What can I see in a city with a 130mm telescope?

[Lotinsh]

Can I see something else except stars and planets?

I live in a city's center, I can barley see stars with naked eyes, what can I see in cities with my telescope? So far all I have seen are some stars, don't get me wrong they are impressive, but it got a little boring to only see just stars with a telescope. Also due to my family saving money for fuel, I can't really get outside of the city, I'm lucky if I get out once a month, so far I have been only 2-3 times, which is pretty sad as my country also has lots of clouds.

[Astro Noodles]

6 minutes ago, Lotinsh said:

Can I see something else except stars and planets?

I live in a city's center, I can barley see stars with naked eyes, what can I see in cities with my telescope? So far all I have seen are some stars, don't get me wrong they are impressive, but it got a little boring to only see just stars with a telescope. Also due to my family saving money for fuel, I can't really get outside of the city, I'm lucky if I get out once a month, so far I have been only 2-3 times, which is pretty sad as my country also has lots of clouds.

I have been able to see the Orion Nebula quite clearly through my 130mm Newtonian. City skies are a problem, I am in a bortle 6/7 zone?

Where are you located, city centre or suburbs? Which country? What eyepieces do you use?

It's cloudy here most of the time too.

[Lotinsh]

I live in Latvia, in my city's center, by light pollution map, this is the most polluted place in my city. I am using my 130p telescope's stock skywatcher Super 25mm and 10mm

[vlaiv]

I've seen plenty of objects from red zone (bortle 7) with 100mm telescope, and quite a few with smaller aperture like 60mm.

First thing is to know what to expect - most are just faint smudges - very faint, barely showing against the skyglow.

Next thing is to optimize your chance of seeing anything at all by:

- shielding yourself from any direct light sources. If you have to - put a blanket over your head to cover yourself. Really.

- get dark adapted as much as you can

- wait until late at night. Most people go to sleep at some point and turn of their lights. There is less cars in the streets around 1-2am for example.

- look for objects that are near zenith and in direction where sky is the darkest. Depending on your position to city center - you might have darker side - use that and look for objects in that area. My "dark zone" is due south and a bit to the west.  Close to zenith there is the least air to look thru and that makes things easier to see - use applications to plan your observing.

- make sure that you are looking at the right place. Yes, really - it helps if you are actually looking at object rather than just empty patch of sky with stars in it. Learn to star hop and find objects.

- observe on transparent nights with no moon. Moon makes sky brighter - so avoid it. Make sure there is no haze in the air or no thin high altitude clouds.

Use this forecast service:

https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/charts/cams/aerosol-forecasts?facets=undefined&time=2021051100,3,2021051103&projection=classical_europe&layer_name=composition_aod550

It shows how much aerosol / pollution is there in the sky. Make sure your city is in blue/gray range rather than yellow or red at your observation time.

This is not something that you can influence - but check it out to be mentally prepared. If transparency is poor - you might have no luck trying for harder targets.

In the end - use very easy targets to get you started. Globular clusters - bigger ones are nice targets and so are some larger and stronger nebulae like M42 for example. M31 - you can't miss it is very strong - but you'll probably just see core smudge and no detail (I only once managed dust lanes from city with 8" telescope).

Recently someone posted this and I think it is good idea to use it. Use very easy and easy column to start with. Use Stellarium application to see where objects are at the time of your observation and to limit yourself to ones high in the sky.

Tonight around 2am - there should be at least 5-6 nice globulars on display - M13 and M92 high in the sky, M3 and M5, M10 and M12.

M57 is also very nice target - however it is very small and for that reason you can miss it. Use higher magnification to spot it.

 

[vlaiv]

1 minute ago, Lotinsh said:

I live in Latvia, in my city's center, by light pollution map, this is the most polluted place in my city. I am using my 130p telescope's stock skywatcher Super 25mm and 10mm

What city is that?

If you are in Riga - then yes, LP is pretty bad in city center. If you are just a bit away from center - then you should still be able to see at least a few objects.

Click on light pollution map and look at SQM number.

I managed above objects from ~SQM 18.5 - so anything higher than that should be fine - but anything lower is rather bad.

As far as I see - most other cities in Latvia are not nearly as bad.

[Lotinsh]

Thanks it's almost 11.50 for me right now, and thank gods, the sky is clear tonight, I'll try finding one of the very easy objects, although I did find where m81 was supposed to be (I'm 100% sure it's the right spot I looked at) and I couldn't see anything, which was petty sad as I thought it was bright enough to see.

[Lotinsh]

@vlaiv I'm in Ventspils, pretty much the center, most polluted place, I just doxxed my self I think, hope nothing bad happenes. Thanks for advice, I'll try to spot something.

[vlaiv]

1 minute ago, Lotinsh said:

Thanks it's almost 11.50 for me right now, and thank gods, the sky is clear tonight, I'll try finding one of the very easy objects, although I did find where m81 was supposed to be (I'm 100% sure it's the right spot I looked at) and I couldn't see anything, which was petty sad as I thought it was bright enough to see.

M81/M82 is another relatively easy pair to find. In your 25mm eyepiece you should see them both.

I usually don't exactly know where to find them - I just point telescope in general direction and scan the skies for a bit - they are usually very easy to see.

[Lotinsh]

Yeah, I fond a guide, they are in the bottom left I think, of a star triangle, which I locate first, pretty easy to find, then there are two stars on its bottom side, the galaxies are on the opposite side of the stars

Apologies for my drawing skills for circles and triangles

Edited May 11, 2021 by Lotinsh

[Astro Noodles]

1 minute ago, Lotinsh said:

@vlaiv I'm in Ventspils, pretty much the center, most polluted place, I just doxxed my self I think, hope nothing bad happenes. Thanks for advice, I'll try to spot something.

Don't worry, this is an astronomy forum, not 4-chan. 😂

[vlaiv]

1 minute ago, Lotinsh said:

@vlaiv I'm in Ventspils, pretty much the center, most polluted place, I just doxxed my self I think, hope nothing bad happenes. Thanks for advice, I'll try to spot something.

Don't worry - most cities are too large to be able to find a person. Saying that you are from particular city is not much of info (at least I think so - I'm from Novi Sad in Serbia - it says so in my info).

Just don't give exact coordinates or similar.

You are actually at Bortle 6 - SQM around 19 (a bit less) - that is well - less bad (I wanted to say good - but obviously it's far from ideal). I think that most of your issues will come from being very low on sea level and the fact that sea is close - you have much better chance of observing in winter than in summer.

Also, since you are in Latvia - be careful about darkness - you are further north and in summer you won't have complete night.

Yep, that is a problem - you don't have full darkness any more:

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/latvia/ventspils

It gets dark only until and of April and starts again - mid August.

[Lotinsh]

Yeah, but somehow every time on august milky way is visible from an urban city side, next to the sea, it's called "enkuru parks" which is "anchor park" in english, I used to go there to observe stars on august, milky way was clearly visible.

edit: more like faint not clear

Edited May 11, 2021 by Lotinsh

[Lotinsh]

Sadly I hate winter, I hate the cold, but if winter is my best choice for viewing, that will have to do.

[Astro Noodles]

1 minute ago, Lotinsh said:

Sadly I hate winter, I hate the cold, but if winter is my best choice for viewing, that will have to do.

Winter is definitely the best time for us northerners to do astronomy. They say that nothing worth doing is ever easy. 🙂

[Orange Smartie]

You haven't mentioned it yet, but the moon is a great target for your 130mm scope. It's not around tonight, but when it is, you will see the view change every night- and light pollution will not be a problem.

Also try looking at some double or multiple stars.

 

Edited: I realise you said you didn't want to look at stars, but not sure if you meant single stars or binaries. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Orange Smartie

[Lotinsh]

@Astro Noodles It do be like that, once I grow up I'm def moving to a warmer place, as I mentioned I despise cold lol.

@Orange Smartie  I have looked at the moon, it's beutifull! I also took a picture of it.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Lotinsh

[vlaiv]

11 minutes ago, Lotinsh said:

Sadly I hate winter, I hate the cold, but if winter is my best choice for viewing, that will have to do.

Don't be discouraged - even in this time of year it is worth going out and trying your best to see brightest objects.

Observing is a skill - and you need practice. Just don't get discouraged if you can't find all objects now as conditions are not the best. This will only last for few months - in second half of August - you'll again start having full darkness.

I made that reference about the sea - because I'm used to Mediterranean sea at summer time. There is a lot of heat and lot of water vapor in the air - which makes for poor transparency.

You are quite a bit northern and you might not get temperatures of 30°C+ during the day and night in order to have those conditions. Wind also helps to clear water vapor from the air.

[Astro Noodles]

4 minutes ago, Lotinsh said:

@Astro Noodles It do be like that, once I grow up I'm def moving to a warmer place, as I mentioned I despise cold lol.

@Orange Smartie  I have looked at the moon, it's beutifull! I also took a picture of it.

That's good, What sort of camera did you use? Did you have to use a barlow lens to achieve focus?

[Lotinsh]

Thanks, the camera I used is my 180$ phones camera, not the best one, but it does it's job. and I used the 10mm lens or 25mm with 3x barlow, can't remember, Though, as of yesterday, I bought an used nikon camera, really happy with it, I also love standard photography, I'm gonna buy a T thread adaptor and a ring for my camera, these tiny metal pieces sadly are overpriced AF, 20 bucks for a smol piece of metal? really? So yeah, I'm saving my money now for those two things, getting money isn't so easy so it will take a month or so.

Edit: I did not need the barlow lens to get focus, it just worked for me lol

Edited May 11, 2021 by Lotinsh

[Lotinsh]

So I went outside, and managed to find m13 and m5, they were GORGEUS, thanks so much for the advice, this was my first time seeing something other than stars or moon!

Here's a pic of it I took of m13: (it looks better in real life)

[Starwatcher2001]

It's great that you've seen M13, well done.  It's a brilliant view.  There's another globular in Hercules that's nearby: M92. I think it's just as beautiful.

I don't think open clusters have been mentioned yet, such as the "double cluster" NGC884 and NGC869, or the Pleiades. They can be wonderful to look at even in poor skies (I'm in a Bortle 7/8 location). There's some beauties around Cassiopeia.

The more hunting you do, the more you'll find and more skillful you'll become.

 

[Capt Slog]

14 hours ago, Lotinsh said:

Thanks, the camera I used is my 180$ phones camera, not the best one, but it does it's job. and I used the 10mm lens or 25mm with 3x barlow, can't remember, Though, as of yesterday, I bought an used nikon camera, really happy with it, I also love standard photography, I'm gonna buy a T thread adaptor and a ring for my camera, these tiny metal pieces sadly are overpriced AF, 20 bucks for a smol piece of metal? really? So yeah, I'm saving my money now for those two things, getting money isn't so easy so it will take a month or so.

Edit: I did not need the barlow lens to get focus, it just worked for me lol

If you are getting those pics with your phone camera, I think you could be disappointed when you try to use your Nikon.  I bought an adaptor and couldn't get decent pics. 

Note that as well as the adaptor, this time you will need the lens too.

[Lotinsh]

@Capt Slog Did you stack the photos? I heard that if you want to get decent pics you need to stack lots of light frames, some dark frames, flat frames and bias/flat darks

I'm no expert though, so I cannot give advice.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Lotinsh

[Capt Slog]

2 hours ago, Lotinsh said:

@Capt Slog Did you stack the photos? I heard that if you want to get decent pics you need to stack lots of light frames, some dark frames, flat frames and bias/flat darks

I'm no expert though, so I cannot give advice.

No, I haven't tried that.

At the time I was just after snap shots to confirm that I was in the right place and actually seeing what I thought my target was.  I wanted to take a pic, and then check it later on Stellarium (I had no device I could take to the telescope for comparisons). This was when I first started, i haven't felt the need since, I'm now more confident I'm in what I'm seeing, and I've rigged up a computer near my viewing position.

However, the point I wanted to make was that I'm always staggered that the pic someone can get with their phone is SO easy compared to what is involved with a DSLR.  I've always thought a 'proper camera' was superior in most respects, but the proper camera's ability to get a useable image in this instance is baffling to me considering the control I have over the process.  Sure, I could go into the whole astrophotography thing, but I don't really want to.

[Stu Todd]

@Lotinsh It depends on what you want to do.

The foremost amateur spectroscopist and leading light, Christian Buil, takes Pro/Am observations from his balcony in Paris. He can barely see stars too.