What next ?

[peanutcol]

Hi all. Had my scope over 6 months now  (heritage 130p) and getting to grips with it when skies allow. My highlight has been Saturn so far. My equipment so far is the standard 10mm and 25mm kit lenses, a Barlow lens and I've bought 2 skywatcher lenses, a 6mm for planets and a 32mm for dso. I haven't managed any deep sky wonders as yet, maybe light pollution where I am. I was just wondering if this is a good setup for visual or is there something you're all thinking why haven't you gotten yourself this or that yet to help or make observation better. Cheers guys.

[happy-kat]

my most used eyepiece with the heritage 130p for closer views in my location was a 16mm maxvision it gave a good balance between being close enough without over magnifying, maybe your 32mm with a barlow would be similar

Edited Tuesday at 13:55 by happy-kat

[PeterStudz]

I have a 200p Dob and a small 114p reflection. I’m also in Bortle 7 - so significant light pollution. Even so, I’ve managed some of the brighter DSO. In my urban sky I don’t think that my extra aperture makes any significant difference - it just magnifies the background light pollution. But for a start have you seen Jupiter? I find it more rewarding than Saturn. There’s obviously the Great Red Spot, details in the banding when conditions allow and I love to observe shadow transits, they can be stunning. Venus is another planet that I enjoy and at the right time of year isn’t difficult. Plus when it’s in a crescent phase it looks lovely. 

As far as DSO’s go, have you seen the Orion Nebula? Others that I find can work well in light pollution are the Ring Nebula (M57); Globular Clusters M13 and M3; Dumbbell  Nebula (M27), although a UHC filter helps me, Galaxies M81 and M82. You can get both M81/M82 in the same FOV and on a good night I can see a little structure in M82. 

Then there’s a host of double stars. Try Albireo as it isn’t difficult and their colours plus colour contrast between the two is great.

I really like open star clusters, eg Pleiades, Beehive, Double Cluster in Perseus, Owl Cluster, Cooling Tower, Starfish Cluster, Pinweel Cluster, Salt and Pepper Cluster… these are just off the top of my head. 

I’m sure others will have better suggestions!

[Nik271]

Planetary nebulae are quite resistant to LP. Cats Eye nebula is well positioned now in Draco, small and bright, like out of focus star. Can take lots of magnification too.

[DAT]

I started off with a 130p starquest and it took me a while but I did manage a few dso ( ring nebula, dumbbell nebula, Orion nebula , andromeda ). This is from a bortle 9.  At the time I had a 24mm, an 11mm and a 5mm.

It took me several sessions to locate a dso for the first time but when I learnt where to look it got easier.

I still struggle with new targets and I keep going until I get to the point of finding it within minutes without a star map before moving on. I found that sometimes the longer it takes me to find something , the more rewarding.

[bosun21]

If you have bad light pollution or sources of extraneous light around like neighbours lights and windows then you will benefit from making yourself a light shroud. This would be most beneficial when hunting for DSO's and less so far planets etc. You could also use one of the apps on your phone to help steer your telescope onto the target. @PeterStudz uses such an app on his dobsonian and may be able to point you in the direction of which app etc.

[omo]

A copy of Turn Left at Orion would open things up for you.

 

[Ratlet]

2 hours ago, peanutcol said:

Hi all. Had my scope over 6 months now  (heritage 130p) and getting to grips with it when skies allow. My highlight has been Saturn so far. My equipment so far is the standard 10mm and 25mm kit lenses, a Barlow lens and I've bought 2 skywatcher lenses, a 6mm for planets and a 32mm for dso. I haven't managed any deep sky wonders as yet, maybe light pollution where I am. I was just wondering if this is a good setup for visual or is there something you're all thinking why haven't you gotten yourself this or that yet to help or make observation better. Cheers guys.

I did a lot of observing with a 130PDS which is broadly the same setup.  You are in a good place! I don't think you need much other than to go out and observe and practice.

If you've got a Red Dot Finder I'd use it to align the scope and then the 32mm for star hopping. I'd probably look at a medium power eyepiece at some point down the line.  I went with a 12mm BST but anything in that region would be good.  The barlow and 32mm will work but will be quite long physically.  You'll also need to hold your eye quite far from the lens compared to normal to get focus.  Just that a barlow increases the eye relief.

Doing brighter DSO will help get your eye in for seeing them.  M13 (if it is still up), M31, M27 are all quite bright.  I found M27 to be a bit of a challenge to get to.

I would consider getting a good book for targets (Turn Left at Orion is good), maybe splurge on an app like SkySafari where you can make custom lists, and star hop more easily (you can set reticules in the app that represent the view through your eyepiece), you just RDF to a bright star and then match up the view from the eyepiece to the app view and jump from star to star matching as you go.

Once you find a DSO or cluster you will find great use in 2 things: pencil and paper.  Write down your observation, or better yet, sketch it.  Sketching is the absolute best.  It makes the difference between looking and observing for me.  You'll take in more detail and it makes things stick in your brain.  The sketch doesn't need to be good either.  Mine are awful but pretty much everyone on here will appreciate you sharing them.  Actually pencil and paper is good even if you don't find the target.  write down what went well, what didn't.  If you have issues it will help describe the problem for others.

Post your observations on the forum.  Please.  My absolute favourite thing is the times you get someone's very first observing report.  You can here the excitement through the screen.

[Jasonb]

I would definitely recommend a list of things to look for, be it using a book like Turn Left at Orion or using an App like Sky Safari. Starting a session with a list, rather than randomly trying to pick something on the night, can really help you achieve some goals in a session.

And if you are in light polluted skies, is travel an option for you? A Heritage 130p is nice and portable, is there anywhere nearby with much darker skies? I'm about an hour from a much darker region, and I have driven there on a clear night, set up off a quiet country lane and seen so many things; dark skies really do make a difference! I'm also lucky to have a great friend who lives in a darker area and I visit her too. Do you know any other astronomers in your area, or any clubs that you could go along to?

[peanutcol]

Cheers for all the help and advice. I have a copy of left turn at Orion. I've not used the 32mm with the Barlow yet so will give that a try for the dso. 

[PeterStudz]

4 hours ago, bosun21 said:

You could also use one of the apps on your phone to help steer your telescope onto the target. @PeterStudz uses such an app on his dobsonian and may be able to point you in the direction of which app etc.

I do use an app on my 200p Dob that (for only a few quid) turns it into a telescope with reliable PushTo . The smartphone app is called “PS Align Pro” which, amongst other things, includes an easy to use PushTo feature. Mount your smartphone to your OTA, start and sync the app to at least one known star/target and away you go. For what it is it’s surprisingly good. There’s also another app, called AstroHopper, which will do similar. I haven’t tried it but others on this forums have used it and find it good too.

I also used it on this small 4.5” reflector which I took on holiday to Crete. Shown here outside our hotel in the early hours while looking for Mercury - just so you get the idea. This is a Bortle 2 location and one night I spent a good 4 hour session using this little telescope to see a host of DSO. Many a first as I simply could not see them from my garden, even with an 8” Dob. And in all that time the PushTo, going from target to target, didn’t fail to locate the objects within the 25mm low power eyepiece. Might be worth doing something similar. Having said this I don’t use it all the time as I do enjoy star hopping the “traditional” no-tech way, but there are times when something like this saves valuable time and possible frustration. 
 

[Les Ewan]

HI Peanutcol,

Your  32mm if its a plossl was a good choice. Not so keen on the 6mm myself as times of good enough seeing for such a powerful eyepiece will be so rare  it will render its use to merely filling up a space in your eyepiece case most of the time.  The Skywatcher kit eyepieces are usually MA reverse Kellers which are OK but not great.

Something to be aware of about your supplied Barlow make sure its body is made of metal and has  unscrewable lens on the nosepiece. I was issued with cheap and nasty non achromatic Barlow with my Astrolux.  For change of £30 Astro Essentials have nice X2 achromatic Barlows that will bring out the best in your 32mm with the added bonus of a extra magnification using the lens nosepiece threaded into the 32mm filter thread.

[Ags]

I think a 6 mm eyepiece is usable most nights in an F5 scope, with an exit pupil of 1.2 mm it is a relatively conservative magnification. I do most of my DSO observing in the 1-2 mm exit pupil range, which would be eyepieces between 5 and 10 mm with this scope.

[PeterStudz]

17 hours ago, Jasonb said:

I would definitely recommend a list of things to look for, be it using a book like Turn Left at Orion or using an App like Sky Safari. Starting a session with a list, rather than randomly trying to pick something on the night, can really help you achieve some goals in a session.

Having a list is a very good “top tip”. However, also be flexible. Eg only last weekend I started off with a planed planetary session only to find the seeing disappointingly poor. So, I then decided to completely changed direction and focus on star clusters plus a few DSO. Why star clusters I don’t really know, they just popped into my head. The PushTo feature in PS Align Pro also allows you to filter objects in a whole manner of ways and create a list on the fly. Eg I can just select “Open Clusters” that are an available to my time and location. Or a combination of types. 

I also find the “Observing - Reports” section plus the “What did you see tonight” invaluable, especially when starting out. It gives me an idea of what others have been recently looking at. More so if they use similar gear and a have similar level of light pollution. 

[peanutcol]

13 hours ago, Les Ewan said:

HI Peanutcol,

Your  32mm if its a plossl was a good choice. Not so keen on the 6mm myself as times of good enough seeing for such a powerful eyepiece will be so rare  it will render its use to merely filling up a space in your eyepiece case most of the time.  The Skywatcher kit eyepieces are usually MA reverse Kellers which are OK but not great.

Something to be aware of about your supplied Barlow make sure its body is made of metal and has  unscrewable lens on the nosepiece. I was issued with cheap and nasty non achromatic Barlow with my Astrolux.  For change of £30 Astro Essentials have nice X2 achromatic Barlows that will bring out the best in your 32mm with the added bonus of a extra magnification using the lens nosepiece threaded into the 32mm filter thread.

This is the Barlow I have. Need a better one you think?

[Ratlet]

4 minutes ago, peanutcol said:

This is the Barlow I have. Need a better one you think?

No. It'll be fine for now.  The views won't be great but don't worry about it, you won't know either way lol.

I would give it a try with what you have and then decide.  I bought a £60 ed Barlow and I use it almost exclusively for collimating my scope.  I just find them a faff and they make the optical train too long.

[peanutcol]

In other news for some reason I had a discount on play store and bought ps align pro for 18pence 😁

[bosun21]

12 minutes ago, peanutcol said:

In other news for some reason I had a discount on play store and bought ps align pro for 18pence 😁

Wow! as I nip over to check my own phones.

[PeterStudz]

23 minutes ago, peanutcol said:

This is the Barlow I have. Need a better one you think?

I think that’s the standard Barlow that comes along with much SkyWatcher bundles. If so I had one. The trouble I had with it is that it didn’t have a threaded end for filters. So I purchased the x2 StarGuider Barlow which works fine for me. 

I like Barlows. Eg using a filter I can change eyepieces without having to remove and replace the filter, which risks dropping it on the ground and getting it eaten by the dog. And in this case it also saves faff and time. And I find that the 12mm BST StarGuider really good for planetary, but obviously the magnification is a bit low. Stick on a x2 Barlow and I have 6mm, and it still retains the 12mm excellent planetary contrast. 

[PeterStudz]

23 minutes ago, peanutcol said:

In other news for some reason I had a discount on play store and bought ps align pro for 18pence 😁

The PushTo is a bit hidden. This is the iPhone interface, but Android is probably similar. Click on the galaxy icon “DSO DB” then “Show Data” and you’ll get a list.

 

 

 

[peanutcol]

14 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

The PushTo is a bit hidden. This is the iPhone interface, but Android is probably similar. Click on the galaxy icon “DSO DB” then “Show Data” and you’ll get a list.

 

 

 

Cheers for all the help. I'll have a gander next time I'm out. 👍

[Alan64]

A lot of folks do not like barlows, but I do, very much so.  I have a 2x, 2.8x, 3x, and recently got a 5x, all Antares, save the 2.8x which is a Heinz Klee.

I haven't tried the 5x out yet.  I can't wait.

 

[Les Ewan]

On 02/10/2024 at 13:52, peanutcol said:

This is the Barlow I have. Need a better one you think?

Looks like you have the non achromatic cheap one I'm afraid. The better quality budget Skywatcher barlows have a much heavier construction  ,a M42 thread on the eyepiece end and unscrewable lens nosepiece.

[Les Ewan]

2 hours ago, Alan64 said:

A lot of folks do not like barlows, but I do, very much so.  I have a 2x, 2.8x, 3x, and recently got a 5x, all Antares, save the 2.8x which is a Heinz Klee.

I haven't tried the 5x out yet.  I can't wait.

 

Barlows are a bit Marmite,but I see nothing wrong with them as long as they are achromatic and good quality. Granted they do absorb some light from the final image which can be a bit of a issue for smaller aperture scopes but I'd rather use a 10mm eyepiece with a X2 Barlow than a 5mm eyepiece on its own,its a matter of personal preferance.

Some would say that a X5 Barlow is way over the top but I have one that was issued with my 30 year old TAL 2 6" Newtonian and it works remarkably well even with a 15mm Kellner giving a power of 315X.