Star hopping

[keora]

I have a Skywatcher 102mm Maksutov with a 9x50 finderscope. It’s a good set up, yet I have problems finding faint objects in the sky.

 

For example, a few weeks ago I spotted Uranus with binoculars. It was about 10 degrees east of Jupiter. I use Sky Safari on an iPad when looking at the sky and it confirmed it was Uranus. To get a closer look I switched to the telescope, pointed it at Jupiter and then made five full turns on the horizontal control, to swing it round to point it at Uranus. Although there were a few faint stars I couldn’t identify anything.

 

Unless I’m looking for large bright stars/planets in the sky, most of the time the spotting technique is difficult to use.

 

Could anyone suggest ways in which I can improve my techniques?

[Elp]

I find this extremely difficult too with my C6, I think it's just too much focal length, my situation is exasperated by LP too so looking for anything faint is an exercise in frustration. The Rigel Quikfinder I find is much better than a finder scope as the circles within the reticule are a quantified measurement of degrees so it's a more accurate way to star hop with the aid of a stellarium at hand to cross reference with the star field you're looking at. But with my 714mm refractor the experience is far more enjoyable as theres more field of view so you don't loose your orientation so easily, I finally found Andromeda recently with it whereas with the C6 I really need to use goto with plate solving.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Elp

[lunator]

Keira, what eyepieces do you use? A small field of very can make finding things very hard.

From experience a 1° field of view will give you a reasonable chance of finding things.

Cheers

Ian

[josefk]

Hi @keora - i'm not sure which features are in which version of sky safari but as you are already using it at the scope see if you have this menu behind "observe":

 

if you do then if you go to "scope display" you can set yourself up with finder circles to match your 9x50 finder and your favourite eyepieces...

this is an example:

 

...the larger circle there is my finder and the smaller circle is a 1-degree FOV eyepiece. Because in the main view of Sky Safari you can flip the view to match your scope set-up (newtonian, star diagonal, corrected image, etc.) it makes referencing your finder and/or your EP to the star map very easy.

In my experience it makes star hopping a cinch - almost cheating. 😉 

[keora]

I'd like to thank all three of you for your advice.

The telescope has a focal length of 1300mm and the two Plossl eyepieces I use have a focal length of 32mm and 9mm. The field of view for the 32mm eyepiece is 1 degree and the 9mm eyepiece has a field of view of 0.3 degrees.

I don't use the 9mm eyepiece much when I'm looking for dim stars. It's hard to focus. The field of view is very restricted, to make the most of it I have to take off my glasses and get the eyepiece touching my eye.

I originally had a basic version of Sky Safari and switched to Sky Safari Pro a year ago. If I go to the Observe menu it looks similar to the photo you added to your reply. I'll try to set up finder circles on Sky Safari for the 9X50 finder scope and the 32mm eyepiece. I've avoided trying this before as I wasn't sure what to do.

I believe I can adjust the display on Sky Safari so the stars are shown as a mirror image of what the observer sees when looking at the stars. This would make the Safari screen match the stars seen through the 32mm objective. Is this worth trying out?

I wonder if any other forum members have suggestions to make? I've always had useful suggestions when I've ask questions on this forum.

[josefk]

4 minutes ago, keora said:

I originally had a basic version of Sky Safari and switched to Sky Safari Pro a year ago. If I go to the Observe menu it looks similar to the photo you added to your reply. I'll try to set up finder circles on Sky Safari for the 9X50 finder scope and the 32mm eyepiece. I've avoided trying this before as I wasn't sure what to do.

I believe I can adjust the display on Sky Safari so the stars are shown as a mirror image of what the observer sees when looking at the stars. This would make the Safari screen match the stars seen through the 32mm objective. Is this worth trying out?

Hi keora - i think if you do these two things then you have cracked it "toolkit" wise. It is important to flip the view in the main Sky Safari view to match your scope EP or finder orientation (mirror horizontally (star diagonal) or mirror vertically (my finder - yours may not be) or nothing (correct image finder or naked eye) otherwise you need mental gymnastics to follow the star patterns. With the mirrored flips done in SS no mental gymnastics other than "clock face" style plain rotation are required to match the star field to the map as it were.

i regular flip the main SS view in a single session because my finder and scope present different orientations and I still use the regular unflipped "real world" SS view too to maintain orientation to what naked eye stars i can see. Sounds way more complicated and more faff in these two typed sentence than it really is in practise! in practise it's 2nd nature. 

[jjohnson3803]

I use CI diagonals in all my scopes so no need to flip, invert, etc., but I do use the FOV circles in SkySafari.  I set one up for my most used EP and most used refractor.  It's very handy for hopping and the FOV isn't horribly far off for my other scopes, depending on what EP I use.

Enjoy!

 

 

[Spile]

I use SkySafari when star hopping. Normal mode when using the RACI and inverted when using the eyepiece.

[Bugdozer]

On 06/12/2023 at 20:29, josefk said:

Hi @keora - i'm not sure which features are in which version of sky safari but as you are already using it at the scope see if you have this menu behind "observe":

 

if you do then if you go to "scope display" you can set yourself up with finder circles to match your 9x50 finder and your favourite eyepieces...

this is an example:

 

...the larger circle there is my finder and the smaller circle is a 1-degree FOV eyepiece. Because in the main view of Sky Safari you can flip the view to match your scope set-up (newtonian, star diagonal, corrected image, etc.) it makes referencing your finder and/or your EP to the star map very easy.

In my experience it makes star hopping a cinch - almost cheating. 😉 

What are those straight white lines?

[Bugdozer]

I take a screenshot from Stellarium before I go out observing so I know what to look for in the eyepiece. Here's an example I used to spot Neptune:

 

It's set up for the eyepiece field of view and scope that I have.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Bugdozer

[josefk]

Ignore

Edited December 9, 2023 by josefk

[josefk]

7 hours ago, Bugdozer said:

What are those straight white lines?

I have the orbits of the planets switched on in view preferences. It’s a bit cluttering but I also find it an easy ready reckoner for other targets ….”Is X above or below an imaginary line between Saturn and Jupiter” for example. 

[keora]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I’ve set up a 1 degree circle on the sky safari screen. I’ll flip the SkySafari screen  so that it shows a mirror image of the actual sky when I go looking for stars. All I need now is a clear night.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by keora

[Gfamily]

Another tip when using an app is to go to a known region of the sky and work out the faintest stars you can see through the 32mm eyepiece.

Then, in the app, use the 'magnitude' slider so that those stars just about appear.

That way, you'll be able to match what you're seeing to what's visible in the app (particularly when you have the circle showing) and that should make star hopping easier.

[josefk]

6 hours ago, Gfamily said:

Another tip when using an app is to go to a known region of the sky and work out the faintest stars you can see through the 32mm eyepiece.

Then, in the app, use the 'magnitude' slider so that those stars just about appear.

That way, you'll be able to match what you're seeing to what's visible in the app (particularly when you have the circle showing) and that should make star hopping easier.

Also a spot on tip!  I always forget to do it.