Best way of figuring a stars magnitude?

[Manok101]

One thing I love doing is random star hopping with my 33 mm eyepiece and I know the brighter well known stars like Bg and sirius, my question is for the unnamed dimmer stars, how would I determine magnitude?

[glowjet]

I think you need to compare your star, if its magnitude is not listed, with those in the vicinity for which magnitudes have already been recorded and make the best judgment you can, there is a formula and a method of undertaking the calculation of magnitudes by the Astronomical Soc who also cover the many variables and produce reports from the observations of its many members throughout the country, if I am not quite correct in this, I am sure somebody will sing out before long.

[brianb]

Many planetarium programs have reasonably accurate magnitudes for all the plotted objects ... just be careful which catalogue is used, Tycho is not too bad but Hipparchos & GSC can be out be a considerable margin.

Also note that listed mags are usually photoelectric V rather than visual. The two don't always correspond well.

[Manok101]

Reason I asked is because I've been trying to locate the lower horn of Taurus with my scope, I can find it with eyes and binocs but have the hardest time finding it looking through the scope, I thought that maybe this might help in figuring out which blue star I see is that cursed one.

[glowjet]

If you look in our bino section you will see a free star map program called TUBA, you can alter the star maps to suit your requirements, I recommend you have a play with it, if you increase the star mag from default to around mag 9 then go to Taurus you will see the star field surrounding the star you want, ( just off the M1 ) print this off and take it outside with you in a plastic sleeve, using your wide field eye piece try and match some of the star field in your scopes view, you should soon have some success. by what you have said about trying to find objects in your scopes view, do you not have a finder scope or an RDF?, these are invaluable tools to help point the scope to your target. HTH. Just on reflection its the British Astronomical Association who cover star mags, eclipsing binary predictions and variable stars, they have an office at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0DU.

[Manok101]

I've got a finderscope but for some reason looking through it is kind of blurry, and not much help with the fainter stuff. It works well with say the stars in Orion but not with this particular star or stars of this magnitude. What is an rdf?

[brianb]

I've got a finderscope but for some reason looking through it is kind of blurry

Probably needs focusing. Many finders focus at the objective end - loosen the lock ring and focus by screwing the whole objective cell further onto or off from the tube; retighten the lock ring when done. It's amazing how many people think that the Meade / Celestron / Skywatcher pattern finders are "fixed focus".

[brantuk]

rdf = red dot finder

[Manok101]

Probably needs focusing. Many finders focus at the objective end - loosen the lock ring and focus by screwing the whole objective cell further onto or off from the tube; retighten the lock ring when done. It's amazing how many people think that the Meade / Celestron / Skywatcher pattern finders are "fixed focus".

Is the default ep for the XT4.5 focusable?