How to look at the stars

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Where to observe celestial objects, what can be seen with the naked eye, through binoculars and a telescope, how to choose optics and where to study for a novice amateur astronomer.

I live in the city. Can I watch the stars?

Even the brightest stars cannot always be seen in the skies over big cities. Especially in the central regions. Gas pollution and light pollution of the environment are to blame for everything - bright electric light from many lanterns, neon signs, searchlights. That is why most of the astronomical observatories are located outside the city limits.

The sky “polluted” with light is too low-contrast for full-fledged visual research. Even a powerful telescope will not save. When choosing a good place for observations, astronomy lovers use the so-called light maps.

Those who live far from the center or in small towns are a little more fortunate.

Objects available to citizens are the Sun, Moon, planets and some bright stars. It will be possible to conduct astronomical observations directly from the balcony if the view is not blocked by houses and trees, and there are no luminous advertisements nearby. The study of the starry sky through a telescope can also be hampered by the nearby reservoirs: warm water vapor rises upward, creating turbulent swirling flows, and the observed objects begin to "tremble", the image clarity disappears.

If you want to choose the perfect place for astronomical sessions, go out of town - the further the better. To see the Milky Way with the naked eye, and other galaxies and nebulae through a telescope, you need to leave at least 100 km from a big city. Astronomers consider mountains to be ideal places for star walks.

Where to begin? How do you know where to look?

How do stars differ from planets, where comets come from, which galaxy is the closest to our Milky Way? Why celestial objects change position depending on the season, why shooting stars are not really stars, where to look for the North Star? Answers to these and many other questions can be found in books for beginner astronomers. For a start, "" by Stephen Maran, books, etc. are suitable. It will not hurt, and "" by P. G. Kulikovsky. You can also take the course "" from Moscow State University on the portal "Open Education". Or look for lectures in your city - for example, the Moscow Planetarium is now recruiting listeners to Popular Astronomy for Beginners.

In addition to books, services and applications will come in handy. Install a free program on your computer. This is a planetarium where you can enter your coordinates and look at a realistic model of the sky - such as we would observe it with the naked eye, through binoculars or a telescope. The free Star Walk 2 app for iOS and Android allows you to see the exact location of celestial bodies in real time - all you need to do is point your smartphone or tablet with a digital compass to the sky. The program also provides a forecast of major astronomical events.

In addition, astronomical news - about meteor showers, the movement of celestial bodies, the parade of planets - can be found on the website. Or on a YouTube channel.

Also see "". This is a list of 110 of the most interesting space objects (galaxies, star clusters, nebulae) that can be viewed while in the Northern Hemisphere. Twice a year - usually in April and October, during the new moon - amateur astronomers run the Messier Marathon. During the marathon, in one night, you need to find and examine all 110 objects from the catalog through a telescope. True, only those who are, say, in India, Mexico or China, that is, between 10 and 35 degrees north latitude, will be able to "run" it completely.

I don't have a telescope. What can I see with the naked eye?

If you do not plan to get seriously involved in astronomy, you do not need to buy optics. Without a telescope and binoculars, you can count the stars in Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, in the constellations of the Dragon, Cassiopeia and Cepheus. Throughout Russia, these constellations are non-setting, which means that they can be seen on any day.

In summer, be sure to try to find the Great Summer Triangle in the sky - it includes the three brightest stars of the summer sky: Vega, Deneb and Altair.

In winter - from December to March - Sirius will appear, the double star, the brightest in the night sky; and Betelgeuse, a red supergiant 1,000 times the size of the Sun.

With the naked eye, five planets can be seen in the night sky (due to their brightness): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

They are almost always visible, except for short periods of time when they come very close to the Sun. It is best to observe the planets during oppositions - when they are located opposite the Sun. The opposition of Jupiter in 2019 is expected on June 11, Saturn on July 10. You cannot see all the planets at once. The schedule of their appearance will tell you.

Unlike stars, which, when viewed with the naked eye, seem to be motionless relative to each other, planets (the word "planet" literally means "wandering star") move through the sky, and quite quickly. In addition, when we look at a star, it seems to us that it vibrates, twinkles, and an even glow emanates from the planets.

And what about the shooting stars? They can also be seen without optics. In fact, these are not stars, but meteors - small solids that burn up when they enter the atmosphere. The most impressive meteor shower is the Geminids. But its time is mid-December, when the weather is not very conducive to observations. Another vibrant stream called "Perseids" in 2019 can be admired from July 17 to August 24. It will be best seen on 13 August. The International Meteor Organization (IMO) calendar of meteor showers for 2019 can be viewed here.

I have my touring binoculars. What can I see with it?

Touring binoculars with small (8-10x) magnification and small lens diameters (25-30 mm) will make it possible to distinguish large craters on the Moon, to examine the structure of the lunar surface. In addition, with the help of such binoculars, you can try to make out the four largest, Galilean, moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede. More details can be found in Eduard Vazhorov "Observations of the starry sky through binoculars and a telescope."

In order to see more, it is worth getting more sophisticated optics - astronomical binoculars or an amateur telescope.

I want to buy a telescope. What should you pay attention to?

The key parameter when choosing a device is the lens diameter. The larger it is, the more light is collected by the lens of a telescope or binoculars, which means that the picture is more detailed. The quality of the optics is also important - the clarity of the image depends on it. Prices for telescopes go to infinity, but relatively inexpensive instruments are also suitable for a beginner. To begin with, you can choose optics with a lens diameter of 70–120 mm and a focal length of at least 750 mm. The best telescopes are Sky-Watcher, Meade, Celestron. Their cost starts from 10,000 rubles. Here, for example, is a budget model, but at the same time it is no longer a toy model.

For observations of deep space (deep sky) - galaxies, nebulae, star clusters - the ideal option would be a reflector on the Dobson mount. Reflectors are telescopes that use mirrors as light-collecting elements. They are powerful, the large diameter of the lens will allow you to concentrate a lot of light to see distant and dim objects.

For those who want to look at the stars with two eyes, astrobinoculars are suitable. Their magnification is less than that of telescopes, in addition, it remains unchanged, because lenses cannot be changed.

Astronomical instruments - both telescopes and binoculars - are quite heavy, and they are usually used in conjunction with a tripod: otherwise hand shake can greatly affect image quality.

What can be seen through a telescope and astrobinoculars?

Armed with optics, you can start by studying the lunar topography. Consider mountains, craters and seas, observe how the terminator moves - the dividing line that separates the illuminated part of the moon from the one in the shadow. Although for observations of the Moon, it is not so much the quality of optics that is important as the state of the atmosphere - the degree of its pollution - and the absence of turbulence.

At Jupiter, when observed through a telescope, satellites, cloud belts and the Great Red Spot will become visible - a monstrous storm, the largest atmospheric vortex in the solar system, reaching a length of 50,000 km. Saturn will have rings. It turns out that Venus, like the Moon, changes phases, and some stars are not just stars, but multiple systems - binary, triple, and so on.

The Andromeda Nebula, the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way, if you go further out of the city, you can see it with tourist binoculars - in the form of a foggy cloud. But through a telescope, you can see it as a spot of light with small swirls and haze. The same is with one of the brightest nebulae - M42 in the constellation Orion. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint speck, and the telescope will reveal a complex gas structure, similar to puffs of smoke.

Bright comets, which can be observed with the help of amateur devices and even more so with the naked eye, do not fly up to the Earth so often. The comets available for observation at the moment are indicated in these tables. Comets: table, and here.

With the help of optics, you can also look at the sun. With an ordinary telescope and a special light filter (filters must be used - without them, you will have a serious and irreversible retinal burn!), You will be able to see sunspots. But to observe granulations, the chromosphere and prominences - tongues of fire that arise from the ejection of solar matter to an altitude of 40,000 km - special chromospheric telescopes, for example, Coronado, are used.

On the website or in the Android application, you can find out about the nearest flights of the ISS and other satellites. When viewed with the naked eye, the ISS appears as a very bright moving point of white or blue color. With optics, you will be able to see the station in detail. If, of course, you're lucky - it moves pretty fast.