Atmospheric Conditions

These last few nights I've gotten some real lessons on the effect of atmosphere on all manner of things.

• Last night, I observed from the backyard; we live in town and there is a streetlight, though a dim one, that shines into the backyard. Light pollution has a terrible effect on observing - the comparison between the backyard and my site out in the country is profound. The site in the country still has some light pollution from towns one to two miles away. I could barely see the nebulosity in the Great Orion Nebula. I also had great difficulty finding Saturn, which is a .87 magnitude (pretty bright, supposedly).
• I've been having trouble splitting binary stars, but was successful tonight, with Sirius, this evening. Earlier this week, Sirius appeared to flicker and I'm certain this was because of a combination of moisture and turbulent conditions.
• Tonight was calm, about 35 degrees and I went to my site in the country. Best night so far. I think I found M79 up above Ainitak and was able to make out the Horsehead Nebula. I tried to find M78, below Lepus, but was unsuccessful. I really think I need a good skylight filter to find some of these nebulae. The moon is almost full, as well, and this provides its own light pollution.
• I also got a good look at Saturn, which was about 40 degrees off the eastern horizon. I was just able to make out the Cassini Division, using my 10 mm Plossl and new, 2x Barlow. I think a filter would have been a big help here.

Overall a very productive evening. Happy with my scope, happy with my new barlow.

My new scope - Initial costs to take up astronomy.

I've decided I picked the right scope for a first scope. I've now owned my Orion Skyquest XT8 for a little over a week and am perfectly happy with it. It is an 8" Dobsonian Reflector scope, and is depicted in my avatar picture. It cost $369, plus $60 shipping, plus $64 for a case for the optical tube assembly (OTA). The scope came with a laser collimator and two good ploessl eyepieces. So, about $500 to start. I've just purchased an eyepiece case for $30, including shipping, a decent filter set for $70 including shipping, and a 2X Barlow lens, for $47. I think this is all I should need for a long while to really go to town with this hobby. So, the hobby costs roughly $600 to start. I'd say that is pretty close to the minimum one should spend on this to start (though ove can argue that once could do without the filters and and Barlow). You can go up from there. If you get a comparable refractor, or Cassegraine, it will cost you probably a few hundred more. If you want a computerized mount and scope, you are talking not less than about $1200, not including filters and extra eyepieces. I have now seen spectacular views of the moon, numerous star clusters, Saturn (including the rings), Mars, at least two galaxies and lots of stars.

For me, this was the perfect starter scope. I wanted to learn my way around the sky and the way to do that is by reading about it and using star charts. Personally, I think for me, as a beginner, a computerized mount would have been a mistake.

The Orion Skyquest XT8 is a high quality scope, and very easy to work with. Orion also has excellent customer service. The views I have seen are unbelievable. The optics are simply fantastic.

I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Collimation Safety Tips

Collimation is the process of aligning the mirrors in a reflector telescope. They have a large mirror in the back, called a primary, and a small mirror that reflects into the eyepiece, called a secondary. I just learned some hard lessons:

1. Do not mess with the secondary mirror unless there is a real problem. Perfect is definitely the enemy of good enough.
2. Read your instructions carefully, if you decide you must collimate your secondary. Failure to do this has dire consequences.
3. It appears that most collimation issues can be resolved by adjusting the primary, which is much easier than adjusting the secondary.
I just finished about two hours of intense pain and suffering undoing what it took me about 15 seconds to mess up. This could have been avoided.
I am truly a rank amateur, so if you vets need to disabuse me of these lessons I've learned, please do. I never want to go through this again if I don't have to.

Later edit: Most important lesson: Watch the video on collimation at www.andysshotglass.com . I just watched it and fixed the scope. It's exactly collimated now.

Saturn and the Moon

Last night was a very clear night, and I headed out to my stargazing site. Had a sliver of a crescent moon, so, after getting the scope set up, that was my first target. I decided to have a look, even though the scope was not yet cooled down, just to get an idea of what I would see(I knew you were supposed to wait for the thing to cool down). I was able to get the moon into a sort of focus, but it was distorting, kind of like looking through a liquid - I'm guessing I was picking up heatwaves and heated air currents coming off the mirror as it cooled down. Eventually it settled in and settled down, as the scope cooled off. Incredible the detail I was able to see at both 48x and 120x.

From there I did some star gazing with my binos as I let my right eye re-adjust to the darkness (the moon is really bright). In the eastern sky, at about 12 degrees above the horizon, I saw an object I thought might be Saturn. Lo and behold, I was able to make out the rings at 48x and get much better definition at 120x, though I could not make out the Cassini division. I really need my barlow lens.

So far, I've found that manually tracking stuff (as one has to do with a Dobsonian mount), is pretty easy, and the more you use the scope, the more familiar with it you become, and the easier tracking becomes. Once you get used to right is left and left is right and up is down and down is up in the scope, its a snap. I got that down the very first night. I expect it will be a bit more of a challenge when I am able to achieve higher magnification, which means even smaller field of view.

I then started exploring around Orion; the view of M42 was the best I've seen so far. I then focused in on a double star system just to the left of and above Bellatrix and thought I observed some nebulosity around the brighter of the three stars in that grouping.

Overall a great night.

Stargazing with a friend

I took my friend out stargazing last night. Fortunately we are good friends, but I learned that for the fresh novice, this is not such a hot idea, not unless your friend also has a scope. As I was trying to find various deep sky object (DSO), my friend was trying to keep himself occupied, waiting for me to find something exciting to look at. This, in turn, increased my stress level and made it more difficult to find what the things we were looking for.

Lesson learned:
- Its better to stargaze alone, or with someone who has their own scope when you are a newbie amateur.
- Taking friends out is fine: 1) after you know your own scope, and 2) know your way around the sky.

Good Reference

One of my key references for stargazing is Terence Dickinson's "Night Watch". It contains everything a newbie astronomer needs to start this hobby and reduce frustrations at the same time. It has excellent star charts. I realized, upon re-reading my last post, that I've started to use astronomy jargon without explanation - I'll try to avoid that.

M42, which I mentioned in my last post, is a catalog name (Messier Object catalog) for the Great Orion Nebula. It can be found in the constellation Orion, just below the three stars that form Orion's belt. M42 is called the jewel in the sword of Orion. It is very easy to find and truly breathtaking.

First night out - 6 FEB 08

I just took my brand new 8" reflector out tonight and observed, among other things, Mars. The nice thing about taking this hobby up at the age of 52 is that I've acquired some patience over the years. I found Mars, but the resolution was not what I expected. However it was right where it was supposed to be, and clearly a disc at 48x and 120x. It was washed out and a little fuzzy, but there seems to be a bit of haze here, and I attributed it to that. Folks on astronomy.com forum, afterwards, helped me to understand a lot of what I observed. For example, to get decent planetary detail, one needs at least 200 power, which I will be able to get easily by purchasing a barlow lens. Also, a red or orange filter helps bring out Martian detail. The people who subscribe to that forum have a wealth of experience that they are more than happy to share.

M42 was simply amazing, I am flabbergasted and amazed and full of wonder.

Lessons learned tonight: need a barlow and some filters and I should be good to go for years. Also learned that an 8" Dobsonian is a fantastic first scope.

Arrival of my first scope: Orion Skyquest XT8

Just got my Orion Skyquest XT 8 in the mail from Orion. This is my first real scope. I am in Stuttgart, so I ordered it to be delivered by USPS through the APO (that's Army Post Office, not Apochromatic in this case). I ordered it on 24 JAN and it arrived today 5 FEB 08, having travelled from California. Fairly speedy in my view. It was superbly packed and arrived in pristine condition. I carefully checked the exterior of the boxes and opened it carefully. Mirrors were good to go. I comes with a laser collimator and, after checking the secondary mirror (good-to-go), had it collimated in under a minute (primary needed a couple of tweaks). Really fast. It took me an hour to assemble it. The instructions were exactly right on. I did not hit any glitches. Nice action on both altitude and azimuth adjustments. Appears to be superb quality as well. Aligned the nice 9x50 finders scope very easily. Eyepieces seem to be good quality as well. Now if the clouds would only clear....

Why an Astro Lessons BLOG

There several good forums that are good for learning about astronomy, but it is hard to find a thread on them that deals with the lessons we newbies learn about our telescopes and stargazing. I've only been out twice, but I'm learning important lessons each time I go out. The purpose of this blog is to record those lessons and share them with anyone who cares.