Advice Please

[Craig231]

Hello, i have a skywatcher 250xp telescope:

D=254mm F=1200mm

I have had this telescope a couple of years now and have only used it to look at that planets. I wanted to take things further now and see some deep sky objects.

If anyone could give me any advice on my telescope and how to get around to finding these deep sky objects would be much appreciated.

Thank you

[rowan46]

hello craig welcome to sgl this is a planetarium suite I hope it helps. once youve downloaded it input your time, date and position and it will show you whats in the sky above you various settings will show you what you need. its free by the way. Stellarium. also if you get a telrad finder for your scope you can download maps from the internet which will show you how to navigate using it. There is also A book called turn left at orion which will teach you how to starhop. hope that helps

[Craig231]

Ok thanks alot, i will have a look for these now. I buy the sky at night magazine and have a couple of apps on my phone, But it just seems so difficult to understand being a beginner.

[NGC 1502]

If at all possible, joining an astronomy club is a good idea. Most are friendly

and helpful. There's nothing to beat meeting like minded folk face to face.

Regards, Ed.

[themos]

S@N magazine have very good monthly guides on what to look at and they offer lots of advice on how to "hunt" each target down. I suppose without a GoTo mount, you will have to learn a bit about the constellations and the basic celestial geometry stuff. Stellarium is great for practising!

[Capricorn]

If you get a book, I tend to use the monthly sky guide, they give a diagram of the constellations. In the one I have each constellation has marked on it the DSO's (Messier objects usually) that are in the constellation.

The Plough, easy to find, has 3 DSO close to either of the 2 stars that form the base of the pan. If you put a long focal oength EP in the scope, get the "left hand" one centred then you should easily see M109. It is sort of right next to it. The "right hand" star has M108 and M97 close to it.

Thats 3 that I bet you cannot miss. Orion nebula - big and bright and actually 4 DSO's in 1 sort of thing. M42, M43, NGC 1977, NGC 1981 (starting from the bottom and working up).

Several books will supply similar information. Start out with the ones that are easy to get in view.

[swamp thing]

Hi Craig

Can't help you with computer based stuff but i found that Nortons star atlas helpful when i was starting out in DSO. I also found a book called star hopping by Robert Garfinkle very useful for techniques.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards Steve

[nightfisher]

stellarium is a great thing, another tip is to use binoculars to locate a dso, then go for it with scope

[msinclairinork]

I always advise a Telrad Finder, as since I got mine, finding targets was to easy! There are free Telrad finder charts availble of the internet which give you a great sense of scale.

I would say these finders come highly recomended!

HTH

Michael

[brantuk]

For locating stuff you can't beat Stellarium and/or Sky At Night center pages as mentioned above.

Start with the constellation shapes - learn what's up monthly - most dso's can be found near to one of the contellation main stars - or just a few hops away.

Orion constellation is up right now - learn the shape - then find M42 (orion Nebula) in the "sword" part. Should be easy cos it's a naked eye object