Am I doing it wrong?

[wbm]

So I took some nice photos of a beautiful bright "star" a month ago. Turned out it was Jupiter. I was fascinated, enough to blow the "new lens" savings on a Nextstar 5SE and Celestron's eyepiece kit.

Sure enough, pointing the scope out of my East-facing livingroom window every (rare, clear) night showed me Jupiter and its moons in amazing detail.

Then I got some excellent (to me, anyway) views and photos of the moon over the past couple of weeks. I now feel like I know how to work the telescope properly (mechanically, at least) — the tracking is good enough for about 10s exposures with my camera (Canon 5D2, it slaughters lesser lenses). But...

My sister popped over for a visit last night, she saw the scope, I got quite excited (for a 41 year old ) enthusing about the view from it. Like a <insert-deity-of-choice>-send, the sky cleared and Jupiter popped up. "Wow" she said, when I got it in the 9mm EP. I felt pleased.

Then I felt the sky might stay clear long that I could *finally* drag it out the back garden. She helped me out with it (I live right in the city centre of Edinburgh on the 2nd floor of a tenement flat with a communal back garden) and we set it up.

I managed to properly align it for the first time (I don't really get enough of a view inside from any window to get more than one star clearly), tested it by slewing over to Polaris (one of the few stars I can find in the sky, thank you Baden-Powell) and all seemed good.

I had studied Sollarium before we went out, and had noted a list of things that I thought we'd be able to see (the light pollution here is terrible, I don't think Sollarium @ 9 for the LP quite ruined it enough as reality.)

But — nothing. Every time the scope slewed round to a sight, I got an amazingly blank bit of sky. I tried every EP from 4mm to 32mm on every sight the goto controller knew about, we were there for about 3 hours — the (naked eye) bright stars like Capella were super-sharp pin-points of light.

So, is it: my noobie technique (can, and am, willing to learn); lack of knowledge of the night sky (I've ordered "Turn left @ orion", will arrive tomorrow); a not-quite-good-enough [who'd've thought an American dice-game was a sweary here ] scope (please not); the LP & brightness of my back garden (I could set-up, change EPs, and take-down the scope without any extra light thanks to neighbour's windows); or a combination of all of the above?

It was quite a deflating experience to see absolutely nothing of note last night, Jupiter still looks cool tonight though. I realise that a 5" scope is not going to let me see distant galaxies, but surely I can see more than Jupiter with it? Do I have to get out of the city to see more? Are there any societies/clubs in Edinburgh where I can learn how to see properly (and organise out-of-town events — I don't drive so cannot easily find dark skies myself)?

Thanks for reading my lengthy waffle,

Ewan

[Astro_Baby]

Was the moon up ?- You say you could see bright stars so I assume you were GoToing these. Try putting in a bright star to the GoTo and see where the scope goes - does it find it ? Albireo is a good test because it will be obvious if you found it - if you get a blue coloured star with a dictinct red coloured star near it then you at least know your GoTo is working correctly and you haven't made some boo-boo in your set-up.

Even my 4" will show brighter galxies up like Andromeda BUT they will be very faint and with heavy light pollution perhaps invisible. Some of the Deep Sky Objects will be quite faint and you have to learn to 'see' them as they dont always stand out very obviously.

The 5 should show quite a bit. My 4" will easily resolve quite a few deep sky targets but only so long as its dark.

[wbm]

No, there was no moon — I gave up when it rose at about 11.30. The scope would slew accurately enough that Polaris and Capella were pretty much in the centre of the 25mm EP. Just nothing if I tried a Messier, for example — some of the clusters were a slightly-more-than-average-density bunch of stars, but that was it.

Ewan

[Astro_Baby]

Did you try Andromeda ? That should show up. The clusters you were seeing sound like open clusters and with a 5SE you may need a wider eyepieces to really see them well. Something around the 32mm mark would be good most likely.

Remember the scope you have has a quite narrow field of view so mya struggle with some of the open clusters.

You should be able to see Andromeda though for sure and quite a few others. There are plenty of 5SE owners and ex-owners on here so someone else may be able to advise what the views would be like. I mostly use(d) my 4SE for planets and the moon.

[wbm]

Andromeda was blocked by my flat from either the garden or flat. I started with the 32mm for every look, going shorter when I couldn't see anything after a minute or so. When I checked with Stellarium, I'd zoom into ~1 degree FOV to get a feel for the 25mm EP. I'm going to go and try it out the kitchen window (looks over the back garden) now to see if it is the glare from everyone's windows that is ruining the sight from the garden. I'll report back later, thanks for the help so far.

Ewan

[wbm]

Stuck my scope out the kitchen window. Synced to Vega and Altair. Pointed it at M57. WOW! Looks great through the 6mm EP.

So does anyone know of any star-parties or similar near Edinburgh, I need to get somewhere properly dark?

(Off back through to the kitchen to enjoy the ring a bit more...)

Ewan

[FraserClarke]

There is a central scotland group on here;

Stargazers Lounge - Central Scotland Astro

they probably have a good idea where to go (I left many years ago, before I was much into astronomy).

[ollypenrice]

Try googling the federation of astronomical societies for a list of UK clubs. It sounds like you are up and running but just need a dark site.

Olly

[stev74]

Hi Ewan,

I'm just outside Edinburgh and a member of an active observing group, check out the link in my signature for more info. We have dark sites scouted throughout Central Scotland and you'd be more than welcome to come a long on a clear night.

The best thing you could do would be to get out of the city, nothing beats dark skies for stargazing.

Cheers

[Astro_Baby]

Glad its started working for you - dark skies will make a huge difference.

Andromeda through my 8" reflector is only so so with even moderate light pollution. At SSP last year I had one of my best views of it with a 4" refractor and thats down to having a clear dark sky.

The Nexstar 5 should perform well - I dont usually do deep sky stuff with my 4SE as it was bought mainly for planets and as a grab and go. It does do andromeda fairly well, M13, M57, Pleaides, M42 - all the big stuff. Last year we had a very cold winter and M42 really showed up very well indeed in the 4SE.

Give it a bit of time and I am sure you will find the scope is a very capable wee beastie. Its also small enough to transport easily which is a boon for us city dwellers.

[wbm]

Thanks for all the advice folks. I had a great view from the darkness of my kitchen compared to the garden, I saw M27 and M57 -- LP is definitely the problem, though, as I'm limited in what I can see from my kitchen. I'll check out stev74's suggestion.

Meanwhile, at least I had some great views of the moon:

Canon 5D2 at prime focus of 5SE, ISO 100, 1/25s

Ewan