David: I enjoyed reading your article on back yard astronomy. My wife bought me a nexstar 114 Gt a few years back and I can look at the moon, but don't have much success with anything else. I wonder what would be the proper course of action to resolve the inexperience issues and more full enjoy the scope.. some advise could be used if you have a minute. I live in Grandview in Provo which is on the northwest bench and the light and pollution is quite bad. I have never been out to a dark place to try it so I guess maybe that should be my first move. Any comment would be appreciated. Lawrence R. Johnson 1574 W 1400 N Provo, Utah. 84604 801-377-8552
First of all, I want to publicly thank John and Lisa Zeigler for the telescope making class. I am one of their pupils who recently completed a 12 dobsonian. I think I underestimated the amount of work it would take, however, I am very pleased with the results.
I already shared a little bit about the start party a week ago. Today, I am sharing my experience in the last few days. I am currently taking an Astronomy class at BYU, and some of my assignments involved making observations. Last Monday night I took my scope out to the backyard, and found a spot away from the street lights and the trees. For practical purposes, from this spot I can only see about one quadrant of the sky: from South to West plus a clear shot at the Zenith. Luckily the trees on the north block the lights from SLC, and the house blocks the lights from Provo to the East. As the night progressed, I thought this is going to be not a bad spot for observing without having to drive somewhere else.
Anyway, to see how bad the light pollution is from my backyard, I found M13. Not as splendorous as it was during the star party, nonetheless, easy to find and could resolve stars in it. In fact, later on that night (after my mirror had cooled) I went back to M13 and used more and more magnification. I kept resolving stars at the core of it until I ran out of eyepieces. I got sidetracked. my goals was to find some open clusters. I found them on Sagittarius, and caught a glimpse of some well known Nebulas in the area (mental note: need to get to a dark spot to really see them). I put the scope away knowing that the extra aperture (I have a 4.5 scope as well) shows sufficient items despite the light pollution. Although nothing beats a really dark site.
Early this morning my adventures continued. I had to track the moons of Saturn, which currently is visible in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, It is in the southeast, so my backyard adventures turned into driveway astronomy. The worst part of my driveway is that I am in a cul-de-sac at the end of the street so I have several streetlights shinning in front of me. I got the scope out, and while the mirror cooled down, I pointed to Venus. used it to align the finder. Then pointed to the Pleaides and confirmed collimation - nice bright and crisp points of light. Since I had it in front of me, I couldnt resist to take a look to the Orion Nebula, even though it is right over the lights. It was easy to find, and despite the light pollution, the trapezium was easy to spot as well. In fact, I could see a fifth star in it!
Back to my target: Saturn was quite bright, with the rings at such angle it was just beautiful. I could easily see the Cassini division. Time to count moons. . . I think I found 7. Got a pencil out and made a sketch (part of the assignment). I am glad I got up, since I heard on the radio on my way to work that bad weather is on its way, who knows when I can get out again so early and not freezing my buns. I checked my sketch with a simulated view of Saturn. Hmm, one of them is not a moon, but a star, so my count is down to 6. One more was too close to the main body, so most likely I lost it in the glare, and yet another one was past my field of view. I hope I can catch them next time.
David
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Lawrence, I too cannot say I am an expert by any means, there is too much I do not know, but John and I give a star party for beginners about once a month. We have a star party list of our own (about 100 people), made up mostly of students who have been in our telescope making classes. We would be happy to add anyone who wants to be on our list. I try to send an email at the beginning of each month with information for all the major star parties going on throughout the Wasatch front area, (including SLAS, UVAA, UofU, OAS, and our own as well as a few smaller clubs if they are doing anything.) I also try to send a newsletter with the best objects to see that month and where to find them, as well as times for seeing the ISS, and the transit of the red spot on Jupiter if Jupiter is seeable. We usually try to go to a darker sky sight for our parties, and we have a 18 mw green laser pointer with which we give mini classes on constellations, star hopping, and deep sky objects. The laser is great for letting everyone see the objects clearly, and this eliminates any confusion as to where the object is. I can usually pinpoint an object fairly well letting the whole group get the same object with their scopes at the same time (then everyone runs from scope to scope to compare objects). We have found this an excellent way to learn the night sky. When learning the sky I mostly study on the constellations first since this gives you a larger target to find your smaller objects within. I begin with the six circumpolar, move on to the 12 in the zodiac along the ecliptic and then focus on the stars to the north or south of the ecliptic. Once I know the constellations I focus on stars within the constellations and use these to star hop, then I can pinpoint an object using the stars to triangulate where the object is. Once you have found an object it is easier the second time to find it again. You should do this in seasons since you can usually see three good constellations of the ecliptic up at the same time in the southern sky and two or three of the circumpolar even with the sky glow. This allows you a memorization trick of grouping objects within the season you can view them, i.e. for winter you can see Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, the first three of the zodiac, and the two best circumpolar are Cassiopeia and Camelopardalis, which is very dim so you may not be able to pick this one out unless you where in a dark sky sight, but it doesn't have a lot of objects anyway, just an open cluster and two dim galaxies. But I think this gives a fairly good example of an easy way to learn the sky. All it takes is practice and a lot of time outside studying the sky. I use a planisphere and a sky atlas to find objects. The planisphere gives me the right sky for the date and time, then I can use the atlas to find the constellations named and look up the smaller objects within the constellations. Once you have learned the sky well enough you can eliminate the planisphere. Although most have dates on the back of them for when you can view planets and what constellations you can find them in which is most helpful for beginners. John and I are always happy to help anyone who needs anything if it is in our power to do so. If you want to be on our star party list, please let me know. Good luck with your star gazing! Lisa Zeigler www.johnstelescopes.com www.mirrorkits.com
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