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 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.