Practice
By Shawn Grant
One of the most challenging aspects of astronomy is finding objects that are invisible to the naked eye. The telescope has a very small field of view and the sky is so vast it is hard to pinpoint the location of the object. Let me tell you a story about how I got into astronomy and started to learn how to find deep sky objects and then I will get into the how to find your way.
I was a high school freshman when I first became interested in astronomy. I went to the library and checked out every book they had on the subject. I poured through those books learning the history of mankind’s exploration of the universe, learning about the space probes to the planets, and learning cosmology. I bought a Peterson’s field Guide of Astronomy and in the front it had monthly star charts. I compared what I saw on the charts with what was in the sky and soon I know all the major constellations. I followed the movement of the moon and the planets in the sky. I wanted to see more so I saved for a telescope. It wasn’t until three years later until I got my first telescope. Don’t laugh when you hear what it was remember I was young then. It was a 4 and a half-inch Tasco reflector with cheap eyepieces and a flimsy mount. From three years of reading everything I could get my hands on I know of objects such as the Great Orion Nebula, The Great Galaxy in Andromeda and the Great Cluster in Hercules. I went out night after night looking for these wonders and never saw them. I started to doubt my telescope after all I did subscribe to S&T and know what they had to say about department store telescopes. I checked out many more books on star hopping and how to use backyard telescopes. I read them every word and went out to practice what I had learned and still nothing. I was very religious at aligning my finder scope with the main scope and I was very good at finding naked eye objects such as moon and planets. I bought the Cambridge atlas, which by the way is still my favorite star atlas. I learned where the objects were on the charts and know the coordinate grid and I know how to find objects at least in theory.
One cold winter night while I was out I found the Orion Nebula. I have never been so happy in my life. It was a huge sense of accomplishment. I had found my first deep sky object. I went through in my mind what I had done to find this object. I noticed on the chart that the open cluster NGC 1981 was just north of M42. I applied what I had learned about star hopping and found that too. Over time I was able to find more and more objects each night and eventually got to the point to where I could find anything I wanted that was within the limits of my scope. In time I found majority of the Messier objects and many of the brighter NGC objects with a flimsy poorly crafted Tasco 4 and a half inch reflector in light polluted skies.
The moral of the story is practice and experience is the key to finding deep sky objects. Knowledge and book smarts are only 20% of the game 80% is practice. So if you can’t find objects right away don’t give up the more you observe the more objects you will eventually find. In the coming months I will write a series of articles on finding deep sky objects. To follow along in the upcoming articles you will need binoculars or a telescope. A set of basic star charts. Charts that are easy to read, has stars down to 6th magnitude and all Messier and many of the brighter NGC objects. You will need a finder scope or more preferable the zero power pointing device the Telrad. Don’t get the other zero power pointing devices like the daisy sight or the many others. Those just have a point of light while the telrad has three circles like a target that can be used as a measuring tool. A red flashlight is very important it is hard to read charts in the dark and you won’t be able to find anything without charts. Get an eyepiece that is at least one degree or more.
This month you learned the most important lesson to finding objects and that is practice. Next month I will do my best in teaching how to read star charts and special tricks like making overlays and many other things.
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