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[terryfrost]

Hello all,
I am relatively new to Astronomy and although of retirement age, I still work part time, but want to supplement my brain fodder by doing more with photography and astronomy.
After spending a few months in considering which direction to go
with astronomy, I came to the conclusion that for my budget, I could buy a 5" reflector or catadioptric with an alt-az GO TO mount. However, I decided I would be better in learning about star maps etc rather than pushing buttons so, I bought a 10" Dobsonian with no artificial aids !
I live in Skirlaugh, facing south and facing fields, so I do get some light pollution from Hull, but not too bad.
I enjoy looking around the stars, but am not very good at finding stars, galaxies etc.
Is it possible to get some advice, or attend a basic training course ?
Also, over the weekend, Mars was near to the full moon and although I could locate it without undue problem, it was just a small round fuzzly blob. I could not discern any features. Could this be due to the quality of the standard supplied super 10 mm lens ?
Any help and assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Terry Frost

[SlipperySquid]

Hiya Terry!
               First of all welcome!
I've got to make this post quick as I'm going to work in a bit so here goes!

I have only taken up the hobby myself in the last few months and it can be a bit of a steep learning curve! As to your wanting to learn the sky! I recomend you get your self the book "Turn left at Orion" which can be picked up for about £15 online and also download the program "Stellarium" for your pc! which can be found here!

http://www.stellarium.org/

once installed enter your location ( Kingston upon Hull is in there) and it gives you a view of the night sky in our area in realtime ( you have options to show constelations and names etc also galaxies). Great program and it's free!

Also as to Mars there are so many factors that can prevent good viewing ...including atmospheric conditions, also the telescope collimation! (If it's not in collimation you will not be able to get a good focus/contrast) and you really need high magnification to see it (I don't know what the focal length of your scope is?).


Sorry for the quick answer I'll try and expand o nthis tomorrow! Also if you get really stuck I could pop down and check your scope collimation and on a clear night point out some obvious targets!

But it boils down to searching the sky and learning it!

[snavekram]

Hello Terry,

Welcome to our forum and to a great hobby.

I would echo Slippery Squids comments.  "Turn left at Orion" is an excellent book.  Not only does it list good objects that you can realistically see with a smaller telescope it also gives great detail about the object and is written in an engaging style.  Its not just a list of targets and stats!

Hull libraries have a copy.  I borrowed it and after a few reads realised it was indispensable so I bought a copy.

Amazon sell this book (price is ~£20 - that seems a lot more than when I bought it 3 years ago - might be worth shopping around).  See
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0521781906/ref=sib_rdr_dp
Its worth looking because you can look at some of the pages of this book at Amazon.

As for the Mars view not sure.  If you look at a post in the images part of the forum ...
http://www.heras.org.uk/index.php?topic=545.0

... This looks like a good image of Mars but that telescope should give a better results but as Paul notes the seeing was not good so you get a boiled out image.  Remember that the images are highly processed and so always look better than with your eye at the scope but you can't beat seeing the object with your eye!

If you can try and join a local astronomical society.  They will have someone there who can run through a few checks with you.

Does anybody know of observing societies near Skirlaugh?

An interesting website is...
http://www.rocketroberts.com/astro/scopeview.htm

Which simulates images of Saturn through combinations of scopes and eyepieces.  I have a 12 inch dob and my view of Saturn even from my garden in Hull was at least as good as the one shown for the 11 inch and 400 mag.  I am sure the main gap in the ring is more distinct in mine (Cassini division).

One further point I would try and describe what you have seen via a record.  Some people like to write up on a computer and some like traditional paper.  It doesn't matter but, particularly if you can do it while observing, you start to look more deeply at an object and see a lot more.  It is very rewarding.

Hope you are still enjoying the hobby.


Cheers,
Mark

[flamencopaul]

Hi Terry,

Again, I echo the comments made in previous replies to your post. Perhaps get yourself a decent pair of 10x50 binoculars as they tend to give a clearer view than most finderscopes, and are useful for getting an overview of the locality in which you are searching for an object.

Living in Skirlaugh, your nearest Society is ERA in Beverley - there is a link to their website in the 'local/national societies' section of this website. They do a lot of traditional observing, finding objects by hand and eye.

If you want to get into some more technical imaging techniques, then BLAS based out at Brough is the place to go.

Paul.

[terryfrost]

Hi Mark and Paul,
That's really good advice from both of you and I appreciate your time.
I'll check up on a number of your suggestions and may contact Paul
The focal length of my 10" refractor is 1200 mm and I have 1.25" super 25 anf 10 mm lens.
Although Mars was fuzzy, the Moon appeared to be sharp when using the 10 mm lens.
I've ordered 'turn left at Orion'.
If this fog ever lifts and the clouds vanish, I'll be observing again to, hopefully, see if 'practice makes perfect' !!
Regards,
Terry

[flamencopaul]

Hi Terry,

If you want to check your collimation it's not difficult. On the next clear night, find a bright star that is as near to straight up as you can find, centre it and use your 10mm eyepiece - adjust it so that it is slightly out of focus and the star should become a circular pattern with a dark spot in the centre and concentric light and dark rings. You can find many articles on collimating newtonian reflectors on google - there is a good one here
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/diy/3306876.html
that you might want to have a look at.

Paul.

[snavekram]

Hi Terry,

I forgot to mention these websites..

http://www.oneminuteastronomer.com/

which is well written and serves to get you going with some objects to target plus lots of other useful tips and points.

and...

http://www.jodcast.net/

Which is a podcast from Manchester University on all sorts aspects of astronomy but it also includes a setion (available separately) "Whats in the sky" by Iain Morrison.  There is a text outline on the website too.

As you say "When the fog goes!".

Cheers,
Mark

[SlipperySquid]

Me again

Just another quicky! Don't want to teach you to suck egg's but the way of working out your magnification is simple, divide your focal length with the size of eyepiece!

So your 10mm is giving you 120x you could do with getting yourself a decent barlow lense which would give around 240x mag which should help you pull out a little detail on Mars if seeing conditions are good!

Highest useful magnification for your scope I'd say would be about 400x that would be a 5mm eyepiece barlowed but with high mag's comes a new set of problems! i.e. Tracking and very a very small hole you are looking through! etc

Try and find Saturn on the next clear night (Stellarium will help a lot!!) I find Mars just an orange blob and think filters may bring out some detail.

I managed too get my first glimpse of Saturn the other night and it was fantastic...I managed to see rings and moons (6" reflector at 120x) and upping the magnification to 240x didn't really improve the image greatly (atmospherics) but I was chuffed to bits!

Your 10mm and 25mm should give great views of Deep Sky objects! and you must swing your Dob to look at M42 in Orion as you will be blown away!

There's lots of easy targets to start on some better than others I would also invest in a cheap little constelation pocket guide (philips do a little one for about £3) as Turn left at orion mentions constellations but doesnt tell you where to look

Keep us informed of your progress and Clear Skies to you all!


Matt.

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