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!

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.