Observing help

[alecras2345]

Hi I'm Ash from the United Kingdom.  I'm disabled and use a wheelchair.   I like astronomy but I can't go outside at night because the sky is 98% cloudy, there's street lights where I live and its too cold it affects my disability.    I have been looking Into how I can stargaze online, the easiest online telescope is slooh and there's no need for editing the images taken by the telescopes.    These online telescopes are so expensive, is there a cheaper alternative to view the night sky live? I want to look at constellations aswel as planets.    What do you think I should do?   That isn't expensive??   Thanks 

[Mandy D]

@alecras2345 There is free course on OU Open Learn that gives you temporary access to one of their Dall-Kirkham telescopes located in the Canaries.

[NGC 1502]

You have my sympathy if you cannot enjoy the night sky first hand.

However, many folk enjoy astronomy as an academic subject. You can do this at any level of your own choosing, up to you if you keep it simple and basic, deep into the subject, or much more likely somewhere in between.

As you have internet access then you already have a big advantage over years ago. From your home your computer or tablet opens up quite literally the whole universe. There’s lots of ways to see online images and videos. There’s no end of online astronomy to search out.

The more academic way of doing astronomy does have many advantages. Doesn’t matter if it’s cloudy, freezing cold and light pollution is not a problem.

I’m very definitely not saying your disability isn’t a problem, but I’m equally saying that it’s very definitely not all over for enjoying astronomy.

Hoping it works out for you.

Best wishes from Ed.

[Nicola Fletcher]

Hi Ash,

I think the advice above is great and I am also going to look into the OU course which is at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/astronomy/astronomy-online-telescope/content-section-overview?active-tab=description-tab. Different observatories such as the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff also do live astronomy sessions (I think you can find them on YouTube but if you subscribe to their newsletters you will know when they are coming up.

One suggestion that might not quite fit in the category of ‘not expensive’ but would be a one off cost is a smart telescope such as a Seestar? I don’t have one but they are very popular and you could put it outside on clear nights and then observe from your tablet or computer. 
 

Best of luck exploring ways to enjoy this very rewarding hobby!

[AstroKeith]

I too suggest considering a Seestar50 if you are able to.

I'm guessing you are in Ash near Whitchurch, which will be fairly free from light pollution as long as you are out of direct line of sight to a lamppost. I use a Seestar in Camberley which has quite bright skies yet it produces amazing images.

Your 98% cloud is an exaggeration of course, but it does feel like it! Another advantage of the Seestar is that set up can be very quick, so if it does clear you can start observing. Its good for solar work too.

[alecras2345]

Thanks for all your help.  The free course with the OU where I can use their online telescope sounds good but I don't really want to do a course.     As I said earlier I was a member of slooh online telescope and I got some nice images but Firstly I'm not an astronomy student which is what sloOh is all about I feel, and secondly its expensive to join.  I found the microobservatory but on there you selecT and image and then  they'll  email that image the next day with what the telescope has taken.   I would go for the smart telescope but uts always cloudy here.

Edited August 18 by alecras2345

[Elp]

If you just want to browse the skies with preset data I like to use AAS WWT, I think I've recommended it before:

https://worldwidetelescope.org/home/

Itd be hard to find a free telescope to use at your disposal as the equipment and maintenance costs money, observing also takes time and practice and isn't the same when viewing photos as your eyes are not responding to what they're seeing in the same way.

The Seestar generally is the best cost of entry (other than looking at planets due to the focal length), with any equipment you'll have a weather issue in the UK, better weather your hope is usually the robotic scope services abroad but obviously there's the cost issue, and again you're not actually observing.

[alecras2345]

Hi can someone help me to decide please?   i received a reply from slooh online telescopes,   here it is.      

 

Dear Ash,

Thank you for writing back. Regarding your price inquiry, here is our pricing page so that you can evaluate each membership type to find the one that works best for you. About your image editing questions, you are not required to do any image editing.

Regarding the benefits of using Slooh, we have telescopes across the world, many guides, and quests that, once you have a membership, you can use to set up missions to and learn more about celestial objects at your own pace.

Kind regards,

Alice Kennedy

The cheapest plan is the home-schooling plan which is 39.95 dollars a month,  im not sure what that is in pounds.   I've messaged virtual telescope and asked them what their cheapest plan is.

[AstroMuni]

On 16/08/2024 at 17:22, alecras2345 said:

These online telescopes are so expensive, is there a cheaper alternative to view the night sky live? I want to look at constellations aswel as planets.    What do you think I should do?   That isn't expensive?? 

Where do you live in North Wales? Perhaps if you post the name of your town, others who live near you (and on this forum) maybe able to help.

[alecras2345]

I was thinking of using stellarium rather than using online telescope,  would this be a better idea?

 

Ash

Edited August 22 by alecras2345

[Geoff Lister]

On 20/08/2024 at 10:34, alecras2345 said:

I was thinking of using stellarium rather than using online telescope,  would this be a better idea?

 

Hello Ash,

+1 for the Seestar S50.

I use Stellarium as a prelude to taking my S50 out into the garden for a night's observing. It is a quick way of selecting suitable targets, given positions of adjacent houses, fences, trees and street-lights. The Stellarium view of individual asterisms is more like a Hubble snapshot - fine if that's what you want, but it lacks the "live" element.

With the Seestar, you can see the image of the target slowly build-up on your tablet's/phone's screen, much more like visual observing; but you can do it without having to remain outdoors. I have had sessions where there has been quite a lot of cloud; the software stacks individual frames when the object is visible, discards the ones where the clouds cover the stars, and resumes when the object is visible again.

Another possibility, similar to the Seestar, is the Dwarf 2. It is smaller and lighter than the S50 (similar weight and volume as a good pair of 10x50 binoculars), and it has a larger field-of-view (useful for bigger asterisms, like the Andromeda Galaxy). It is also good for birdwatching; as it has a wide-angle view for selecting a target, before switching to telephoto for imaging. Dwarflab has announced that they will soon be shipping an improved version, the Dwarf 3, so the Dwarf 2 is now available at a significant discount.

Geoff

[MartianHill]

Hello Ash and welcome to SGL.

Here are some options to use from the comfort of your own home 🙂👍

Stellarium - a very good night sky simulator:

https://stellarium.org

Universe monitor which shows the Sun in real time plus MANY other things :

 https://www.universemonitor.com/feeds/sun/SDO-HMIIF.php

J-ALPO which is a web page people upload planetary images to :

https://alpo-j.sakura.ne.jp/indexE.htm

I’m sure there will be many others like these…..

https://northumberland-astro.space/sky-cameras/

https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/astronomy.html

https://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/outreach/webcams/

https://www.allskycam.com

 

Edited August 25 by MartianHill

[AstroMuni]

On 20/08/2024 at 10:34, alecras2345 said:

I was thinking of using stellarium rather than using online telescope,  would this be a better idea?

Planetarium software like Stellarium allow you to visualise what the sky looks like. And they come with images taken by real telescopes so it feels real. I feel thats a great way to enjoy whats out there. And the advantage is you can zoom in or out to get more detail. I know its not the real thing but when you have clouds or the seeing is terrible its the next best thing !

BTW, you could get an All sky camera and attach it outside so you can view what the sky looks like without stepping out. Many of these work with a Raspberry Pi so are relatively cheap. See this post

 

Edited August 27 by AstroMuni

[Xilman]

Not all astronomers do it at night.

Have you thought about solar observing?

[jjohnson3803]

I don't have a SeeStar or a Dwarf smart scope, but if I were to develop mobility issues, I'd definitely look into getting one.  In theory, I'd only have to get it outside onto my back deck.  An Allsky camera would be another option although I live in heavy light pollution.

I had a Slooh student (?) account for a year - the cheapest they offered at the time.  It's ok for what it is, but might not be for everyone.

Good luck!

 

[AstroMuni]

39 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

In theory, I'd only have to get it outside onto my back deck.

I personally dont own one but we did an outreach recently with a few colleagues from our local society using a Dwarf II. It literally took a few minutes to setup and then it aligned itself and we managed to show lovely images of objects like M31 that night. Attaching here

Edited August 29 by AstroMuni

[alecras2345]

Maybe i'll look at all sky camera later on but for now im thinking about using stellarium in my bedroom.   Say for example one evening instead of going online and onto facebook, if i open stellarium on my computer could i stargaze like i was outside, how would i do this?  what i mean is how do i know whats up or an event is happening, does stellarium tell me?    But yes basically all i want to know is can i use stellarium as if i was looking at the sky outside but in my bedroom?  I subscribed to slooh student membership for a year but the price has gone stupid now.

Thanks

Ash

Edited August 30 by alecras2345

[Cosmic Geoff]

Your questions about Stellarium are best answered by downloading it and giving it a try.  It won't give you a 'heads up' of future events but you can set it to show you past and future planetary conjunctions and the like.

Should you buy a Seestar S50 or a Dwarf 2 or 3 you can set it up outside and then view images of a lot of deep sky objects from indoors, with minimal effort.

[Tiny Clanger]

For years before I owned a 'scope I had a computer (not a laptop, a tower/screen/keyboard windows95 with a hard drive I paid extra to get the higher spec. version .. 520mb IIRC ! State of the art ) set up on a desk in a spare bedroom. I had stellarium on it, set to mimic the view through the bedroom window which faced south, so I could tell what some of those dots I saw shining out there were. It works fine.

You can set Stellarium to the current time, let it run in real time so it mimics the sky,  run it fast forward or backward, or type in a different year/month/day/time, but it will only ever show you what is on view at that time.

For information about upcoming events, you could try this websites monthly updated sky notes which usually gives illustrations of upcoming events based on Stellarium :  http://www.whitby-astronomers.com/sky-notes/sky-notes-august-2024

There's a PDF of info for the current month here which is a handy format to read on a 'phone or print https://www.popastro.com/documents/SkyDiary.pdf

If you prefer to listen, there's a weekly podcast here: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/podcasts/star-diary

There are a couple of small paperback books which do a similar job, I prefer Philip's Stargazing 2025 Month-by-Month Guide to the Night Sky Britain & Ireland which is about £7 and available from Amazon etc https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Stargazing-Month-Britain-Ireland/dp/1849076529 , there's a similar Collin's volume, but I prefer Nigel Henbest's writing style so always get the Philip's one. You could probably pick up this year's book at a discount, now 2/3 of the year has gone !

All those are UK based info, and will be broadly correct for anywhere here, beware some other  USA based sources may predict things we don't get to see !

 

[alecras2345]

so opening stellarium on my computer and looking arouned in real time is as good as using an online telescope yes??    Say i look on a website and theres an occultation, i could watch it in real time on stellarium yes?

[Tiny Clanger]

15 minutes ago, alecras2345 said:

so opening stellarium on my computer and looking arouned in real time is as good as using an online telescope yes??    Say i look on a website and theres an occultation, i could watch it in real time on stellarium yes?

Stellarium is a computer representation/simulation of reality, not the real thing, no reason why you can't fast forward time and look at an occultation on Stellarium before it happens in reality . If you zoom in there are real images of the Moon & Planets and some DSOs, you can watch, for example, the moons of Jupiter orbiting around the planet. The big advantage of Stellarium is the price - it's free. There's an online version (it has fewer features than the downloadable program) you could have a look at that to see if you like it https://stellarium-web.org/ when you open that page in the daytime it defaults to the night, you click on the time box lower right to change that. There is a small menu of things to switch on/off at the bottom, and you just drag the view to move around and scroll to zoom.

That's fun, but it's not real. I know you'll have been told using a telescope through a window is a bad idea, and it's true that the image is less good, but it's better than nothing. On occasional windy cold nights when I've been too tired to go outside and it is bedtime, but I've seen clear skies, I've pointed my ST80  (similar to this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html and on a photographic tripod)  at that south facing bedroom window, closed the door and turned the light off, and been able to see the rings of Saturn, the Orion nebula and some lunar detail. It's not great, but it is real.

[alecras2345]

I opened stellarium this evening and saw that Anthelion is up,  whats Anthelion?

[chrisecurtis]

It's the point in the sky opposite the Sun. It's vaguely useful to know when and where it is in the sky because it acts as a kind of "radiant" for many sporadic meteors. This article explains: https://www.popastro.com/meteor/sporadics/

[dweller25]

21 hours ago, alecras2345 said:

I opened stellarium this evening and saw that Anthelion is up,  whats Anthelion?

Sometimes I prefer to use Stellarium than go outside, particularly when it’s raining/snowing/blowing a gale or -15’C 👍🙂

[alecras2345]

Thanks for all your help and advice its giving me food for thought especially bout a all sky cam.    I started to read Patrick moore books a few years ago which i learned alot from, but was told to stop because they are dated.      Are they still ok to read please?