How do stars and planets look like from the telescope?

Question

Sorry this might look stupid question but I have never used a telescope. I only see the pictures of NASA and other ones on the internet, about nebula and other superb images.

I know they are processed images and very distant ones, but can we see them like that through our telescope at house?

Answer 1

First let me tell you a little bit about how telescopes work. Many things in space aren't very small from Earth, but they're too dim for us to see with our eyes. Telescopes are kind of like funnels. They collect a bunch of light and direct it into our eyes so we can see dim objects. The more aperture a telescope has, the more light it will collect. Aperture is the diameter of the telescopes lens or mirror depending on what kind of telescope it is.

Telescopes also magnify things but the magnification can be changed by changing the eyepiece. Telescopes with long focal lengths magnify things more than telescopes with shorter focal lengths and the same eyepiece.

Any telescope can be fitted with an eyepiece that will result in "900x power!" but in most telescope, you will get a fuzzy image if you do this. A telescope has to have the right resolution to support the magnification. The resolution generally also depends on aperture. In a well made telescope, the larger the aperture, the higher the resolution, and the more magnification you can use and get a decent image.

Now...

In a telescope, stars pretty much look like they do without a telescope...just larger.

For planets, nebulas and galaxies though, it's different.

To see a good image of a planet in a telescope, you need a telescope that has high resolution capabilities, because you have to be able to use high magnification on planets. You also need your telescope to be at thermal equilibrium with the environment, and very calm skies.

If you have all this, then Saturn and Jupiter will look very much like they do in photos, but smaller. You will be able to see detail on Mars but it will be a little blurry because of the atmosphers on Earth and Mars. Venus is so reflective, it's hard to see any detail on it with special filters no matter what telescope you use.

Neptune and Uranus are small blue balls in larger telescopes, and look like dim blue stars in smaller ones.

Now remember I said more aperture means more resolution, and so the larger the telescope, the more you will be able to see on a planet, but it also means more light collecting ability.
Planets are usually bright enough though, and when using large telescopes on planets, it helps to use special filters or "off axis aperture stops" to restrict the amount of light coming in.

For nebulas, the more aperture the better. They will not be all those pretty colors they are in photos because your eyes are not that sensitive even with the telescope. How the nebula looks depends on what filters, if any, you use, and the aperture of your telescope.

With no filters,
In my 4.5" telescope, the Orion nebula looks like a whitish green blury patch, and the ring nebula looks like a faint spaghetti-o that I can barely make out in the darkness.

In my 14" telescope, the Orion nebula looks like a huge whitish green cloud of dust with a lot of detail, like in a photos, and the ring nebula is large and bright and I can even make out some red in it.

Some nebula, even in a small telescope, with the right filter, will still look amazing.

Galaxies typically require a lot of aperture but little magnification. Few people have telescopes large enough and skies dark enough to make out a lot of detail in galaxies. You typically want at least a 10" telescope to do serious galaxy viewing but you can see a few of them with a 4.5"

Some galaxies, you won't be able to see much detail in no matter how much aperture you have. The Andromeda Galaxy is a good example of this. In large and small telescopes alike, it's a fuzzy oval blob. In photos though, even ones taken with small telescopes, it's spectacular.

So in most instances, you won't be able to see things exactly like in the photos, but in some instance you will come close if you have the proper telescope.

You should go to a star party sometime and try out various telescopes.

Answer 2

Stars Through A Telescope

Answer 3

How the planets would look depends on many factors:

1.) which planet you choose and how close is it to earth in its orbit around the sun.
2.) Size and type of the telescope: A typical cheap reflector telescope will not resolve images as good as a SCT or Dobsonian. If you really want to see planets, you might want to consider a 12-16" SCT scope.
3.) Low light area to view from: This is critical as viewing planetary detail usually requires a considerably dark viewing location and time to adjust the scope and your eyes. Plan on making it an all nighter...

Planets viewed from a typical scope appear much darker and considerably less colorful than the images you see online.
This is because the professional images are often timed exposures with tracking motors to adjust for movement. The extended exposure time allows more light and detail to be captured to the film, but the human eye has no such feature!


What might you see? With a good 12-16" SCT telescope and optimum conditions you should expect to see shading variation on Mars, with good sky you can see the gas banding of Jupiter and some ring details of Saturn.

It is most satisfying to use the old school methods( a spotter scope and some sky charts) and find a planet in the sky!
But if you want easier results, get a motorized mount and some tracking software because you can also use that to see nebulae and distant galaxies that you would have a hard time finding on your own.... happy hunting!

Answer 4

Stars: continue to look like stars in a telescope. They are so far away that no amount of magnification will show anything other than a point of light. But their colours become more obvious in a telescope, and many stars turn out to be double or multiple, which is a pretty sight, especially if the stars are of contrasting colour or brightness.

Planets: usually look smaller than you'd expect, but exquisitely sharp and detailed. Saturn has a tiny perfect ring, and one or more moons, Jupiter has cloud belts and four bright moons, which are constantly changing position. Mars is tiny, but has a polar cap and dark markings.

Star clusters look better through a telescope than in any photograph, because the eye can handle the wide range of contrast. Galaxies and nebulae show no colour, except in the largest scopes, but appear as ghostly clouds of smoke. Awesome!

Answer 5

Astrophotos, either professional or amateur, show a lot more detail than you can see through a telescope with the naked eye. With the exception of some planetary nebulae, you will not see any color in most deep space objects. Galaxies appear much more tenuous and wispy; for most people it takes some practice and learning some visual tricks to see much of anything in a galaxy.

On the planets, you can see the rings and some subtle banding on Saturn, some more distinctive banding on Jupiter, and shadowy features on Mars. One way to get an idea of what can be seen is to look at sketches amateur astronomers have made. Cloudy Nights has a forum devoted to astronomical sketches: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/Sketching

As you look at sketches, note the aperture of the telescope used - it will say something like '8" f/6', indicating an eight inch aperture. More aperture will show more detail, for both planets and deep space objects.

Answer 6

I have a cheap beginner's telescope I bought years ago, with all manual adjustments. When I finally got things adjusted right I was able to see Mars as a crisp little red spot. I didn't notice much detail otherwise. What really blew me away was Saturn. I could see the rings clearly. It was just a crisp white dot with a sharp oval going around and through it. I was very moved by the experience!

Answer 7

from my telescope, jupiter for example, looks about like what this guy took a picture of. I have a 4" meade scope with tracking.

http://victoria.rasc.ca/gallery/Michael/images/Jupiter_and_Moons.jpg

Answer 8

You can see the spheres of the planets, but you can't see the sphere of the star. Just the light.

Answer 9

No we cannot.