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i an a complete beginner. Just bought skywatcher explorers 150p and tried to find bodes last night. What should i expect to see? What eyepiece should i use to find it 25mm 10mm with or without 2x barlow ? Also when aligning to polaris what should dec degree be on? Nightmare when looking through scope cos everything is mirrored. And millions more stars to lord your way. Help@

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good morning , i to have been having problems finding bodes , i use stellarium and the book : turn left at orion but i still have not found it yet they say its one of the easiest,i don't think so.i know it's not much help but you are not the only.good luck stu.

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Hi Andy,

You might be better trying to find a few easier targets first, some nice open clusters then look for some Globulars like M3, M13 and M92 which will help you gain experience is searching for fainter objects and reward you with some stunning sights.

M81/M82 aren't the easiest to find when you've just started out, they aren't close to any obvious reference stars and in a 150mm scope will appear as quite small and faint, you could easily miss them.

This doesn't help finding them, but once you've seen them once and gain experience in looking for faint fuzzies you will find them much much easier the next time.

I think M51 is easier to find as you can use Alkaid in the Plough as a reference point, but again it will be small and faint.

As far as which eyepiece to use I'd stick with your unbarlowed 25mm.

HTH, Rob.

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i am a complete beginner. Just bought skywatcher explorer 150p and tried to find bodes last night. What should i expect to see? What eyepiece should i use to find it 25mm 10mm with or without 2x barlow ? Also when aligning to polaris what should dec degree be on? Nightmare when looking through scope cos everything is mirrored. And millions more stars to lose your way. Help!

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You should see a barely visible white smudge on another wise black (or where I am grey) sky.

May I ask how you are trying to find them. If you are using the setting circles on the mount then forget about it as they are useless.

Try this it may help you get a feel for the sky Stellarium then when you are out observing get roughly where you need to be and then use your finder scope and the 25mm eye piece. Once found you can always barlow the 25mm to increase the image size slightly.

SPACEBOY

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I am quite new to the game but have managed to see quite a few DSO's with my 130p scope. You have to look really carefully as you can easy miss some of them. I would say that M94 is quite easy to find and very high in the sky at the moment. then down from there you can get M3 that is like a blurry star under the 25mm the 10mm makes it look bigger.

I still can't get my head around M94. Turn Left at Orion book states that it is 15 million light years away and 30,000 L.years across. WOW

M36 M37 M38 are also high up in the sky now but get lower as the night progresses.

You need dark steady skies and a keen eye at low mag to notice some of them. All your looking for is a fuzzy blur that is quite small. Believe me once you have found one or two you get the hang of what to look for.

M81 M82 are very hard to spot and in my scope quite disappointing.

I suggest M3 an M94. Use Stellarium on your PC to get an idea of where to look. You can also go into tools in the program and look at navigation there is a tick box somewhere that then gives you the ability to (using the toolbar in stellarium) flip the image left to right and up side down to mirror what you see through your scope.

To answer your question further, start using the 25mm to locate an object, then you can increase the magnification. 10mm. A barlow on DSO's makes them worse! not better.

If you have a red dot finder then just point that somewhere near where you think it is and trail and error will do the rest. I have red dot finder and dont really get on with it I would prefer a finderscope.

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I agree globular and open cluster's are easier targets, open clusters being visible in the finderscope. I found Bode's earlier in the year and is comparatively bright, but viewing last night it was nearly directly above and it was very difficult to get the scope to where I wanted it, so I'll go back to it when it is better positioned.

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It can be a bit tricky when directly overhead but M81/M82 are the brightest galaxies when you do find them (apart from M31). I always try and identify the area I need in bins first then try the finderscope star hoping using the bins as a quick reference. When I had a 150p I changed the finderscope for a 9x50 after a while to make life easier. Good luck.

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Disagree with the suggestion that you ditch M81/82 in favour of M51. As BISH says, M81/82 are about as bright as they get and much easier to find than M51. They are a bit tricky to find in terms of not being next to any particularly bright stars, though I was able to see them with a 150p in a fairly polluted northern sky. I'd suggest you try with your 25mm first. Get yourself a star map of the area and you should get them. Good luck!

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Yeah i was having trouble directing the scope straight up. I`ll have another go tonight, I`m gonna drive to the middle of nowhere where it pitch black and try then.

Thanks for all the feedback.

also when aligning the scope to polaris where should the dec ring read? when its on 90 the scope is not completely vertical is this right?

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Yes it should read 90

and no it shouldn't be straight up

it would only be straight up if you were at the north pole, and we are south of the pole around the spherical earth so the angle changes. Its dead level with ground at the equator!

I'm sure if you picture you self standing on a globe you'll get it.

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How did you get on Andy?

I went out with my manual EQ5 and 120 refractor last night and gave bodes ago. I must admit after becoming accustomed to using my GOTO mount or heading out to dark skies I often forget how hard it is to find things under light pollution. I have the luxury of already knowing what to look out for so did find them after 5 minutes. Felt a lot longer when on my hands and knees on a cold damp floor trying looking straight up through the finder. :D

I would recommend a telrad Red dot finder to help you find objects Telrad Red Dot Finder There are various programs including stellarium that super impose the reticle over star maps to be printed out and this helps align the objects in view.

SPACEBOY

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If you manage to go to a dark site you will be able to spot them in 10x50 bins. Makes it easier once you know where they are.

Second that! We went to Wales this weekend and I took my 15x70's. A simple pair of binoculars and dark skies I could easily make out faint galaxies that would usually elude me under LP skies. Although great in the 15x70's I couldn't help but wish I'd kept my Skymax 127 :D

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To the OP, as a fellow newbie I can recommend Turn Left at Orion (or other similar books).

Open the page to what you want to find, use your lowest mag EP, point the scope to the area of sky outlined in the book, then move to the Finder Scope again following the instructions and diagram in the book, then same again for the 'In the telescope' bit.

TLAO talks you through each step and it's all about looking for the guiding stars and their patterns. It's a case of practice makes perfect and you do get a rewarding sense of achievement.

TLAO also tells you interesting info about what you are looking at along with the best mag EP, so you get a lot more than 'oh that's a nice pattern of stars' .

Throw in some beginners luck of finding objects straightaway, which is always worth a smile, and you will find the whole experience less frustrating and a lot more fun.

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as a complete beginner myself id sugest sticking to objects that are next to easy to find and identify stars, i popped my DSO cherry last using this method, id been looking for m109 for about an hour and eventually got very frustrated and gave up. Using Skywalk on my phone i looked for something easy to find and decided to look for M57, just below vega, easy to find star for a complete noob like me, there are 4 stars below it that form the rectangle of Lyra and directly between two of them,sheliak and sulafat, is M57, its about midway between the 2 but slightly closer to sheliak, i aimed my scope and there it was in my eyepiece, i could only make out the general shape but it was quite a feeling looking at something so far away, now all i need is a much bigger scope and a house in the middle of dartmoor and ill be happy.

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Hi, as a beginner, I had a terrible time finding dsos.

I started off with a star chart (Sky at Night mag.) laying back on the grass until I could find all the obvious constellations.

Then I ditched the optical finder and use a Telrad finder. This with the Telrad finder charts on the net will let you find Dsos. However;

1.0 You need dark skies, moon in the sky is a big no no.Even with lp you should see the brightest dsos.

2.0 You need to get your eyes dark adapted for a least 20 minutes. Use a dull red torch ( rear bike light) won't muck this up.

3.0 You need patience. Try moving the field of view slightly and averted vision to see if what you got is there.

4.0 Expect to see fuzzy patches, not the Hubble pictures.There's plenty clusters to see that are excellent.

5.0 Don't go mad and spend a load of dosh in the hope of better things.

Best wishes and clear skies.

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as a complete beginner myself id sugest sticking to objects that are next to easy to find and identify stars, i popped my DSO cherry last using this method, id been looking for m109 for about an hour and eventually got very frustrated and gave up. Using Skywalk on my phone i looked for something easy to find and decided to look for M57, just below vega, easy to find star for a complete noob like me, there are 4 stars below it that form the rectangle of Lyra and directly between two of them,sheliak and sulafat, is M57, its about midway between the 2 but slightly closer to sheliak, i aimed my scope and there it was in my eyepiece, i could only make out the general shape but it was quite a feeling looking at something so far away, now all i need is a much bigger scope and a house in the middle of dartmoor and ill be happy.

With all mod cons, join the Que, a copy of The Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders would no go amiss, there is a detailed review on the forum and it is highly recommended, to assist in finding all M series DSO, many NGC and others, I would not be without my copy :)

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