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First session tips!


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I just received my first scope, a Heritage 130p and set him up immediatly. Can't wait till 3 more hours to do my first stagazing session 😁

 

Are there particular things I should look out for, since it's my first time doing this. And any tips & tricks are also welcome!

 

The moon can't currently be seen from my garden in this stage so I'll probably start with stars and some easy DSO's.

 

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The most important thing is to make sure that your finder scope is as accurately aligned with the view through the main scope as possible.

Don't assume it is out of the box !

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Thanks! I've alligned it now but every time I watch through the eyepieces theres like a little grey blur blocking the left 25% of the view. But theres nothin on the piece or the mirror? What could this be ?

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12 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Point the tube at a bright surface, take out the eyepiece and have a look down the focuser. Take a picture of what you can see, if you can.

Looks like it was the top of a fench blocking my view 😂 Luckily just that haha

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Update: Stargazed for 1.5h and it's obvious I need to a learn a lot. I can't wrap my brain around how this thing moves. Every time I want to move right and I look through the red dot I can simply turn right, but when I'm looking through an eyepiece it goes left ??? I'm so dumbfounded about this I just can't figure out how to simply move my view. This is the same with going up and down... I understand that if I go right it goes left or the other way. But when looking through a lense it does the opposite of doing the same thing but looking through the red-dot.

Now another remark is what I can actually see. Is there a way to zoom in with the lenses or something because what I saw with the 25mm was just a bright small dot taking up like 2% of the view and that's it. Even though I was 100% sure I was looking at some galaxies, I just cant see anything, I checked and the focuser is focused.

Enclosed is a picture just with my phone directly to the lens, quality is a bit blurry and smudgy but its not about that. Its about barely anything I see. Could this possibly be due to my Bortle 6 class skies ? Because with my bare eyes I can see way more than with my telescope (10mm or 25mm lens)

 

Thanks in advance!

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The skies are very light just now, and deep-sky-objects will be hard to see. What is it you think you were looking at? Have you been using a star-map or stargazing app of some kind?

As for the reversed-image you see through the scope - you will soon get very used to it. Don't worry.

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4 minutes ago, Pixies said:

The skies are very light just now, and deep-sky-objects will be hard to see. What is it you think you were looking at? Have you been using a star-map or stargazing app of some kind?

As for the reversed-image you see through the scope - you will soon get very used to it. Don't worry.

Thought I was looking at M51, since Ursa Major is beautifully located right now above my house.

 

First image is of Startacker App.

Second Image is what I took with my phone just of the sky with encircled where I think M51 is located.

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Screenshot_20200624-010810_Gallery.jpg

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That's not to scale! And I doubt you will be able to see the Whirlpool under current skies. Where in belgium are you (latitude) and do you know what your 'Bortle' scale number is? This is a scale showing light pollution. You can find it here: https://clearoutside.com/ just enter your location.

Don't worry, I think you have just over-estimated what you will see on your first night. I have an 8" dob and I know I won't see M51 just now (even if there were no clouds!) I saw it about 5 weeks ago and even then it was not obvious.

Go for some star clusters or bright planetary nebulas. M13 (the Hercules cluster) or M57 (the Ring Nebula) should be visible still. In a few months, things will be getting properly dark again.

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18 hours ago, Pixies said:

That's not to scale! And I doubt you will be able to see the Whirlpool under current skies. Where in belgium are you (latitude) and do you know what your 'Bortle' scale number is? This is a scale showing light pollution. You can find it here: https://clearoutside.com/ just enter your location.

Don't worry, I think you have just over-estimated what you will see on your first night. I have an 8" dob and I know I won't see M51 just now (even if there were no clouds!) I saw it about 5 weeks ago and even then it was not obvious.

Go for some star clusters or bright planetary nebulas. M13 (the Hercules cluster) or M57 (the Ring Nebula) should be visible still. In a few months, things will be getting properly dark again.

So the Coords are: 50.8, 4.7 and its a bortle 6 sky. I guess I completely forgot the visibilty factor. I thought all galaxies would always be visible 🤪 I just picked one that was close to me and easiest to setup to. I'm less dissappointed now I know this! 😂

Also thanks a lot for the tips ln trying M13 and M57, i'll definetly try that tomorrow! Got some good skies here this week 😁

 

Thanks for helping a noob out Pixies!

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I'm a relative noob, too!

I'm sure people with experience of your scope will be along soon with more advice.

Planets! Don't forget Jupiter and Saturn are around late. My view to the South is limited, but if you have a good view in that direction take a look. They will be low, but will be the 2 brightest objects.

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2 minutes ago, Pixies said:

I'm a relative noob, too!

I'm sure people with experience of your scope will be along soon with more advice.

Planets! Don't forget Jupiter and Saturn are around late. My view to the South is limited, but if you have a good view in that direction take a look. They will be low, but will be the 2 brightest objects.

I thought about trying to view Jupiter & Saturn or just our moon haha, but i'm surrounded by large trees in the distance on every side. So it's really only up I can watch from this location. But I will defintely lookup better grounds tommorow 😁

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Its not a good time to try and observe galaxies - it does not really get dark at all.

Even when they can be seen, galaxies just look like very faint, and often small, patches of hazy light. Any light pollution or moonlight really washes them out.

Stars still look like points of light even with a scope and lots of magnification. They are just too far away to be seen as anything other than that. You just see more of them when you view with a scope.

The best deep sky objects to look for at the current time are open and globular star clusters which are much less affected by light pollution and the lack of darkness at this time of the year.

There are also some decently bright planetary nebulae on show. The Ring Nebula in Lyra (small so easily overlooked) and the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula, which is larger and should be noticeable with the 25mm eyepiece. Dark skies help with those as well but they can at least be seen.

 

 

 

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My advice is to not rush anything. I know it is hard as I remember my first sessions and I was clearly trying to exceed M Messier’s life’s work in one night.

The second thing is that your great choice of scope is one of the best for portability. If you can, move location as the moon is a fabulous waxing crescent right now early in the night.

Once the moon drops below the horizon you can have a look at M13 which is always a treat. Always start with your lowest Magnification eye pieces (biggest number in mm’s) to give you the best view for locating the object. Once you find the treasure you can increase mag.

Happy star gazing.

Marvin

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First night challenges, that’s all. Just takes a bit of practise and you will get there.

The view through a Newtonian is upside down versus an RDF/naked eye view which does make life interesting. You will get used to this!

You can’t ‘zoom in’ with a fixed eyepiece. Basically the eyepiece you choose sets the magnification then you just focus using the helical focuser. The focuser on the 130p can be a little loose, so a few wraps of PTFE tape around the threads really helps to tighten it up so it keeps focus position.

The 25mm eyepiece will give you x26 magnification and just under 2 degrees field of view and the 10mm will give x65 with about 0.76 degrees field of view. This info is useful for working out what you are seeing through the eyepiece. Stars are focused when they are at their smallest and tightest. It’s worth just checking the collimation on an out of focus star because the secondary on the 130p is a single stalk and can sometimes twist out of place in transit; everything should appear concentric.

These are some star charts to show the fields of view you get with your two eyepieces, outer one is the 25mm. I’ve turned the views of all but the first one upside down so it matches your eyepiece view.

M51 has low surface brightness, and is WAY smaller than indicated in your app so it is unlikely that you would see it unless under a decently dark sky. I would leave galaxies until we get Astro darkness back, best concentrate on planets, the Moon, Open and Globular clusters and the two brighter Planetary nebulae already mentioned, M57 and M27. Note that M57 is pretty small too. Find it with the 25mm but use the 10mm to see it as a tiny ring. It ideally needs a bit more power to see better. You also won’t see M13 as it is shown, it is more likely to appear as a fuzzy ball, and with averted vision you may just resolve stars around the edges. Better with a darker sky and more power.

Good luck!

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9 hours ago, Pixies said:

Go for some star clusters or bright planetary nebulas. M13 (the Hercules cluster) or M57 (the Ring Nebula) should be visible still. In a few months, things will be getting properly dark again.

I can confirm that I saw those very things (M13 and M57) last night around 2am here. I was using the C5 and ST120 (both approx 120mm aperture) and had the best views of them yet, as they were visible without averted vision (although they improved a bit when I did that).

For reference, I’m supposedly in Bortle 4 (possibly 5) here, and at that time, the Milky Way was quite clearly visible.

Oh and Jupiter and Saturn were amazing again 😃Suggest you give them a go if you can see them (they are quite low). 

Edit: Just seen your post about the trees, so planets are out unfortunately... that’s a shame ☹️

Good luck

Gary

Edited by HollyHound
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3 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Once the moon drops below the horizon you can have a look at M13 which is always a treat.

Good point. Luckily, last night the moon was still quite a thin sliver and dropped below the horizon early, so that must have helped. Suspect tonight it will be up a bit longer but still not too bright 🤞

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I sketched the Bode and Cigar galaxies as seen through my 4-inch reflecting telescope a while back. This is about what galaxies would look like in the eyepiece; small, faint puffs of light with little detail that require skill to observe. The brightness of the galaxies is exaggerated a little bit. Also, instead of looking directly at the subject, try and use your peripheral vision to indirectly look at a faint object. This technique is called averted vision. The rod cells located in your eye's periphery are more sensitive to faint light. You might not be able to see a faint galaxy or nebula the first time you try and observe it, but eventually on the second and third go you might just be able to make it out. As with your attempt at M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), it is actually quite faint and very tiny! I've never managed to observe it directly through an eyepiece but I did photograph it recently and you can see just how tiny it really is using another 420mm focal length scope(which basically means not too zoomed out or too zoomed in). Good luck!

Bode and Cigar Galaxy 19:1:20.jpeg

Screenshot 2020-06-24 at 9.16.02 PM.png

Edited by Nerf_Caching
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2 hours ago, Nerf_Caching said:

I sketched the Bode and Cigar galaxies as seen through my 4-inch reflecting telescope a while back. This is about what galaxies would look like in the eyepiece; small, faint puffs of light with little detail that require skill to observe. The brightness of the galaxies is exaggerated a little bit. Also, instead of looking directly at the subject, try and use your peripheral vision to indirectly look at a faint object. This technique is called averted vision. The rod cells located in your eye's periphery are more sensitive to faint light. You might not be able to see a faint galaxy or nebula the first time you try and observe it, but eventually on the second and third go you might just be able to make it out. As with your attempt at M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), it is actually quite faint and very tiny! I've never managed to observe it directly through an eyepiece but I did photograph it recently and you can see just how tiny it really is using another 420mm focal length scope(which basically means not too zoomed out or too zoomed in). Good luck!

Bode and Cigar Galaxy 19:1:20.jpeg

Screenshot 2020-06-24 at 9.16.02 PM.png

This really helped! Thanks!

Now I know what averted vision is :)

Also thanks for the sketch, for me it was straight black last night that's why I was confused haha

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6 minutes ago, Blackware said:

This really helped! Thanks!

Now I know what averted vision is :)

Also thanks for the sketch, for me it was straight black last night that's why I was confused haha

May I also suggest you purchase a nifty book called "Turn Left at Orion"? I bought a copy even though I've got some experience stargazing but it introduces a wealth of objects you can see with a home telescope and how to find them. There are also sketches similar to mine that give the beginner a rough approximation of what he or she should expect to see. What really strikes me is the lack of astronomical photos in the book as they will provide novices with false expectations so don't be fooled by the illustrations on star chart apps!

Edited by Nerf_Caching
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