Relative images of different objects/magnifications

[tiredboy]

I'm very new to astronomy (although I beat stargazing live by a few weeks!).

Is there a website (or book) that gives relative images of different things to look at? For example, I've managed to see Jupiter with a slight banding and four moons but I don't know what I'm expected to see when I look at other objects. I don't want to look for Saturn expecting to see clearly defined rings and then be disapointed if I can't or conversely, not look for pretty nebulae if I would be able to see them clearly. What I want is something that says something along the lines of "if xx looks like this, yy should look like this". An alternative would be a book/site that says here is what xx looks like at 10x,50x,100x, etc.

It might be too much to ask for but if you don't ask you don't get!

Thanks in advance.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Hi tiredboy.

You should check this out. It gives you the apparent size of objects when viewed through your scope. Just enter in all your scopes details and voila !!!!!!!

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

[Ant]

I would have a look at the sketching section here on SGL - this will give you a fairly good idea of what you'll see through a scope.

Cheers

Ant

[tiredboy]

Hi tiredboy.

You should check this out. It gives you the apparent size of objects when viewed through your scope. Just enter in all your scopes details and voila !!!!!!!

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

That is fantastic. Thanks. Exactly what I was looking for. Another site bookmarked!

[John]

That is fantastic. Thanks. Exactly what I was looking for. Another site bookmarked!

Great site for the planets but the colour and size of the deep sky objects is exaggerated in some cases. If M42 looked like that with my 6" refractor I'd be living on top of a vocano in Hawaii I think !.

[Rols]

if i can see M42 near half aswell as that i will be jumping for the stars! seriously if i can get me an image of anything near that image i will be posting pics till the heavens fall!

[tiredboy]

Oh well, I was excited for a while! At least I know what to expect when I look for Saturn. Jupiter seems fairly accurate based on what I see and what it says I should see.

[brantuk]

A good book to get would be Turn Left at Orion. It shows what you can expect to see and explains what you're looking at and often "how" to look at it.

Half the challenge is in finding stuff and understanding what you're seeing. Many objects can be spectacular, including Saturn.

Bear in mind if you're using supplied ep's with a new scope you might not be getting the best views - also be sure the seeing is good, your scope is cooled down. collimation is good, etc. These things can make big differences to what is viewed

[LukeSkywatcher]

A good book to get would be Turn Left at Orion. It shows what you can expect to see and explains what you're looking at and often "how" to look at it.

Half the challenge is in finding stuff and understanding what you're seeing. Many objects can be spectacular, including Saturn.

Bear in mind if you're using supplied ep's with a new scope you might not be getting the best views - also be sure the seeing is good, your scope is cooled down. collimation is good, etc. These things can make big differences to what is viewed

Excellent points there. Just because some media source says you will see an object as such and such.........take it with a pinch of salt.

I found the link i posted to be pretty accurate with regards to the moon and Jupiter and some of the DSO i have seen.

The program says that i will not see Saturn with any of my scopes not even when imaging or using a 2x Barlow.

Haha yeah right.