Graduating to Deep Sky Astronomy

[Aryan]

Hello everyone!

I find myself back here again asking for help, as I came around an year ago, and this community and its awesome people tended to my queries promptly and satisfactorily! This time though, I need help starting deep sky astronomy. Since I've had my telescope, I've viewed the moon and planets several times, Jupiter and Saturn being my favorites obviously. But with them dropping under the horizon and only Mars to view in the sky at this time of the year, I feel it's time to take my telescope to new limits, and move on to deep sky observation.

 

Previously, I've had ZERO deep sky experience, and most tutorials on YouTube either don't provide enough info, or are haywire with the info they provide......or I haven't searched enough..... So I came here because previously as well I received tremendous advice about viewing planets that I still use to this day, even after an year long experience with it. 

So, treating me as an absolute beginner, how exactly should I start with deep sky astronomy? Obviously, its more difficult as, unlike the planets, they are not visible to the naked eye, which makes them harder to find. How do I overcome such obstacles? My gear is pretty basic, a Celeston AstroMaster 130EQ with 20mm,15mm,10mm,6mm and a 2x Barlow lens to go with it. I also have a Red, Blue and a Moon filter. I live in Bangalore, India, and being in the midst of the bustling city, there's quite the pollution here, but some days I have better luck and am able to view a lot of stars at a glance. 

But the most important question is, what should I expect given my location and gear? Should I expect anything at all? And what extra gear could I buy to give me a better view of whatever I will be observing?

 

I hope I can find the answers to all my questions here

[vlaiv]

I would say that these should be sensible advice for you to get started:

1. forget filters, barlow and 10mm and 6mm eyepieces for now until you get some experience (you won't really be using barlow and filters for DSO). Use 25mm as main eyepiece and 15mm if you want to get a bit closer (more zoomed in) to target.

2. Judge how transparent skies are by looking at the number of visible stars / forget observing if the Moon is out - you need clear moonless night to go after DSOs.

3. Wait until later in the night when people turn off their lights and traffic dies down a bit (car have headlights and those cause LP as well). If you can - get out of town to darker location - this is probably the most important.

4. Shield yourself from immediate light sources - get behind walls or even use some sort of blanket over your head

5. Download Stellarium software to start learning your way around the night sky - learn to star hop. At first, try to point telescope at bright star and use those to hop to less bright stars near by.

6. Start with something easy - now it is perfect time to observe some very easy objects - Orion's nebula - M42 and for example M45 - Pleiades. These you should be able to spot with naked eye (for Orion's nebula - you'll see like a few stars in sword of Orion so you'll recognize its location).

7. Have patience. Both at eyepiece - wait to get dark adapted and don't look at light while waiting, but also have patience as you will learn to observe DSOs. Most are very faint, but as time goes by and you get more observing experience - you'll start seeing more and deeper.

[Nik271]

Hi, I also started with an Astromaster 130. It has enough light gathering capacity to show you a lot of deep sky objects.

You will be limited by the light pollutions in your city but a few of the brighter objects should be visible e.g:

The Andromeda galaxy,

The Pleiades

Orion Nebula,

Hey, you are south enough to see the globular cluster Omega Centauri! We don't get to see this one from the UK, it's the brightest globular cluster in the sky.

 

You can check the location of these objects in the free planetarium programs like stellarium https://stellarium-web.org/

I also recommend the book: Turn Left at Orion, with 100+ objects for small telescopes (including the above) and instructions how to find them.

Have fun!

Nikolay

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Nik271

[malc-c]

46 minutes ago, Aryan said:

My gear is pretty basic, a Celeston AstroMaster 130EQ ..... I live in Bangalore, India, and being in the midst of the bustling city, there's quite the pollution here,

IMO, you will be very disappointed.  At most you will probably see a few of the bright star clusters, but with a small scope and poor polluted skies you won't see much, if any of the fainter deep sky objects.. To see nebula and other faint galaxies you need a nice dark sky away from city lights and the pollution that goes with it. 

[Jiggy 67]

Consider a good light pollution filter, the only filter you will need. It won’t solve the light pollution problem but it may assist 

[Aryan]

Hey!

I received a lot of great advice from everyone, thanks a lot! I'll have to first practice star hopping, I haven't had the need to do it yet because I've only viewed planets from my scope till now. Also, unluckily I cant go up top really late night because my apartment closes the terrace at about 10:30pm, so ill have to manage with the limited room in my balcony. I will not be going in with a lot of expectations like @malc-c said, but I hope to be able to extract the most I can from my telescope

Anyways, thanks for all the advice I've gotten from this awesome community, and yeah, @Nik271 , I'll buy that book, it looks like something I could use in my quest for observing the DSO's

 

Edit: I bought the book, and it's sooo interesting, I'm reading it everyday!! I consider that an amazing feat because I generally don't like reading books at ALL and usually veer away from them, but this is an exception! After a long time I got to take my telescope out, I never got time because of my studies, and WOW, I never thought I'd be so excited to see the Moon again! Finding those prominent craters and mares with my own telescope is amazingly satisfying and exciting. Some features are really hard to find, but when I do, the feeling of satisfaction is unmatched.... yet! I haven't got to observing the DSO's yet, but once I do, I'll be sure to come back here. Thanks everyone, especially @Nik271for suggesting this book, its a great read for all amateur space enthusiasts out there!

Edited December 25, 2020 by Aryan
Needed to update and thank people