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=== Andromeda Galaxy ===
 
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''Sep 23, 2008'' There was some slight cloud cover in the lower part of the sky, maybe 20 stars were visible in the eastern part of the sky. I saw Cassiopeia, except a star in the one end of it. The five brightest stars in Cassiopeia form a W shape in the sky. In fact, four of them are brighter, and of almost equal brightness, thus what I actually saw was not the W shape but a triangle with the fourth star as an extension of its base, something like a triangular-shape dipper. The bigger triangle in that W points to Mirach, one of the brightest stars in the constellation Andromeda. Mirach or Beta Andromedae is the first bright (magnitude 2) star in that direction. Mirach is a red giant, which looks like a bright yellow star. Near it (some 0.1 degrees from it) is a magnitute 8 star. As there are not many stars in that area, it was possible to identify Mirach by that nearby star, which located at almost the same distance from Mirach at almost the same angle as on the Stellarium map. Stellarium caused some confusion though, as it showed some red 5.6 magnitude star near Mirach, which I didn't see through the telescope. I found that this star is also missing in Your Sky map. Your Sky is a public domain star map, which is good to use when you would doubt in something in Stellarium, also it can be used to print star maps for different times of observation, when you would use telescope somewhere where you cannot use a computer. Using the finder scope, I moved from Mirach to Mu Andromedae, and from there in the same direction to the next bright star, Nu Andromedae. These stars form what is called the girdle of Andromeda. Nu Andromedae has two brigter yellow stars near it, of equal brightness, I saw these two yellow stars and thus verified the location. Andromeda Galaxy (the Messier object M31) is quite near to that star, so I moved in the direction of Andromeda Galaxy and indeed saw it. It was the best to observe the Andromeda Galaxy with the 12.5mm eyepiece. I saw a faint glow, this glow covered almost 1/4 of the field of view. There seemed to be a bright spot in the center, and the glow became fainter smoothly further from the center. The glow didn't seem to have a completely round shape, it was brighter in some directions. It had no color, the most it seemed to be white. It looked like something deep, and left a feeling that this object is something special. It seems that such telescope in my conditions doesn't show colors of the Messier objects, it may be that it would show some colors in Orion Nebula, which is the brightest nebula, but in my conditions of light pollution there most likely would not be much colors. Andromeda Galaxy was likely the most interesting deep sky object which I have ever seen with my telescope. It was the first deep sky object which I have seen that was not just many stars or a gray batch, but was indeed a nebulous glow of light, and of course this was the first galaxy which I have seen through the telescope. The Andromeda Galaxy was first mentioned by Al-Sufi in 905, who described it as a "little cloud".
 
=== Orion Nebula ===
=== Orion Nebula ===

Revision as of 16:50, 13 October 2008

   * Telescope F70076
   * Price
   * How is it useful
   * Comparison with other cheap telescopes
   * Newton reflector
   * What was inside the box
   * Huygens eyepieces
   * Moon filter
   * Finder scope
   * The mount
   * Star hopping
   * The size and weight
   * Cleaning mirrors
   * Collimating
   * What can I see through it
         o First light
         o Ring Nebula
         o The Great Cluster in Hercules
         o Saturn
         o Mars
         o Praesepe cluster
         o The Pleiades
         o Andromeda Galaxy
         o Orion Nebula
   * Astrophotography

76mm reflector telescope F70076

Contents


I'm a complete beginner what concerns telescopes and astronomy, so I thought that my experience about telescopes might be useful for other beginners. Therefore also, a lot what I write here is about what I think, I just discover all these things for myself, only for entertainment.















What can I see through it

I don't really have much idea what can I see through that telescope, but Charles Messier who made the catalog of 110 deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae and star clusters) in 1780, had a telescope which may be equivalent to today's 3 inch telescope, so I should see all these objects at least somewhat. But of course the skies of Paris were not so light polluted at that time, when there were no electric lights yet, than the skies of the cities today. Indeed I have found that I cannot see as much as Messier did, in addition having by far not such experience of observing as Messier had. Hodierna [1] found 19 deep sky objects already in 1654, using only a Galileo telescope with 1 inch aperture, of which 12 were Messier objects and 7 of these (M31, M36, M37, M38, M42, M44 and M45) were in the northern constellations.

There is a review in Cloudy Nights of the Orion SpaceProbe 3 EQ [2] which has an equatorial mount, but is otherwise optically similar to this telescope. At least it shows that one is able to see with this telescope the colors of the Orion nebula. I though didn't succeed the see colors of the Orion Nebula in my conditions, but considering how bright the nebulosity is, it seems believable that one can see some colors even with the visibility one magnitude better than mine, which is even not so good visibility, and you don't even have to be in a rural area. So don't be discouraged, your visibility is most probably better than mine.









Orion Nebula

Oct 4, 2008 There were some clouds on the horizon. It was not very difficult to find the Orion Nebula (the Messier object M42). I saw the Orion belt that was quite low on the horizon, but not so low that I couldn't reach it with my telescope. The Orion belt consists of three stars of equal brightness in a row with equal intervals, a pattern in the sky which is very easy to recognize. I saw all the three stars of the Orion belt in the finder scope. Then I moved from the central star of the Orion belt, Epsilon Orionis, also called Alnilam, in the direction of the Orion Nebula, until I saw some bright objects in the finder scope. Then I looked through the 12.5mm eyepiece, and with some slight moving around I saw the Orion Nebula. What I saw was a bright star and a double star near it, surrounded by nebulosity. The bright star was likely Theta1 Orionis and the double star was Theta2 Orionis. It seems that what I saw was almost exactly what Hodierna saw [3], thus it seems that in my conditions I can see through my 3 inch telescope exactly the same what Hodierna saw through his 1 inch telescope. The nebulosity seemed to be more on one side of these stars. The nebulosity was very clear and became fainter further from these stars, it covered almost 1/4 of the field of view (when I say field of view, I mean the diameter of the field of view). But I didn't see any color, the color was not blue though, the most it seemed to be white. I couldn't observe the Orion Nebula for a long time, because the clouds covered it soon. This was the second object on which I have seen a clear nebulosity. I also saw the Orion Nebula through a 2 inch spotting scope, but this was only a good luck that I happened to spot it. The spotting scope could barely resolve Theta2 Orionis, but I saw some nebulosity around these stars, somewhat less though than with this telescope. The Orion Nebula was discovered by Johann Baptist Cysatus in 1619.

Astrophotography

Astrophotography can be done using an ordinary digital camera which almost everyone has in their pocket, I for example use Canon Powershot A430. I use the normal exposure, though all these cameras enable to increase the exposure. This method of astrophotography is called afocal astrophotography, which simply means putting the camera objective against the eyepiece of the telescope, tuning it until the picture looks nice on the LCD display, and then taking the picture. First of all, the physical zoom of the camera must be increased a bit, until all the field you see in the eyepiece covers the LCD screen. Then you have to focus the telescope, so that the image is the sharpest. In general, it is very difficult to take photos that way, because you have to adjust many things at the same time. I found that it is the best to hold the camera with the left hand in the correct position against the eyepiece, and focus with the right hand. It is completely possible to take photos that way, though not easy, and certainly needs to get used to.

Image:Moon1.jpg

April 16, 2008. I tried to photograph the Moon first, to test the astrophotography with my telescope. You see though, that the image is out of focus. It took some time to focus the image properly, and when I then tried to take the next photo, the batteries became empty, and as a result I have nothing better to present as the result of my first night of testing the astrophotography, than this image.

May 4, 2008. I tried to photograph Saturn, but all I got was just a hazy patch. It seems that focusing for your eye is also good enough for focusing for the camera. I even once saw a clear shape of Saturn on the LCD screen, but with hand I was not able to hold the camera stable enough. I think though that it can be done with a little more practice.

External links

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