The Leo Trio: M65, M66, NGC3628

“I am using the stock eyepiece of this scope. I haven’t been able to observe galaxies, nebula and star clusters like I would love to. Perhaps I am doing something wrong?”

This is a comment somebody posted under my YouTube video “Omni XLT 150 Setup”

It seems this is a common theme with many people that purchase a new telescope. The problem here is that  if these people don’t find help fast that shiny new telescope will be doomed to the garage and dust for many years before somebody else gives it a shot. That budding astronomer will loose interest and move on to a new hobby. They will miss out on all the joy astronomy brings. We should all know our tiny place in the universe.

In this article I will cover how to get started with a brand new telescope. If you are just getting started in astronomy and need help with the basics make sure you read my article “How to Get Started In Astronomy.”

Well I admit I was one of those put-my-telescope-in-the-garage people, but luckily my persistence paid off. My excuse why I could not find anything was usually related to my location. I live in the city and was always disappointed because I could never find any galaxies. I then pointed the blame to my location for the reason why I was not finding anything. All I could really do was point my telescope at a star “yup another tiny bright dot.” I paid no attention to the fact that I did not know the major stars and constellations. I also had no clue about Messier objects let alone how to find them.

I think my early impressions were that you get a telescope and point it anywhere and you’d be able to see more than just stars. Now that I think about it, that’s pretty ridiculous, but that is how a lot of us start out. I did however manage to find Jupiter and Saturn somehow, and even a comet once!

Okay so now you have a new telescope and you are ready to try it out! Okay, if you really have the need to see something quick and fast look at the moon. It’s funny because the moon is the brightest thing to see in the night sky. You can see tons of detail and it’s the closest thing in the sky to us. But once you are a few months into astronomy chances are you’ll hardly ever really be caught in the dark with a telescope when a bright moon is out.  Why? Because the bright light impedes our view of faint objects.

So what else can you look at? Try to find the planets. Just look along the ecliptic (the path the sun follows in the sky) and look at the brightest things in that path. Chances are if there’s something that’s brighter than most stars, it could be a planet. Chances are that anytime during the year either Venus, Jupiter, Saturn or Mars will be visible in the night sky.

So now that you got too see a few things quick, it’s time to move on and this may take some time.  Perhaps the fastest way to get into the swing of things is to join your local astronomy club. There will be many members there that will be glad to show you what they can see and will even help you get started on your telescope.

But if you are a do it yourself-er like me, or are not so outgoing, you need to learn things on your own. There are several different kinds of telescope mounts and you need to know about and also what you have so you can learn how to set it up to find cool things.

The mount is the part the telescope tube (OTA optical tube assembly) sits on to move around and point to objects. There are basically two main mounts that you need to know.

alt-az mount

The simplest is called an altazimuth or alt-azimuth more commonly an alt-az. With this type of mount you simply setup your tripod and move your telescope in just about any direction. Your telescope moves up and down and from side to side. The big giant tubes that look like they sit of the floor fall in this category (dobsonians). Alt-az mounts are easy to setup. You pretty much plop them down and start viewing the skies.

EQ Mount

The other type of mount is an equatorial mount also know as an EQ mount. This type of mount needs to be setup up a certain way. You need to have the telescope aligned parallel to the Earth’s axis, more commonly know as polar aligned. Yes it sounds crazy and scientific but it’s not really that hard to do. Since this is a beginners guide I wont get too detailed here. First point your telescope North (if you live in the northern hemisphere). If you don’t know where North is get a compass, or just note where the sun set. That will be West for the most part. From there you can find north. There you are now done. Okay, since you are getting into astronomy you probably want more performance and precision than that. Most EQ telescopes will have a polar alignment guide hole in the center of the mount. This is to attach a polar finder scope. To get your scope aligned well enough to do visual astronomy you can simply find Polaris and center it in this hole. If you don’t have a polar finder scope or hole for one simply move our mount and align it by site. Now it’s important to remember here that you are not moving the part of the mount where the telescope attaches to and swings from. You are moving just the base of the mount. This position remains fixed once you put your telescope on here and does not move the rest of the night.

The main differences between the two mounts is that with an alt-az mount you can be setup in minutes and need no power. But with an EQ mount, it takes more time and patience to get going, but you can track objects better and if you have a motor on your mount, the objects will stay centered in the eyepiece without having to move the telescope around.

Now that you have your mount setup and ready to go, you are now ready to start finding galaxies right? Almost, it depends on where you are viewing.

There are several things to consider when trying to find DSOs (Deep Space Objects):

1) Location- where are you viewing, in the city or outside of town. The brighter it is outside the harder it is to find stuff. Although it is possible to see galaxies in the city, most are pretty faint. Try finding M31 Andromedia first as it’s the biggest and brightest galaxy (except our own). A decent sky to view is when you can see the Milk Way. If it’s that dark then you can find most bright messiers (messier objects are a group of 110 deep space objects that were cataloged by Charles Messier- they are probaby the easiest and funnest items to start hunting out).

2) have an idea of what it might look like. Most galaxies are hard to see regardless of what equipment you use. You need to train your eye and get used to seeing faint fuzzies. When we do outreaches with our telescope clubs a lot of the people don’t see the galaxy I have the eyepiece centered on. No it’s not going to be in color and you are not going to see tons of details. But with practice you will start to see more detail (averted vision). They are called faint fuzzies for a reason.

Telrad pointing to Lagoon Nebula (M8)

3) Know where to look. You have to know the major constellations and brightest stars before so you can navigate the Messiers and galaxies. I suggest getting a Telrad finder and find or make some Telrad maps. A Telrad is basically a 1X finder that projects a bull’s eye in the sky. You use these marks to jump from place to place. I can easily navigate with my Telrad and maps, better yet with my iPhone app. This to me is the most important purchase you can make for this and just about any scope!

Okay so now that you have a better understanding of what you can see, it’s time to dust off that scope and get it going once and for all. Yes you may not see colorful galaxies with tons of detail, but you did find it. And that’s something to be proud of. And if that does not impress you, just remember that the light from that galaxy that you are looking at is millions of years old!

I have been wanting to use my 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain to capture some of the smaller objects out there. I have tried using my finder/guide scope, but at about 200mm focal length it just doesn’t seem to guide a 2000mm scope very well. The last trip out I tried using an off axis guider with my Schmidt-Cassegrain with frustrating results. It took quite a while to even find a guide star and when I did it was so close to the edge of
the field  that it looked more like a half Moon than a star.  After thinking about it for a while (6 days I think it was) I
decided I was going to buy a refractor to use as my guide scope for the Schmidt-Cassegrain. I have looked into a few of the smaller shorter focal length refractors but kept going back to the 80mm ED Raptor by Stellarvue. Thursday night (02/18/2010) I decided I was going to buy the Raptor. The next morning I called my friend at Oceanside Photo and Telescope to get the ball rolling and have it shipped out. As luck would have it Captain Ippei just happen to show up there at OPT and agreed to deliver it to me on his way home and saving me the shipping cost (thanks capt.).

Packaging
My first thought, when I saw the box, was “wow that’s bigger than I thought it was going to be”. Up onto the tailgate of the good captains truck it went and I opened the box. Inside that box was a bunch of Styrofoam peanuts, foam rubber supporting material, some packing paper and another smaller cardboard box. I get the second box out and opened it up. Inside that was the soft carrying case with a nice, stitched in, Stellarvue logo staring at me through a clear plastic bag. I get that bag open and unzip the case to reveal my new, long awaited toy.

My first impression
Inside I found a nice looking, shiny, carbon fiber telescope with a 2″ gloss black two speed Crawford focuser with aluminum knobs. Around the scope was a beautifully machined clamshell ring with a short Vixen style dovetail bar on the bottom and a finder bracket attached to the top. Picking up the scope I notice the carbon fiber finish is nice and smooth with an even looking finish with no noticeable defects. I try out the focuser and it is buttery smooth with no backlash and, while holding it, no noticeable slop. The focuser is rotatable by loosening a single set screw near where the focuser meets the tube. It came with a 2″ to 1 1/4 adapter that is held into the focuser with a brass compression ring and three set screws. The focuser also has a graduated scale on the draw-tube to assist with initial focus. When I pulled off the front cover to have a look at the optics I noticed the metal ring on the front of the dew shield is a bit loose. It is screwed onto the dew-shield and when I tried to tighten it, it would not tighten up. I personally don’t think it is that big of a deal and won’t be sending the scope back for that. I think a dab or two of some kind of adhesive will work just fine. I will remove the dew-shield for this fix as I don’t want any out-gassing, of whatever I use, to settle onto the optics. Speaking of optics, they were spotless with no streaks, fingerprints or even dust on them and they had the usual slight greenish tint to them. Looking through the front of the telescope I could see the light baffles and the flat black interior of the tube. The dew-shield is also carbon fiber with the same looks and quality of the tube. It is a sliding dew-shield with metal rings on each end and the company name painted on each side of it. The front cell has some strips of felt attached to add resistance and yet allow the dew shield to slide. Sliding the dew-shield is also smooth and easy but will stay at any position you wish it to be at. Also included are some extra strips of felt in case more tension is needed. I am sure over time the original felt will reduce its ability to hold the dew-shield in place and some new strips will be needed. Also included inside the case were a shoulder strap for the case, a couple Allen wrenches for the clamshell, dovetail and for adjusting the tension on the focuser and the paperwork including a registration card. The foam inside the case has a number of cutouts that can be removed for storage of accessories such as a diagonal, finder and/or some eyepieces. There are 3 large round cutouts that will hold 2″ eyepieces, 2 small round ones for 1 1/4″ eyepieces and a small (approx 3″x3″) square cutout that fits my 1 1/4″ diagonal, 2 1/2 x Tele Vue  Powermate and camera adapter.

First light.
I don’t have very much experience with refractors and the only thing I have to “truly” compare it with is a Stellarvue 80mm Achromatic refractor I used to have. I put the Raptor on my Orion XHD Paragon-Plus tripod and brought it out to my driveway. I put in my 24mm (23X) Baader Hyperion eyepiece and aimed the telescope at the Moon. The moon was just about 1/2 full (or empty for you pessimists) and it was crisp and sharp. I did notice a very slight greenish blue ring around the moon. I am not sure if it is a slight case of Chromatic-aberration or if it was caused by the moisture in the air. We have had quite a bit of rain and there were a lot of clouds flying by so I will need to update this when I can confirm what it is. I then put in my 13mm (43X) Hyperion to bump the power up a bit more. Again, there was a slight greenish blue ring around the brighter part of the moon but was still barely visible. The color of the moon itself looked just fine with no sign of discoloration at all. I swung it over to M-42, The Orion Nebula, and it looked great for a small scope in a light polluted city. The stars were nice and small with the 4 stars of the Trapezium clearly visible and separated. I didn’t see any signs of Chromatic-aberration around the stars and when the weather gets better, I will pop in my 2 1/2 x Televue Powermate to push the scope to its upper magnification limits.

Photographing with the Raptor.
I installed my Nikon D-40 to the scope with my T-Ring and Ho-Tech Self Centering Camera adapter and took a few daytime shots. The telescope focused t about 1/2 the length of the draw tube with the camera directly in the focuser. All the images were crisp and clear, well, the ones that were in focus were. I took a number of shots of a variety of objects and I could not see any hint of CA in any of the images. I tried to take a couple pictures of some airplanes flying by but it is tough to focus on a moving object.

In closing this telescope so far seems like a very nice telescope. With the great optics, fantastic focuser and beautiful carbon fiber tube I think I will be keeping this scope for a long time. The only thing this scope needs is a large carbon fiber telescope to sit underneath it.

I have not been able to get out with the scopes in a while and when I do again I will update this review,

I got my first chance to image with the Raptor at the last Julian Starfest. Due to some user errors my weekend did not go quite as planed. The scope did show quite a bit of coma on the edge of the images I was able to get and a more experienced imager said it looked normal. I was using my Orion Starshoot Pro v1 color imager.  For my next trip I plan on using my Schmidt-Newtonian for imaging so I may not get a chance to take any shots through the raptor.

Again, I will update when I get some quality info to add.

Self portrait minutes after I saw the Delta II launch

I’ve always wanted to see the shuttle lift off in Florida, but that will probably never happen.  So this year I’ve been trying to spot a rocket launch here in California.

As you may know Vandenberg AFB is home to NASA’s west coast launch pad. And according to Brian Webb’s website www.spacearchive.info we should be able to see the rocket launches during the twilight and nighttime hours here in Southern California.

Well today I saw it and it was very cool! This was my third attempt at trying to see some artifact from the launch while at home here  in Lake Forest Orange County. There was a big difference this time: the launch was at dawn. All the other times were in the daylight, or at some other ungodly hour. I was not yet committed enough to this quest to justify going out in the middle of night to see something, since I did not even know if it was possible. The last time I tried was during the day, and I saw nothing. However somebody reported that they saw something up in the mountains in Big Bear California.

It was fairly clear with some fog/haze towards the horizon this morning. I started looking right around launch time (6:09 a.m.) and saw nothing as expected. Three  minutes went by and I looked around again and I noticed a faint helicopter looking light flying low from the Northwest area. I almost dismissed it, but I picked up my 10X50 binoculars just in case and pointed them that way. That’s when I saw the FIRE coming out of the ROCKET. Holy smokes it’s the rocket! No I did not see much detail, but I saw a small object with fire shooting out of the back of it. I was shocked. In fact I was not expecting to see that at all. I thought I would only see cool smoke plumes or something like that.

The rocket continued on a low fly by and all of a sudden the smoke plum started to show. The rocket was growing fainter as the smoke plum grew and became brighter. The smoke was totally visible to the naked eye at this time. It looked like a regular cloud as far as brightness, but in shape it was long and swirly. A few seconds later the smoke stopped and I could not really see the fire anymore, the rocket just looked like a satellite at this point. The smoke appeared to stop and then reappeared as another stage of the engine went off. I did not see fire, but saw more smoke. It then faded fast as it got lower to the SouthWest Horizon. It was at that time that I took out my camera and tripod and fired some shots of the smoke (click image below).

Ahhh that was a cool moment: to actually be able to see something lifting off to outer space!  I think what helped inspire me was a few months ago the shuttle was going to land here in the West. I heard or read somewhere that you might be able to hear the sonic boom. I set my watch and went outside. I told my neighboors that if they hear a loud boom that it was the shuttle crossing the sound barrier. They gave me some weird looks, but a few minutes later we all heard the boom and we all were excited.

So get out your binoculars, cameras and ears and do some astronomy. With just my eyes I have (and you can too) see the space station, the shuttle, a rocket launch, and Iridium Flares. Here are some resources that will guide the way:

http://www.spacearchive.info/index.htm

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Smoke from the Delta II launch 12-14-09

The dirt/sand surfaces found in many remote locations can make leveling an impossible task, or worse yet could cause your rig to slowly settle as you’re imaging regardless of if you walk close by or not.  To prevent such a thing from happening, you’re going to have to set your tripod legs on some sort of load spreading accessory.  Many companies make anti-vibration pads that would do the job but they can cost upwards of $100.  If you don’t want to spend money buying pre-made pads, your choices are to either deal with the sand, make your own pads or find some sort of suitable alternative.

This author decided that the easiest thing to do was to find some sort of suitable alternative.  A quick field trip to the local home improvement store proved to be the right choice.  It only took walking up and down a couple of aisles to find the perfect solution, banister rail caps.  They were the right size, light weight and the right price, $2.99 a piece x 3.

They came in handy during the last MBS astro trip out to Joshua Tree where it was sandy.  The tripod stayed in place without any slippage or sinkage and resulted in two successful nights of imaging.  Setting up was a lot easier this time around than the last trip to this same site.  This hobby, like many others tends to get quite expensive so any opportunity to save money is beneficial.  Sometimes it just requires a little bit of creativity!

Each subsequent frame started to slowly degrade from the edges in.  Nebulosity started showing where it shouldn’t be and stars were starting to diffract every which way just like the unprocessed shot to the left.

Since this was something I had never seen before, I kept taking a couple more shots until the last shot clearly showed the culprit…FROST!  It was like looking through a window in the dead of winter with the center of the frame still fairly clear but with crystal like spider veins on the edge of the frame.

M42 Frost, -5C

Well, for frost to form, two things need to be present.  A surface at or below freezing, and moisture.  Now, what could I do about the moisture?  Nothing at all.  I could do something with the temperature level of the CCD Chips though.  I was running at -5 degrees Celsius, so I decided to raise it to 0 degrees Celsius.  I know what you’re gonna ask, 0 degrees is still freezing so why not go to 5 degrees?  Well, the chip itself is at 0 degrees at the back surface but the front surface is just slightly warmer due to it being exposed to the air inside the camera body.

After letting it warm up for about 30 minutes, I started taking shots again and could clearly see a difference.  Most of the frost had melted and is evident in the stars at the left, bottom and right edges.  M42 itself is a bit sharper and the nebulosity isn’t artificially enhanced.  What is also evident is the amount of noise from the increase in temperature.  Eventually all of the frost disappeared and the rest of the shots I got that night were usable.

M42 Less Frost, 0C

After I got home, I immediately read over the manual and followed the direction on how to recharge the built in desiccant.  Fortunately SBIG’s design of the ST2000-XCM desiccant plug is very simple.  It simply screws out of the body, replace it with a dummy plug to prevent anything from getting in the camera and recharge it following the recommended procedure.

This happened almost after a year of use and in the fall, right after our monsoon season which makes sense since it was so humid.  So here are a few tips to follow to minimize the chance of your CCD Chip frosting over.

1. Store your camera in a cool, dry place
2. Throw a pack of silica gel or other type of desiccant inside your camera case when not in use
3. Recharge your desiccant plug (if applicable) on recommended intervals or before big imaging trips
4. If frost forms during an imaging session, set the temperature regulation to 0 degrees C or above

SBIG Desiccant Plug

Dummy Plug

I used a super long 60mm Tasco with a webcam mounted to it. It worked okay, but it wasn’t working so great with the clouds, and it did not help that I was imaging near the zenith. That meant that the webcam was near the ground. I spent so much time laying in the dirt that night that I had to come up better solution.

With a little online research on forums (www.cloudynights.com) I started reading about people using their finderscope as a guidescope with good results. This appealed to me because of its small size, wider field, and its easy mounting. Since I had all the necessary parts already, I decided to give it a try.

I had an 8X50 right angle Zhummel finderscope so I decided to give it a try. I was able to unscrew the mirror portion off of the finder, and also the piece that attaches that to the tube.

I had to figure out how to mount the webcam to the finderscope. I attached a .965 eyepiece barrell onto the webcam (from a Tasco-originally to use in a Tasco 60mm). It simply screwed on the existing webcam lens assembly. I added some epoxy to hold things down nice and tight.

I was able to unscrew the right angle mirror and viewfinder. Luckily the crosshairs are attached to this part.

I was trying to go as low budget as possible so I went to Home Depot and picked up two PVC parts. One piece fits snug inside the finderscope tube. The other piece fits snug inside of that and has an opening that a .965 eyepiece barrel fits into perfectly. I first did dry runs of everything.

Camera to adapter

Camera and adapter to sleeve

Now that I knew how I was going to mount everything I now could figure out where the webcam focused and position the webcam accordingly. Since I am able to adjust the objective lens by screwing it in and out, I will have some working room for focus. I wanted to position the webcam in the middle of where the objective lens would focus.

I had to sand down some edges to get the parts to fit perfectly. I like to take off as little material as possible. You can’t add material once you’ve gone too far. I sanded and tested, sanded and tested. It did not take too long since PVC sands easily.

Before I glued everything, I made sure I was able to focus. I also took a took a few shoots with the webcam to make sure the focus was right on.

After the glue dried I painted everything flat black with spray paint.

I took the oportunity here to make sure everything was clean before I did an instal. And since my tolarances were so tight, I had to do a little sanding after the paint dried. I was able to press fit the PVC adapter into the finderscope tube without having to add screws to hold it into place. No slop here!

Here’s the unit all together. A 1.25″ eyepiece cap fit the finderscope adapter perfectly.

Here is the completed product. I threaded three screws to really hold down the webcam. I also removed the plastic screws in the finder mount and changed them with metal ones. I also added a third screw next to the spring push to tighten everything down once a guide star is found.

Remember to get everything nice and tight, you want to rule out any slop (flexure) that can a ruin your guide setup.

On my first attempt a couple of weeks ago, I could not get it working. The calibration failed. I later realized that the telecope would have to move more when guiding because of the short focal ratio of the guidescope. A simple tweek in PHD from 750 to 1000 for the calibration step size was all that was needed to get this working.

Now I have a small light weight easy to setup guidescope! And it all fits in my Fat Max toolbox. No more laying on the ground trying to get a guide star.

This weekend I tested it again and I was always able to find a guidestar within the adjustments of the finder.

M44 Behive Cluster. 10 minute guided shot with a 8X40 finderscope and webcam.

Nikon D40

The answer is yes. You can take exposures much longer than 30 sec. but you have to do it manually. Set your Nikon DSLR (D40, D50, D60, D70, D80, D90) to manual (M) or shutter priority (S) and move your shutter speed to bulb. Now manually hold the shutter open for as long as you desire. You might find the use of a stop watch or timer helpful.

Hold the shutter open for 60 sec.,  for example, and release. The trouble with this is that you actually touching the camera will likely create enough shake to blur your image. So there are remote and hands free options available.

Nikon DSLR cameras that use an InfraRed trigger sensor can all use the Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control. This is a small remote control with one button. You press the button as if you were pressing the shutter release on your camera with the big difference of not actually touching the camera. This will eliminate your physical contact with the camera and any shake and blur caused by your touch.

The big challenge here is that you’re still holding the shutter open manually. In order to automate this process and set more accurate exposure times beyond 30 sec., you need to use a computer and some software to control your camera. Nikon offers Camera Control Pro, which allows you to control all of your camera’s settings from your computer.

For Astronomy.

There are also astronomy tools available for astro-photographers that will allow you to program and script shutter times longer than 30 sec., for less money.

Stark Labs writes software called DSLR Shutter, that will allow you to control shutter times past 30 sec., and repeat multiple exposures. DSLR Shutter is available for Free download from their site (however they’re always accepting donations.) DSLR Shutter will control the shutter only, allowing you to set multiple exposures of any time.
http://www.stark-labs.com/DSLR_Shutter.html

DSLR Shutter works great using an InfraRed USB Shutter Control unit. Shoestring Astronomy makes an IR remote that will connect to the USB port on your computer. The software works with the USB unit to trigger your camera’s shutter without having to touch the camera.

Shoestring Astronomy USB Shutter Control Adapter (DSUSB-IR1)

There are also IR cable solutions available from another manufacturer, Happ Griffin Astrocable and you can find them online at
http://www.hapg.org/astrocables.htm

When you combine the Shoestring Astronomy USB Shutter Control Adapter with the Stark-Labs DSLR Shutter software – you can shoot multiple exposures of any length – fully automated, without touching your camera and blurring images.

Another word of advice.

As you continue to take longer exposures you’ll notice your camera battery won’t perform as well as you’d hope. The longer exposures means longer recording times and more drain on your battery. You should always carry multiple, fully charged batteries or consider an AC adapter for your camera. Depending on which Nikon DLSR you use, you’ll most likely need a Nikon EH-5A AC Adapter. D40 and D40X users will need a second AC adapter part, Nikon EP-5 Power Supply Connector (see the links on this page). Once you have an AC adapter, your shutter times can extend beyond your expectations, allowing you full exposure freedom over time and space.

I use these tools for taking astronomy pictures – so please feel free to ask questions.

So unless you are mechanically inclined, stay with the stock focuser. (Here’s how I replaced mine:

http://tinyurl.com/br852t

That does not mean you can’t do photography though. You have several options available with a 1 1/4″ focuser.

1)Eyepiece
You can simply get a point and shoot digital camera and hold it over the eyepiece. I got my first astro photo this way. You will need to use a wide field eyepiece and hold the camera steady. Orion makes a cool adapter that lets you attach your camera to an eyepiece. You just attach the adapter to the eyepiece, and then attach the camera to the adapter. Make sure to use a shutter timer if your camera has one. Use manual settings if you got them on your camera. You’ll also want a small and light camera here.

2) WebcamYou can attach a webcam to the eyepiece and take images of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus and the Moon. Webcams are great for planetary shots. You pretty much just take a movie of the object and “stack” the images. The end results can be quite amazing. This is one of the preferred methods for imaging the planets. To do this remove the lens from a webcam, attach an empty film canister to the body of the webcam, and insert this into the eyepiece holder on your telescope. Now you capture the image with some software and stack the images from the AVI movie you captured.

3) Piggyback
If your telescope has a tracking motor you can attach a DSLR to the telescope. Celestron’s Omni XLT 150 has a bolt on the tube ring that allows for this. With this technique you can get amazing wide field photos. But your success depends on a decent polar alignment, focus and how dark your skies are. One of my best photos so far was using this technique. It’s also one of the most forgiving techniques. You will always get good results if you aim towards the Milky Way.
Give these techniques a try. There’s a lot to learn with these techniques that will carry over to other types of astrophography like using the manual settings on your camera, using your camera in the dark, and getting a good polar alignment.

Once you have mastered these things, you will be ready for the next step. But beware it’s not easy and it’s very contagious.

Can you see colors in the night sky? Not really. There are a couple of things that may show a slight hint of green like the Orion Nebula, but that is the exception.  The planets and the moon are always amazing to look at. Yes Mars be a little red speck but you can see the rings of Saturn and some of its moons with a small telescope. You can also see cloud divisions on Jupiter and even the Great Red Spot.  Venus can be seen as a crescent and Uranus can be seen as a bluish disk. There are many star clusters to view that show tens and hundreds, and sometimes thousands of stars grouped closely together. And let’s not forget our closest neighbor: the moon. Even with just binoculars there’s plenty to see: craters, ridges and great shadow detail. But no, even with the highest powered telescope on earth, you will not be able to see where the Apollo landed.

So how do you find all the cool things to look at? A good way is to first learn the North Star Polaris.  Once you find that you can use it as a guide to find other stars. That is called star hopping. You find one star that you know and hop to the other. Soon you’ll learn a few constellations and then you’ll know your way around the heavens.

To help guide you on your way I recommend some tools. My favorite book is probably “Nightwatch” by Terence Dickinson. It’s a great book that has easy to find targets with big seasonal charts that are easy to read in the dark with a red flashlight. The book can be used with or without a telescope and or binoculars. Also check out the free monthly sky maps found at http://www.skymaps.com/. You can download and print maps that will show you where and when to look for the major events in the sky for the current month. Another handy tool is a planisphere. It’s pretty much just a disc that you spin around to tell you where the constellations are each night at specific times for your location. You will however need to get one with your geographic latitude.

So what other things do you need to get started? I mentioned a book, and I mentioned a red flashlight (preserves your night vision while providing light). Another easy to use and not so expensive instrument are binoculars. With them you can view lots of detail on the moon and start hunting the Messier objects. The Messier objects are a collection of some of the best astronomical items to view, and most can be found with binoculars, and of course dark skies help.

So where do you go to see all these things? Well first you can look in your own backyard. Even if you live in a light polluted area, there are tons of things to view and learn: the moon, constellations, and planets. This is the best place to practice and learn the basics. But when you are ready to view fainter objects you’ll want to try to find darker skies. The mountains and dessert parks are usually great places. Just beware that campfires can hinder your vision. You’ll also want to try to go out during a new moon. The new moon is when the moon is not visible at night. This happens for about 1 week each month. A good guide to a decent dark sky is if you can see the Milky Way. That’s the faint band of light going from one side of the sky to the other.  By the way that’s our galaxy you are in and looking at!

Going out to a dark sky site alone is usually not fun, and is usually creepy. Of course it’s always safer to go with a group. Find your local astronomy club to find places where you can safely view. Astronomy magazine has a good search tool that helps find local clubs. The astronomy clubs will usually have public outreaches where they invite the local public to view the sky though their telescopes. Most astronomy clubs also have a club site that is usually outside of town in an area that is dark enough to view most celestial objects.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions at the outreaches and the “star parties.” As you’ll soon realize there are many things to learn; not just where things are at, but how to use your equipment. It’s seriously a never ending mission.

I show how to setup, balance and collimate this scope using a Baader Laser Collimator.