Re: What can I really see with a 60mm
- From: "Cousin Ricky" <rickyusvi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 15 Sep 2005 13:45:35 -0700
M wrote:
>
> I an amateur when it comes to star gazing/ astronomy and recently got a
> 60mm Meade NG telescope. I have taken it out past couple of nights and
> had some great views of the moon. (craters etc). But apart from looking
> at the moon I'm finding it extremely hard to see any thing else. I did
> read I can use this scope to see stars and may be planets n galaxies.
> Is this true?
Yes, it is true, but as with all things, it takes practice. The
planets are easy, and you don't even need to leave the city lights.
The deep sky objects (DSOs), however, are best seen from as dark a
place as you can get to.
Venus is the brilliant planet in the west at sunset. The telescope
will show you its phases; the phases of Venus were the first clear
evidence that a planet revolves around the Sun.
To the lower right of Venus (or lower left if you are in the southern
hemisphere), and somewhat dimmer, is the planet Jupiter. Normally, you
can easily see Jupiter's 4 brightest moons, but i don't know if you'll
be able to see them through the twilight glow. Early next year,
Jupiter will be back in the east. Many people follow the movements of
the moons from night to night.
<historical-note>
Those 4 moons are called the Galilean satellites, because Galileo was
the first person to realize their significance. One of the objections
to Copernicus was the "inconsistency" that the Moon circled the Earth,
while everything else circled the Sun. The Galilean satellites showed
that Mother Nature doesn't think inside the puny little box we make for
her.
</historical-note>
Planet Earth is always available, although the neighbors might not
appreciate such "research." ;-)
If you can stay up late, Mars will be up in the east. It gets better,
and a bit earlier, from night to night, and will be at its peak in
October. With the 9 mm eyepiece, you should be able to see the south
polar cap and some dark markings.
Saturn is up in the mornings. It will keep better hours in the coming
months. You will see rings, no problem. :-)
> I tried focusing in on some stars and they look like
> little shiny dots. Just the same as if i was looking at them with the
> naked eye.
The stars will appear as no more than dots, no matter how much you
magnify. If you do magnify enough to see discs, this will be nothing
more than a diffraction artifact--an illusion. The stars are much too
far away to show more than a dot.
What you will notice is that the dots are much _brighter_ in the
telescope than with the naked eye; you will also see considerably
_more_ of them. Increasing the magnification will improve the
contrast.
You may also see various colors in stars that look plain white without
the telescope. A dramatic example of this is the double star Beta
Cygni, a.k.a. Albireo. This star marks the southern tip of the
Northern Cross. The Northern Cross will be labeled Cygnus (swan) on
your star chart.
> Is there something Im not doing right or this is beyond the
> 60mm. I'm using a 9mm meade lens with my scope.
Nothing you have mentioned is beyond 60 mm, but your expectations might
need adjusting. You know, of course, that nothing will look like the
pretty pictures they put on the box. What you may not know is that
most DSOs will appear not much more than a dim smudge, and you will see
no color at all in most of them.
For the dimmest objects, use the "averted vision" technique--your
near-peripheral vision. Get out of the city. Waaaay out. Practice
observing objects. Sketch them if you can. As you learn how to
observe, you will see more and more.
The easiest DSOs are the star clusters. These usually look better in
the telescope than in photographs! Look towards Sagittarius, Scorpius,
Ophiuchus, and Hercules to find star clusters coming out of your ears.
Galaxies are *hard* to see, make no mistake. If you don't have one
already, get a reference to the Messier objects. This catalog lists 38
galaxies, 1 double galaxy (M51), 1 galaxy fragment (M24), 1 galaxy
nucleus (M54), and (often) 1 honorary item (NGC 5866), *all* of them
within reach of your telescope. An easy one to start with is M31, the
Andromeda Galaxy, which is rising in the northeast in the evenings.
Other easy galaxies are M51 underneath the Big Dipper's handle; M81 and
M82 on the other side of the Big Dipper; and M24, a window into the
inner parts of our own Galaxy. (If you live in the southern
hemisphere, some good ones are M104, M83, and of course the naked-eye
Magellanic Clouds.)
Another poster mentioned keeping the magnification low--i.e., use the
26 mm eyepiece. This is only necessary while searching for the
objects; searching for objects manually with a telescope is like
looking for a needle in a haystack--through a soda straw. A lower
power gives you a fatter straw. Also make sure that the finder scope
is _precisely_ aligned with the main tube; otherwise you will find
nothing, rest assured. For many people, though, the thrill of the hunt
is half the fun of the hobby.
Once you've got the object in your sights, try various powers to see
which does best. A 60 mm scope typically maxes out at around 120
power--a 6 mm eyepiece in your case.
Here are suggestions for improving the performance of low-end
telescopes: <http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/junkscope.htm>
Clear skies!
--
------------------- Richard Callwood III --------------------
~ U.S. Virgin Islands ~ USDA zone 11 ~ 18.3N, 64.9W ~
~ eastern Massachusetts ~ USDA zone 6 (1992-95) ~
--------------- http://cac.uvi.edu/staff/rc3/ ---------------
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