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Waaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh

Chubster

By Chubster
in The Astro Lounge

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Chubster

Chubster

Posted
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HELP............managed to get out tonight for a bit of seeing.......saw jupiter......managed to make out of few cloud bands :D but she was hiding behind the usual tree :x (must buy a chainsaw!) so wasnt brilliant.......

Then i thought id try and scan a for a few of the M No's in and around Major and Bootes.......NOTHING :tearyeyed: Not even something that looked fuzzy. What am i doing wrong ? What can i actually expect to see with my scope and supplied 25mm eyepiece. LP is quite bad......ie neighbours bedroom lights right above me head...

Going to a nice dark site down the road for a couple of weeks soon, so m ay have better luck there....but any pointers from you dso gurus would be appreciated

Adrian

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John

John

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It's really difficult to descibe how DSO's look through the eyepiece, especially the fainter ones. I would pick a few of the brighter and more distinctive ones such as M13 in Hercules (globular cluster) perhaps M81 and M82 galaxies in Ursa Major and practice on those. Fainter objects like M51 (the whirlpool galaxy) and M97 (the owl nebula) can certainly be seen in your scope but will not jump out at you - in fact to start with you sort of "suspect" that you are looking at them and then they gradually become more distinct as your eye relaxes . If you try to look too hard they can dissapear - try looking at the object out of the corner of your eye - this is called averted vision and can help see faint objects a little better. Another trick is, once you have something in the eyepiece, increase the magnification a little - I usually try going from a 32mm eyepiece to a 25mm - this has the effect of darkening the background sky which makes the faint object stand out a little more.

I'm not a DSO guru by the way - these are just things that seem to work for me and others.

I hope that helps a little - keep on trying - the more you look, the more you see !!

John,

North Somerset.

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GazOC

GazOC

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chubster :D,

Light pollution is a big problem with even the brighter galaxies, they are pretty hard, if not impossible, to spot. You can be pointed right at something and not see it, some of the guys on the forum use a light pollution filter and seem to like it.

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Basicly you count how many stars you can see in a specific area of sky. do a google search on "measuring limiting magnitude" there are plenty of guides. More roughly use a starchart that has magnitudes on it and see which stars you can see and which you can't. For example i can't see any of cancer in my mag 4 skies.

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) is a good constellation to check for limiting magnitude. Watch for a while to see which stars in the constellation you can see with your eye, then compare that to a star chart to see which of those stars is the dimmest. The number for that star will be a good aproximation of your limiting magnitude. I can see only Polaris, and the two stars at the end of the dipper. Only on an exceptional night can I see more. My skies are around Mag 3 to 3.5.

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) is a good constellation to check for limiting magnitude. Watch for a while to see which stars in the constellation you can see with your eye, then compare that to a star chart to see which of those stars is the dimmest. The number for that star will be a good aproximation of your limiting magnitude. I can see only Polaris, and the two stars at the end of the dipper. Only on an exceptional night can I see more. My skies are around Mag 3 to 3.5.

And i thought I had light pollution!! I feel your pain WH

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