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#11
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Thanks for the info.
Caught a good look at M31 last night. I think my problem before was that I was trying too high of a magnification. Now I'm looking forward to when Orion moves high enough in the sky so that I can see the nebulae in his sword. One problem I have here is that there are a lot of mountains and trees around my house that obscure the lower horizon. |
#12
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#13
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#14
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dsady wrote:
The really cool thing about M31 is that is the farthest object that can be seen with the human eye. I have seen it without my glasses on. It's great to be from Maine. Actually, from a good dark sky site (and with a sensitive eye), there are a few other objects visible to the unaided eye which are farther away from us than M31. Probably the most common after M31 and M33 is the distant spiral galaxy M81 (magnitude 6.9) which may be as far away as 12 million light years (between 4 and 5 times farther away than M31). When visible, it appears merely as a very faint star. From those high-altitude viewers in the southern hemisphere, there are a few reports of the irregular galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus "A") being seen (magnitude 7.0, distance 15 million light years). Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
#15
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dsady wrote:
The really cool thing about M31 is that is the farthest object that can be seen with the human eye. I have seen it without my glasses on. It's great to be from Maine. Actually, from a good dark sky site (and with a sensitive eye), there are a few other objects visible to the unaided eye which are farther away from us than M31. Probably the most common after M31 and M33 is the distant spiral galaxy M81 (magnitude 6.9) which may be as far away as 12 million light years (between 4 and 5 times farther away than M31). When visible, it appears merely as a very faint star. From those high-altitude viewers in the southern hemisphere, there are a few reports of the irregular galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus "A") being seen (magnitude 7.0, distance 15 million light years). Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
#16
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Any recommendations of some other objects to look for that will show
up well in a 114mm scope? As mentioned in a previous posting, I caught a good look at M31 Saturday night. Orion doesn't come into view at my house until early a.m., but hopefully I can drag my butt out of bed early enough to see it next weekend if the weather cooperates. |
#17
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Any recommendations of some other objects to look for that will show
up well in a 114mm scope? As mentioned in a previous posting, I caught a good look at M31 Saturday night. Orion doesn't come into view at my house until early a.m., but hopefully I can drag my butt out of bed early enough to see it next weekend if the weather cooperates. |
#18
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Hi again. You posted:
Any recommendations of some other objects to look for that will show up well in a 114mm scope? There are lots of objects which are within range of a 114mm scope, but you need to keep the power fairly low for some of them. The Messier Objects are a good starting point, along with a few of the brighter NGC's thrown in for good measure. The Pleiades cluster is one example, along with the spectacular Double Cluster in Perseus (NGC869/884), M34, the bright globular cluster M15, and (if you have a dark southern sky from the northern hemisphere), the Great Sculptor Spiral galaxy NGC 253. The amount of detail you may see in M15 and NGC 253 may be limited due to the limited aperture you will have to deal with, but you should be able to see them. You should also check out the brighter double stars like Delta Cephei, Eta Cassiopeiae, or Gamma Andromedae, as they show up even with a fat moon in the sky. Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
#19
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Hi again. You posted:
Any recommendations of some other objects to look for that will show up well in a 114mm scope? There are lots of objects which are within range of a 114mm scope, but you need to keep the power fairly low for some of them. The Messier Objects are a good starting point, along with a few of the brighter NGC's thrown in for good measure. The Pleiades cluster is one example, along with the spectacular Double Cluster in Perseus (NGC869/884), M34, the bright globular cluster M15, and (if you have a dark southern sky from the northern hemisphere), the Great Sculptor Spiral galaxy NGC 253. The amount of detail you may see in M15 and NGC 253 may be limited due to the limited aperture you will have to deal with, but you should be able to see them. You should also check out the brighter double stars like Delta Cephei, Eta Cassiopeiae, or Gamma Andromedae, as they show up even with a fat moon in the sky. Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
#20
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"dszady" wrote in message ... (GRW) wrote in om: I am new to astronomy and have been enjoying myself a great deal. I started by just trying to learn the constellations, and then identifying some of the more prominent objects (i.e., planets). Recently purchased a Celestron 114GT telescope, and have set it up and aligned it per instructions. This has yielded my son and I some excellent views of the moon, mars, saturn, etc. and I like the way it will track objects. Here's my problem - I see in the astronomy magazines numerous and incredible photos of deep sky objects, generally taken by folks with telescopes much larger and more powerful than mine. Many things I read indicate that aperture may be more important than magnification. However, I don't know what to expect when looking for certain objects because nobody has given me any help with the scope and I have no point of reference except the magazines. For instance, I have been trying to locate M31 in Andromeda. I certainly know where to look, but don't know what to look for. How big should it look? Is it just star-sized, or should it be larger? Am I just not in a dark enough location (we actually don't have much light pollution where I live, but there are neighboring houses with external lights)? M-31 is BIG compared to any other object in the night sky, BUT it is also very faint when compared to most start viewable with the naked eye. At roughly magnitude 5, it is barely visible with the naked eye in a dark clear rural sky, unmistable in binoculars under urban conditions and with your 4.5 inch telescope at its LOWEST magnification, it should be rather magnificent. To find it, first go to the star Alpheratz (which makes up the north-east corner of the greast square of Pegasus). Pegasus and Andromeda share the star Alpheratz. Travel east along the lower "limb" of the Andromeda constellation to Mirach (Beta Andromedae), sight north along a line connecting Mirach with Mu Andromedae and about the same distance north of Mu Andromedae, you will see a fuzzy oval covering about 2 degrees of sky with a somewhat brighter fuzzy nucleus. That is M-31. If your finder scope is at least 6 x 30, you should have no trouble finding it with that, whereas if you start out with the main scope, you might have difficulty pointing to the exact right location. If your "go to" scope is aligned correctly then there should be absolutely no mistaking M-31 through the eye-piece. If you don't see anything obvious, then almost certainly your scope is mis-aligned. If my instructions above leave you scratching your head, then I would strongly recommend that you get a good beginners book such as Nigh****ch (Terence Dickinson) or A Guide to Backyard Astronomy (by Burnham, Dyer, Garfinkle, George, Kanipe and Levy) and learn your way around the constellations with the naked eye before you try to find stuff with your telescope. I guarantee that Astronomy will be a whole more enjoyable if you do this! Hope this helps, Terry Hurd |
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