Getting Started in Observing
When I first started out observing sometime in late 1960’s, some friends and an astronomy lab instructor pointed out some objects using my school’s 12” that was mounted on top of the science building. But the thing that they did not show me were the fundamentals of observing. It was sort of like telling you to get in a car and drive to Dallas without telling you what stop signs, and the brake pedal and police cars are. You must learn these before you can start going places. Observing is not that much different. Here are a few things that, when time is invested at the beginning, will pay back many dividends when at the eyepiece.
- One of the first things to learn are the constellations. Not all of them (you can’t see all of them from Houston) but the brighter ones. Constellations like Orion, Ursa Major and Minor, Scorpius, Virgo Hercules (that’s a tough one) and the brighter ones in the Zodiac. The constellations that have bright stars. Don’t waste your time yet when all the stars in a group can’t be seen from the city.
- Learn how to read star maps. Don’t get the kind that have so many stars in a small area of the sky on the biggest sheet of paper. Get the more condensed maps such as the Mag 5 or Mag 6, or the Pocket Sky Atlas. As time goes on you will eventually get the Sky Atlas 2000 or Uranometria and then on to the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.
- When learning to read star maps, you begin to understand directions in the sky. When someone says to look north, this does not mean “UP” but toward Polaris. South means toward the south, not down. Likewise, east means towards the horizon where stars rise, and west is where the stars set. It will impress visitors when you these terms rather than up or down and left and right.
- If you have a telescope, learn all about it. Learn what directions it moved, how to align the finder with the main optics, how to collimate it (if yours is of the type that is constantly required, typically Newtonians), how to polar align (if yours has drive motors). When looking through the eyepiece, learn the directions north, south, east and west. Learn how big (field of view) of an area of the sky that you are looking at with each eyepiece (typically about 1 degree or less) and how this relates to the star map that you are using. You can find the field of view by letting a star near 0 degrees declination drift through the eyepiece from one side to the other and seeing how long in minutes it takes. Take the time and divide by 4. This is how many degrees the eyepiece covers.
- Next, learn to recognize the brightness of stars, their magnitude. You don’t have to recognize them down to 0.1 magnitudes, or even 1 magnitude, but within, say, 2 or 3 magnitudes. First do this with naked eye stars. Then, even more importantly, is to recognize the brightness when looking through your scope. When the description of an object says it is near a 9th magnitude star, is that star in the eyepiece 9th? Or 13th? Another key item here is “how dim a star can your scope pick up”? under the current sky conditions. There are no magic formulas for this, just practice and time.
- Plan an observing program. It doesn’t not have to cover all night, maybe just 5 objects, or 10 objects, or learn 2 new constellations. Leave yourself time to just “scan the skies” with your scope, naked eye or binoculars. And leave time to “eavesdrop” on conversations of others and peeks through their scope. Maybe set a multiple-night goal, like getting your Messier or Herschel Certificates. You will feel a lot better knowing you set out a goal and met it.
- Be persistent when looking for an object. After 30 seconds trying to see the object, don’t say it doesn’t exist anymore or the star charts are wrong.
- Keep an observing log. It can either be a “general” log with the date, where, with what scope and eyepiece with the name of the object. Or it can be detailed that tells the date, location, time and seeing conditions of each object and what the object looked like. To help with the description, think about how you would describe the object to a blind person. If going for an Astronomical League observing program, this information is needed. This log will be fun to look back at in 5, 10 or even 30 from now.
- One of the most important things to remember when observing is that it is ok to ask for help. 99% of the people observing will gladly stop to help another observer, whether experienced or novice. Our membership would be a lot smaller if the advanced observers didn’t stop to help the novice. It is even more fun when observing with other people around, as at our Dark Site.
Doing your preparations for observing and learning the basics first will greatly enhance your pleasure during observing and you will look forward to your next session.
Steve Goldberg