Observing better tips please

[Shaun Sr]

So last night was my first night with my equipment.  Avx mount edge HD 8. Starsense.  Came with 40mm ep. And also have 10mm delos.  I saw Jupiter and Saturn was cool as hell.  Seemed like the visual was hazy I guess I would say in out in out. Never a steady sharp focus.  Wasn't exactly a dark spot.  But I also really didn't know what planetary nebula or  other cool stuff to look for.  I was learning initial set up and polar align and finding Polaris because I could never clearly see ursa minor. But I even saw Pluto which was just a dot.  But  ow having this equipment and getting past the first time with it is there any tips tricks or anything I should now. Focused seem to snap with every couple turns.  

[Sunshine]

You're off to a great start so far, be patient with observing conditions, Jupiter and Saturn are very low to the horizon which only makes things worse at the eyepiece. Regarding your scope, be sure to utilize youtube, there are countless videos which are so helpful. Another great tip, don't turn any screws before you understand exactly what they do lol, trust me, I was an expert unidentified screw turner, which is why i'm bald now. 😣

[NGC 1502]

You don’t say where you’re observing from.  If you’re in the northern hemisphere on a similar latitude to London then Saturn and Jupiter won’t rise very far above your southern horizon.  Viewing through lots of often turbulent atmosphere doesn’t give the best view.  With your telescope the 10mm Delos gives around 200x, thats fairly high power so viewing at a lower power should give a smaller but sharper view.  Your comment “never a steady sharp focus” supports what I’ve said.

For viewing planets a town sky is ok, for the fainter objects a darker sky is best.  Some telescopes with onboard database have a “tonight’s best” or similar feature, don’t know if that applies to yours, perhaps check the instructions ?  Lots of online stuff about what other objects to view.  Make sure you use the correct date and location for that.

Happy viewing 👍 Ed.

[wookie1965]

Wear a eye patch on your non viewing eye that way you can leave both eye's open much more relaxed viewing.

[John]

Spend time observing targets and re-visit them often.

The more you look, the more you will see.

Much of the detail that we observe and discuss on here are not obvious initially and need to be teased out. This takes time and practice.

If you saw Pluto you did really, really well. It's magnitude 14.3 at the moment and that will be diminished by it's low altitude.

Have another look, make a sketch, then come back again in a few days and make another sketch to see if the suspect has moved against the background stars. It's the only way to be sure

 

[NGC 1502]

2 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Wear a eye patch on your non viewing eye that way you can leave both eye's open much more relaxed viewing.

You forgot to mention the parrot on the shoulder.......😁

[Shaun Sr]

9 hours ago, John said:

Spend time observing targets and re-visit them often.

The more you look, the more you will see.

Much of the detail that we observe and discuss on here are not obvious initially and need to be teased out. This takes time and practice.

If you saw Pluto you did really, really well. It's magnitude 14.3 at the moment and that will be diminished by it's low altitude.

Have another look, make a sketch, then come back again in a few days and make another sketch to see if the suspect has moved against the background stars. It's the only way to be sure

 

I understand magnitude I just dont know what's good numbers and whats bad. And starsense said it was Pluto lol.  It was really really dim and just a dot. 

 

[Stu]

35 minutes ago, Shaun Sr said:

I understand magnitude I just dont know what's good numbers and whats bad. And starsense said it was Pluto lol.  It was really really dim and just a dot. 

 

Which country are you in Shaun, and when you say you couldn’t see Ursa Minor clearly, was that because of light pollution?

Limiting magnitude for an 8” scope under SQM 20 skies is maximum 13.8, and Pluto would have been quite a bit dimmer than that. As John says, have another look and see if anything has moved over a couple of days, it’s a tricky target to find to easy to mistake it for a background star.

Make sure you put the scope out to cool for up to an hour or so, that will help avoid tube currents and give steadier views. You may want to invest in one or two eyepieces in between your current to to broaden type targets you can view well. Something around x150 or x160 would be handy, and then something with an exit pupil of 2mm say a 13mm and a 20mm giving you x156 and x101

[Shaun Sr]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Which country are you in Shaun, and when you say you couldn’t see Ursa Minor clearly, was that because of light pollution?

Limiting magnitude for an 8” scope under SQM 20 skies is maximum 13.8, and Pluto would have been quite a bit dimmer than that. As John says, have another look and see if anything has moved over a couple of days, it’s a tricky target to find to easy to mistake it for a background star.

Make sure you put the scope out to cool for up to an hour or so, that will help avoid tube currents and give steadier views. You may want to invest in one or two eyepieces in between your current to to broaden type targets you can view well. Something around x150 or x160 would be handy, and then something with an exit pupil of 2mm say a 13mm and a 20mm giving you x156 and x101

I'm in bay city, Michigan.  USA.  And yes my intention is to get a couple more eyepieces.  Just being a rookie I'm kinda lost on how many degree of view to get and all that. Some of them eypieces cost 700 so I just got the delos to start of with as you can tell by my previous posts i even called eyepieces lenses smh.  Also i installed the starsense and used a screwdriver that came with it and it was longer so I'm still worried if I need to pull that out cuz the focused snaps every few rotations like it builds up tension and pop starts the cycle over again. 

 

[cletrac1922]

On 04/07/2020 at 11:43, Shaun Sr said:

So last night was my first night with my equipment.  Avx mount edge HD 8. Starsense.  Came with 40mm ep. And also have 10mm delos.  I saw Jupiter and Saturn was cool as hell.  Seemed like the visual was hazy I guess I would say in out in out. Never a steady sharp focus.  Wasn't exactly a dark spot.  But I also really didn't know what planetary nebula or  other cool stuff to look for.  I was learning initial set up and polar align and finding Polaris because I could never clearly see ursa minor. But I even saw Pluto which was just a dot.  But  ow having this equipment and getting past the first time with it is there any tips tricks or anything I should now. Focused seem to snap with every couple turns.  

 

Been in the Southern Hemisphere, currently have a totally different view of Jupiter and Saturn

Jupiter rises just after sunset, with Saturn trailing not far behind, and directly overhead around midnight, with Mars trailing further behind

Around 4am, have both above the western horizon and Venus is really bright above the eastern horizon

Also have The Crux and Scorpio in all its beauty overhead as well

Couple of nights ago,had conjunction of Antares and the moon, and tonight have conjunction of Jupiter and the moon

Have attached Heavens-Above, for my location, and you can play with the time to see both Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus transit the southern sky

https://www.heavens-above.com/skychart2.aspx?lat=-27.9206&lng=153.28291&loc=Maudsland&alt=0&tz=UCTm10

 

John

 

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by cletrac1922

[Stu]

7 hours ago, Shaun Sr said:

I'm in bay city, Michigan.  USA.  And yes my intention is to get a couple more eyepieces.  Just being a rookie I'm kinda lost on how many degree of view to get and all that. Some of them eypieces cost 700 so I just got the delos to start of with as you can tell by my previous posts i even called eyepieces lenses smh.  Also i installed the starsense and used a screwdriver that came with it and it was longer so I'm still worried if I need to pull that out cuz the focused snaps every few rotations like it builds up tension and pop starts the cycle over again. 

 

Delos are great eyepieces for sure, and many people find 72 degrees afov with good eye relief an excellent combination. You don’t have to go with Televue, there are good alternatives for a lot less cash. APM/Lunt do a 13 and 20mm with 100 degree afov which are excellent quality and reasonably priced.

https://luntsolarsystems.com/shop/accessories/eyepieces/apm-eyepieces/apm-hdc-xwa-13-mm-100-eyepiece/

[Stu]

I forgot to say, it sounds like there is possibly and issue with the focuser. Did you purchase the scope from new? If so then worth consulting your retailer. Does the starsense interfere with the focus mechanism? I though it was completely separate to this?

[Waddensky]

On 04/07/2020 at 03:43, Shaun Sr said:

Seemed like the visual was hazy I guess I would say in out in out. Never a steady sharp focus.

If the seeing (caused by atmospheric turbulence) was bad, the view can be a bit blurry, especially when observing objects near the horizon. Sometimes it suddenly improves or detoriates for a few seconds (look at this video to get an idea of the effect). Nothing to worry about, but also not much you can do about it. Some nights are better than others. Another eyepiece won't help.