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First session tips!


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2 hours ago, Nerf_Caching said:

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!

I will def. buy this book!

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On 24/06/2020 at 19:51, Stu said:

This is an oft referred to thread which many find helpful.

 

Thanks for this very useful link! Just read through and it answered my questions!

I really did think I would be able to see a bit more than just this of M13 with my heritage 130.

 

 

20200626_010622-02.jpeg

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3 hours ago, Blackware said:

Thanks for this very useful link! Just read through and it answered my questions!

I really did think I would be able to see a bit more than just this of M13 with my heritage 130.

 

 

20200626_010622-02.jpeg

Good job on this picture! Did you use your smartphone?

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14 minutes ago, Blackware said:

I really just put my smartphone to my lense in the most awkward way possible 😂

That's about what you would see through a telescope. I've seen M13 once and it was a fuzzy ball of light. Do you use star-hopping to find objects?

Edited by Nerf_Caching
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9 minutes ago, Nerf_Caching said:

That's about what you would see through a telescope. I've seen M13 once and it was a fuzzy ball of light. Do you use star-hopping to find objects?

Well, to be fair you can see much more that that under decent conditions and with more magnification. Globe respond to aperture and as the resolution increases, so do the number of stars which can be resolved.

That said, even with a 4” refractor you can resolve a decent number of stars in the outer parts. Dark skies do help, as does averted vision. It’s tricky with no Astro darkness currently.

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The more you observe these targets, the more detail you will see in the. I know this may sound a bit trite but it really is true. I see quite a lot of detail in Messier 13 with my 100mm - 130mm scopes but I have been observing for some years so I guess my eye has become trained to tease the detail out. As Stu says, with globular clusters adding magnification helps to see more detail and the seeing conditions will vary as well.

But observing frequently and becoming familliar with objects is the way to see more detail in them. This applies to all classes of targets and particularly with the planets.

Small apertures can deliver great views but you need practice and persistence to get these. Unless you have a really large aperture scope and observe under dark skies, visual astronomy is rarely a case of "quick wins". It has to be worked at.

 

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

Well, to be fair you can see much more that that under decent conditions and with more magnification. Globe respond to aperture and as the resolution increases, so do the number of stars which can be resolved.

That said, even with a 4” refractor you can resolve a decent number of stars in the outer parts. Dark skies do help, as does averted vision. It’s tricky with no Astro darkness currently.

Agree with this, my (admittedly limited) experience of M13, was a much more like a glowing "fuzzy" ball of light, and by averting vision slightly I was able to detect points of light within that ball. I've been specifically testing between my current scopes recently and can confirm the view was very similar using a Mak 127, ST120 and 80mm ED (very slightly dimmer view). Even my little ST80 (used as a big finder) was not too shabby either.

The photo will likely be worse than you can see with your eyes and of course I don't know how dark your skies are. I think mine are Bortle 4 around here. At the moment (as Stu says), it doesn't really get super dark, although I found Tue was a good deal darker than Wed night around 2am (perhaps the distant lights of Bristol weren't on fully that night!).

I do recall pushing the magnification as far as I could until the view started to suffer, then dropping back a bit (exit pupil?), gave the best view... 

Good luck 🤞

Edited by HollyHound
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2 minutes ago, Nerf_Caching said:

It's gonna be pretty difficult with a non-tracking mount the OP has though!

Yep, this is an observing thread in the observing section so let’s focus on the OPs observing questions.

Thanks!

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Some great advice here for you. For me I would say that planning is key a successful nights gazing. I use Sky Safari 6 Pro for my digital map and it has a facility where you can compile observing lists so you can plan what to look at. I fund it extremely useful. Plus one on the Turn Left at Orion, worth every penny.  It can be a bit confusing at first but stick with it. 😀

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Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciate it! :)

Also, I was wondering if anyone has a site where I could see which objects are easier to spot this time a year. I took a look at telescopius but wasn't sure.

 

Thanks!

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4 minutes ago, Blackware said:

Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciate it! :)

Also, I was wondering if anyone has a site where I could see which objects are easier to spot this time a year. I took a look at telescopius but wasn't sure.

 

Thanks!

Download Stellarium maybe?

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I got stellarium on my phone and the dekstop version but can't see where to spot easier targets ? I've downloaded lots of apps but not a single one presents me with easier targets. They just list them all.

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33 minutes ago, Blackware said:

I got stellarium on my phone and the dekstop version but can't see where to spot easier targets ? I've downloaded lots of apps but not a single one presents me with easier targets. They just list them all.

SkySafari has a Tonight’s Best list which is somewhere to start. Question is, what do you define as easiest targets? One method is searching by surface brightness which an app like Observer Pro will do. Telescopius is well worth checking out.

At a simpler level, Skymaps are a useful summary of what to look for, they are published each month.

http://skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn2006.pdf

Finally you could check out the excellent BinocularSky newsletter for ideas.

http://binocularsky.com/newsletter/BinoSkyNL.pdf

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

SkySafari has a Tonight’s Best list which is somewhere to start. Question is, what do you define as easiest targets? One method is searching by surface brightness which an app like Observer Pro will do. Telescopius is well worth checking out.

At a simpler level, Skymaps are a useful summary of what to look for, they are published each month.

http://skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn2006.pdf

Finally you could check out the excellent BinocularSky newsletter for ideas.

http://binocularsky.com/newsletter/BinoSkyNL.pdf

Thanks Stu, I'll check that out!

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  • 2 weeks later...

This guy has a couple of good videos and tips on the heritage 130p https://m.youtube.com/c/JenhamsUk/videos?disable_polymer=true&itct=CBIQ8JMBGAEiEwjIpcCWibbqAhUjQcYKHYWjB7s%3D

Look for the one about making a cover for the open tube.

For targets. Jupiter, saturn hercules cluster (m13) cats eyec nebula, dumbell and albeiro, as some of the others mentioned.

If the moons out, make sure it's the final target of the night, so it doesn't ruin your vision.

Edited by DeathWarpedUp
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