Exploring the Night Sky with a Small Telescope in Missouri

[Pupil]

So I just got my dads old telescope out, cleaned it, and installed new motors and cleaned the primary and secondary mirrors, and it's ready for use! It's a reflector with a 4-3/8" primary mirror, and I wonder: what can I see with this thing (besides the moon, obviously)? I know this is a super small telescope for seeing anything too great, but what are my options? Could I see the rings of Saturn, for instance?

BTW, I live out in Missouri in a place with extremely little light pollution.

 

[Chronos]

Saturn will look good, as will Jupiter. There are also breathtaking star fields around Cygnus this time of year. The Hercules cluster is also a good view in a 4.5. My first scope was a 6, i enjoyed it very much just pointing around at random. I then signed up for AAVSO for a couple years and learned how to read star maps. Maps are hard. Finding those locating stars is harder than I expected.

 

[Nabeshin]

Assuming your note about the light pollution is accurate, with a 4-3/8" primary you should be able to see a multitude of galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.

Planets are always a great target, and you will be able to see the rings of saturn, Jupiter with its moons, and cloud bands if seeing conditions are good.

I don't really know a magnitude down to which you can see DSOs, but I would expect you should probably be able to see stuff down to 7-ish, at least. Like I said, in this range are tons of objects. The Orion nebula provides a fantastic first target, although it's a bit out of season this time of year. You might try to catch Andromeda, which should be high in the sky for you.

 

[HallsofIvy]

Your main problem is that there will be so many stars it will be hard to determine exactly what it is that you are looking at!

 

[DaveC426913]

...cleaned it, and installed new motors and cleaned the primary and secondary mirrors, and it's ready for use!...

Have you collimated it? Until you do, the chick doing yoga on her balcony is going to be your best bet.


(Please note the distinct absence of a 'heavenly bodies' pun...)

 

[Chronos]

A four inch scope should be capable of magnitude 12 objects. Many galaxies and other interesting objects are visually accessible in this range.

 

[Pupil]

Thanks for the tips! First, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure the exact amount of light pollution around my area (or how I would measure it), but I think it's fairly low. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...93.423615&spn=0.064831,0.110378&z=13&iwloc=A" (not the exact house, but you get the idea of the areas I can take my telescope and what kind of light pollution is around).

I think HallsofIvy said it best when he said I basically won't know what the heck I'm looking at. I'll probably spend a lot of time downloading astronomy software and learning to make sense of those random points in the sky.

I have collimated the telescope (it was in bad shape).

What do you guys mean 'magnitude 12' and '7-ish' objects? What kind of measurement is this? Also, what websites or books or other media would you recommend for a clueless guy with a fixed up tiny telescope look at for figuring out stargazing?

 

[DaveC426913]

I'm not sure the exact amount of light pollution around my area (or how I would measure it), but I think it's fairly low. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...93.423615&spn=0.064831,0.110378&z=13&iwloc=A"

Uh, that'll do fine.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...93.423615&spn=0.064831,0.110378&z=13&iwloc=A".

 

[DaveC426913]

What do you guys mean 'magnitude 12' and '7-ish' objects? What kind of measurement is this? Also, what websites or books or other media would you recommend for a clueless guy with a fixed up tiny telescope look at for figuring out stargazing?

Magnitude (we are referring to apparent mag, not absolute mag) is the apparent brightness as seen from Earth. A negative number is bright; a positive number is dim.

The brightest few stars are around the mag -2 range.
In very good seeing conditions, you can see down to about mag 6 - a few thousand stars.
A telescope will get you down to mag 12.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude" .

Here's a virtual telescope where you can program views and magnitudes, etc.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Yourtel

 

[Nabeshin]

Will a 4.5" scope really get down to 12 mag DSOs? Seeing 12 mag stars is fine and well, but not terribly interesting.

I have no conception of what scopes can do without light pollution because my skies are so mucky, but I have trouble seeing things past mag 5 with my 8" due to all the pollution =\.

 

[Chronos]

You can view mag 12 DSO's in a 4.5 with good seeing conditions, but not easily.

 

[ideasrule]

I'd recommend Cartes du Ciel as a star chart software. It's much more useful than AAVSO's limited star maps, and should be able to plot every star you can see with your telescope.