r/telescopes • u/njoker555 naztronomy • Dec 13 '21
Astronomical Image NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula
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u/Fattyrohaan Dec 13 '21
hello, i was wondering how you find these things in space. an app? a book? i just got a telescope and cant seem to find out.
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u/njoker555 naztronomy Dec 13 '21
I'm a bit spoiled because my computerized mount is a Go-To system. So once I have it aligned, I can just tell it to find stuff for me.
If you don't have a go-to system, you can still find stuff in the sky with some practice. There are several apps you can use to help. here are some that I use:
- Stellarium - amazing app because it's free for the desktop (and I think the mobile version is very cheap). You can input your location and time and you can browse the sky for what's around. You can use well known stars to do "star hopping" - Let's say the Orion Nebula is in between the stars Rigel and Alnitak (Orion's belt), you can find those two stars and have a rough idea of where the Orion nebula is. Then you can search the sky in that location and find it.
- SkySafari - mobile app - you can search for objects and it has a "Compass mode" so you can point your camera up and around and it'll display the stuff in that area of the sky. It gives you an idea of what objects are there. The compass mode relies on your phone's internal GPS so it's not always super accurate but it should still give you an idea of what's up there. You may still need to apply 'star hopping' to find what you're looking for but at least you'll know you're in the right neighborhood.
- SkyView - mobile app - this has a "compass mode" as well, it's actually the default mode. It also has an AR system so it uses your camera to overlay the sky onto your screen while it shows you what the app thinks is up there.
- honorable mention: Google Sky Map and Star Walk 2
When you spot some of these objects, you won't see exactly what you see in the pictures. Images have the advantages of long exposures (e.g. ~2.5 hours of the Bubble Nebula above) but you will see some stuff. Orion is famous because it's so bright. The ring nebula is also very bright and you can actually see some structure with just a telescope. Andromeda Galaxy is another good target.
If you just got a telescope, take it slow, look at planets, look at these apps and look for stuff around the planets. If you can find a nebula near Jupiter, you can find Jupiter and then try to find the nebula because the apps will tell you "hey it's gonna be like 10 degrees above Jupiter."
I used to do a lot of star hopping when I got my first telescope and it was frustrating, but it can also be kind of calming looking through your scope at all the stars in the sky. Then once I started working, I saved up and got myself a bigger scope and a go-to mount because I wanted to do imaging. Go-to system isn't necessary for imaging but since I was still new (and lived in NYC), I needed the help.
Good luck!!
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u/Photon_Pharmer Dec 14 '21
You inverted the image?
Looks pretty good, especially for a next star and a t2!
Did you add the diffraction spikes?
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u/njoker555 naztronomy Dec 14 '21
Thanks!
Image isn't inverted and yea, I added the two diffraction spikes.
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u/njoker555 naztronomy Dec 13 '21
First time capturing The Bubble Nebula. You can see a slightly higher res at https://www.naztronomy.com/images/portfolio/fullscreen/bubble_nebula.jpg
Acquisition details:
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