers. Try averted vision on it as that can really help the stars to pop out at you.

[Jazzo111]

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

Sounds like you found it. a roughly round grey blob, brightening towards the centre. I would expect you to be able to resolve stars around the edges at least in your scope at higher powers. Try averted vision on it as that can really help the stars to pop out at you.

At times i did use adverted vision sometimes it would disappear and reappear.. i found stairing directly at it very intensely didnt help if anything made it worse lol  maybe 93 mag isnt enough or i need to snack on some carrots lol 

Very exicting to see my first ever deep sky object tho

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, Jazzo111 said:

At times i did use adverted vision sometimes it would disappear and reappear.. i found stairing directly at it very intensely didnt help if anything made it worse lol  maybe 93 mag isnt enough or i need to snack on some carrots lol 

Very exicting to see my first ever deep sky object tho

Staring directly at faint objects often makes them disappear, or at least dim substantially. Look just to one side, or as I sometimes do with globs, look at it then flick you eyes away and the stars may show. You could push the mag up a bit, try up to x150 and see what happens.

[Jazzo111]

30 minutes ago, Stu said:

Staring directly at faint objects often makes them disappear, or at least dim substantially. Look just to one side, or as I sometimes do with globs, look at it then flick you eyes away and the stars may show. You could push the mag up a bit, try up to x150 and see what happens.

Ok cool il definitely try that im thinking now being in my back garden looking at this on concrete with 1 or 2 street lamps near by didnt help especially me going in and out of my house ruining my night vision too lol

It can only get better