Urban Astronomy II

[odysseus145]

Since Uranus and Neptune are visible in the evenings, I was wondering how they would appear through my Orion XT8. I have 25mm and 10mm Plossl eyepieces. Are either visible to the naked eye? Btw, since I live in south Louisiana the humidity and cloud cover persist through much of the summer, so I won't be able to do any good observing untill fall.<br />Thanks for any help <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[odysseus145]

I have another question. I read in the manual for my XT8 that it would not be very useful for photography, since it cannot be motor driven. Is there any way to photograph planet or deep sky objects without a motor? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nevers]

Hi Odysseus -<br /><br />Uranus MAY be visible to the naked eye in dark, perfect skies. It's apparent magnitude is 5.74 and pushing the envelope. You won't be able to see Neptune at magnitude 7.83. However, both are certainly visible in a finderscope. In your 8" Dob, you could possibly see both of them at high power as a small discs. Uranus will be very yellow and Neptune blue. They're nothing really exciting to look at but should be done to get it out of the way. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Photographing with Dobs can be done only on the very brightest of objects (i.e. Moon and Planets, maybe a few of the brightest DSO's) without tracking. They won't be as good but it can be done...I know, I've tried. (See pix at my site if you want)<br /><br />Good luck to ya and keep us posted!

 

[thalion]

Though I've only observed Uranus through binoculars (though I think I may have bagged it with my 60 mm once), it should be easy to find in your finder. In an 8", 100-150x should be more than enough to resolve it as a disk. Neptune will probably be considerably more difficult to find and resolve, perhaps needing a minimum of 200x. That said, you'll probably be able to catch Triton at high power, and maybe a couple of Uranus's moons as well.<br /><br />Happy hunting! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[odysseus145]

Thanks for the help, but unfortunatly I will not even be able to attempt to observe due to the weather until it cools down. As soon as it does I'll try <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nevers]

Hi Odysseus -<br /><br />What do you mean "cools down"? It's not even 9pm and it's still 95 degrees here. Oh wait...ok, I see: your in Lousianna. It's probably very humid too...yuck. And I'll bet you got mosquito's too!

 

[nevers]

I'll have to second that motion!

 

[odysseus145]

<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> I wish I could say I made it up, but here's where I got it.<br /><br />http://www.awaymessages.com/<br /><br />And mosquitos ARE everywhere. I regularly pass by trucks spraying the ditches for them, but it doesn't seem to help very much. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[ktkrus]

I know how you feel about the bugs and humidity!! I haven't been able to take my scope out in about 2 months. It has been too humid and rainy. If it wasn't for NEVERS's pictures, I wouldn't believe stars still existed!

 

[odysseus145]

Thanks NEVERS! Keep up the good work <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nevers]

Breaking News:<br /><br />My neighbors to the south cut down a couple of their trees! I'm <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /> for the trees but very <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> that now I'll have a whole section of the sky that was in the past: obstructed.

 

[nevers]

Hi TaaP -<br /><br />I like the "stealthy" thing! Have you thought about maybe inviting your neighbors to have a look through your 'scope? Maybe that would convince them to deactivate it durning the hours your observing. ????????<br /><br />Neighbors lights are another reason I like tarps. I've errected some tall poles in my backyard with hooks screwed into them: when I observe I hang the tarps from the hooks and block out all the light. Well...most of it anyway. Or, you could get a BB gun...

 

[nevers]

I did some more observing last night; mostly trying to take pix. I've already gone through the "Urban List" for the most part with only about 7 objects left. For that, I'll find them manually and not use the "GoTo".<br /><br />I've been watching the Eastern horizon waiting for what is probably the best "Urban" target: M42 - The Great Orion Nebula. Last night it got high enough to attempt a picture of it. This picture is while it's probably only 20 degrees above the horizon and I'm looking through a fair amount of skyglow from downtown. Anyway, here it is. I also took a picture of the Saturn Nebula in Aquarius and M103 in Cassiopeia. They're posted at my website in the DSO Astrophotography section if you care to take a look.

 

[nevers]

Here's another that I did tonight: It's the "Blinking" Nebula in Cygnus. This object can be a challenge because it is so small and it kind of gets lost in the starfield, but once you find it, it will be obvious. If you want my "directions" on how to find it, just let me know.

 

[nevers]

...and while I'm at it, here is Polaris split. This double star is one of the objects on the "Urban List". It's not really much of a picture but only two of my 'scopes will split the double and I thought somebody might want to see it. I'd be interested to know what other 'scopes will split it. My 4.5", 5" & 10" Reflectors will not split it and neither will my 3.9" Refractor: at any power. The 16" Reflector however will split it very cleanly @ 90x. This picture was taken through the f/9.5 5" Refractor with a minus violet filter. Without the filter the double is split visually but will not split photographically unless the filter is added to the EP.

 

[nevers]

Ok, pictures not up yet so I might as well post another one I just did. It's NGC 7027: a Planetary Nebula in Cygnus. Hmmm...I wonder how many more I can fit in here before the night ends? Any suggestions? I'll check back in a bit...

 

[nevers]

It's daylight now but I managed to do two more. The first one is NGC 40 in Cepheus. It's a Planetary Nebula that is not on the "Urban List": however, I guess it should be! It was barely visible at 50x without any filters. I was having luck with the planetaries so I thought I'd give this one a try...

 

[nevers]

...And the last one for the night and probably a couple of weeks is NGC 7662. It's another Planetary Nebula and is located in Andromeda. It's nickname is "The Blue Snowball". It is an urban object and again, no filter was used to see it visually or photographically.

 

[nevers]

Thanks c_lou...! I get discouraged when I look at other pictures taken with CCD cameras and with bigger 'scopes but then I have to remind myself: my main goal is to show people (especially those who are just starting out in astronomy) what they can realistically expect to see from a 4" - 10" telescope. These last ones (and probably many more to come) will be from my 5" Refractor.<br /><br />Thanks again! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[nevers]

Because it costs too much to race in NASCAR?

 

[nacnud]

Something I've seem on the sky at night on a couple of occasions that might be worth considering is a normal web cam. Although the quality of individual frames it not very good by selecting only the best frames from a large number and adding them all together they managed to get some very nice images. All with a £30 webcam. Here is a page with more info about this technique Webcam Mars Picture [handsonuniverse.org].

 

[nevers]

Hi TaaP -<br /><br />Thanks! About the camera...I'm gonna have to confess something: I know little about them. The camera I have was a gift from a friend and I had no intentions of using it for astrophotography. But, Orion had the SteadyPix camera mount and I saw that other people were doing it with this or that camera and so I thought I'd try mine out. I know very little about cameras and it was trial and error before I started getting close to having decent results. By decent, I mean by my standards. The pictures I want to take are pictures of what I think the object looks like through a small - medium sized telescope. Not the pictures you see taken with film or super expensive DSLR cameras or CCD which is even superer expensiver. But anyway, I'm not a good person to ask about cameras. Mine was about $800 and not designed with astronomy in mind.<br /><br />To take the longer exposures (yes, 15 seconds is not long but I take up to 28 images of the same object) you will need an equatorial mounted telescope. Most of the computerized 'scopes are on GEM's (German Equatorial Mount) but some are not. If you have one like that you will need what they call a "wedge". Yes, you can take pix of the Moon, Planets and bright nebula through a non-tracked 'scope. But you will still need to take multiple shots and then stack them with a stacking program like RegiStax or AstroStack.<br /><br />You can take pix of the open sky with a digital camera. Of course, the same applies: tracked objects and multiple shots, stacked will give you better results.<br /><br />I'm nowhere what I would call and astrophotographer: I'm just a dude with some half-way decent equipment trying to squeeze the best results possible out of it. And "yes" nacnud is right, I've seem some pretty amazing photos taken with webcams. But they to need to be stacked.

 

[rocketbodypart]

New poster alert!!<br /><br />Hi everybody. I want to say hello and hope you welcome me into your group of people with similiar interests. <br /><br />I am from New York City- the suburbs of Long Island to be exact. Yeah, light pollution in other words. <br /><br />My friend and I have this little Astronomy Club- one that gets us together on any given clear night- to observe the universe through his very nice 8" Dobson. <br /><br />Moving forward, what makes this hobby great, is that we can all share our sightings, observations, etc for the same clusters, nebulae, galaxies and so on. <br /><br />We respect the stars, and when we observe, we absorb. We try and take in as much if the object as possible. <br /><br />Several members of a larger club (AOS) send emails of their evening observations, and one thing I note, is that they sometimes take so little time to check out the object and absorb it. They may look at M15 for 1 minute and move onto something else- ( Autostar ) On the other hand, we use the maps and charts to find the stuff- and we find most everything we look for. And when we find the object, we might leave it in place for 5-8 minutes depending on if we have a few other friends along for the trips. <br /><br />Anyway, (trying to find my point of the post) oh yeah, I look forward to sharing my/our experiences with you all. From the original posters Pic! nice work!! I see M15 as well and we love it very much. We had a beautiful night 2 weeks ago that really changed things for us. Such clarity and concentration. Might be one of the favorites for the next few months.

 

[nevers]

Hi RBP -<br /><br />Welcome aboard! It's always nice to hear from others who are viewing from similar conditions. I think NYC would probably be one of the few places worse then LV or LA.<br /><br />From my experiences, I've noted that by using maps and charts to find DSO's in LP skies, it makes me not neccessarily a better observer but one more apt to remember how to find then again once I get to dark skies.<br /><br />I must admit, I recently got a 'scope with Autostar but I have yet to use it to find "new" objects on my Urban List. For that, I still use my Dobsonian. I have used Autostar it to "verify" an object once I've found it the old fashioned way. Sometimes due to LP, the objects look nothing what they would look like in dark skies. Open clusters for instance may show only 3 - 4 of the brighter stars while in dark skies they turn into beauties containing 20 or more lesser stars that are invisible in LP skies.<br /><br />I am fortunate to have a 16" Dob: it is the urban observers here at SDC with smaller, non-computerized 'scopes that I admire the most! They are the true urban warriors! We look forward to reading about your east coast observing and comparing your notes with ours.

 

[rocketbodypart]

NYC-Report 8/25/2004<br /><br />3/4 Moon. Annoying little thing- lighting up the entire south. Headed North/ NE for some Cassiopeia viewing. <br />So the short list is as follows. <br />I got an early start- set everything up and went hunting for my favorite little ring- M57. I love-absolutely love <br />the ring nebula. Just a few days ago-, the 21st I believe (I think) we spotted one of the stars in the ring- a huge<br />discovery considering the LP what we have where we observe. <br /><br />My buddy arrived, and we proceeded to M103- very nice with the 2x barlow. I dont have the magnification numbers- but a huge difference with the barlow <br />comparing it to the regular 25. <br />Then onto the Owl Cluster, which is a nice little cluster. And it really looks like an owl- hoot hoot. <br />We then hit Andromeda. Again, spectacular. Still very much lowish in the horizon. We have some time before it really becomes eye-candy. <br /><br />My buddy Adam is the one who does most of the finding. He has a keen eye, and only needs his memory to hop along from object to object. While he hops along, <br />I usually play around with the 15X70 binos- and most of the time, I just check out the Andromeda with them. It is so spectacular in the binos. <br /><br />Onto the Dumbell - which again is so darn amazing. The outer stars (star) was visible- again considering the LP- we got a nice peek there. <br />Onto the double clusters- ngc864 / 869 (pretty sure about the name) were very nice and clear. I think I started to count the stars- but didnt remember off hand<br />how many I would be looking for. Nonetheless, it was very nice. <br /><br />We checked out M34 which was super. Lots of nice doubles there. I counted 7 or 8- who knows really. Very nice eyecandy. <br />We spotted Veil west. Then went back to the Andromeda- pumped it up- filtered- still looking amazing and slightly better than the first pass at it. M31 was visible in the same Fov. <br />We pumped up M31 for a bit -