Can I see things like this....?

Question

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=4744
with a normal telescope? Probably not huh. If not, then what kind of things would I be able to see. Im starting to really get into astronomy and want to buy a telescope.

Theres an astronomy club meeting at the beach in the beginning of September that I am going to check out! Keep the answers coming guys. I really appreciate all of them.

Answer 1

Please!! Do Not miss the Astronomy club meeting! This is the single most important piece of advice any of us can give you.
You will get to look through a number of different Telescopes and get a very good idea of the capability and operation of each scope. If you arrive a little early, you can also see what is involved in set-up, transport etc.
Just some general thoughts on observing.:
Objects in the sky are divided into two basic categories: Solar sytem objects and Deep sky Objects. Deep sky includes everything outside our solar system.
The main purpose of a Telescope is to gather light. How much light a Telescope gathers is dependent on it's optics' diameter.
Especially with deep sky objects which are often very faint, Aperture rules!!
So, what's the problem? just buy the biggest scope you can afford. Problem solved!
Not Quite!!
telescopes get very big, very quickly with increase in aperture diameter. With my 10" Reflector, if I want to observe objects close to the zenith, I have to stand on a stool.( and I'm 6 feet tall) 12" or above, you need a ladder.
A12" does not fit in my car, the 10" just fits in the car, but only if my wife stays at home. Another big consideration when it comes to telescope size is your observing location.
Large telescopes require very dark skies to be able to perform up to their potential.
In and around any sizable community or city light pollution and atmospheric conditions determine how dim an object will be visible in any scope, regardless of size. The Atmosphere will ultimately limit what you can see in your telescope.
I have found that in areas with heavy light pollution, a 10" telescope is about the maximum usable size. Using my 13" dobsonian in my back yard will give me about the same images as my 10", maybe a little brighter, but it's hard to tell.
But if i take the 13" to my club's observing site, which is very dark, the 13" lives up to it's potential and the views blow the socks off the 10".
A word on magnification.
The primary purpose of the scope is to gather light, magnification is definitely of minor importance since it can be changed at will, just by changing the eyepiece. As a matter of fact,
many deep space objects are so large, you actually want a minimum of magnification to allow the object to fit in your field of view.
As a guideline, the maximum usable magnification for a given scope is about 50X the aperture in inches. Thus a 10" Telescope's maximum usable magnification is about 500X (power). But only under perfect conditions. !!
That happens in my neck of the woods about a handfull of times a year. BTW, The absolute usable magnification for the vast majority of us is 600X, No matter how big the Telescope. The turbulence of the earth's atmosphere is the limiting factor here, not the optics.
For a beginner I would recommend an 8" dobsonin from Orion, the basic model. this will show you all the things you were interested in, and then some. One advantage of starting with the basic model is that you can take the optical Tube and easily put it on an equatorial Mount later on to give you tracking, goto and tons of electronics gadgets.
This electronics stuff is "Nice to have", but does not make your scope see any better. Initially, spend your money on good optics instead of gadgets. A thought on Observing in general. With all the great space and Astronomical images available on the net, why bother at all with sitting around in the middle of the night freezing your butt off to get a glimpse of the Orion nebula for instance?
I compare it to watching a football game.
There is no doubt, the view of the game in your Television beats the view available from the best seat at the game by a long shot.
So, why bother going to the game to freeze your butt off sitting in the stands?
Because on the TV you cannot experience the atmosphere of a live event and all the things that go with it.
I still marvel that after 48 years as an Astronomer, observing an object live has a totally different feel from looking at a picture.
A real Time machine ! I can look at things that happened when the dinosaurs were alive.
So, go for the experience. One of the nicest things about Astronomy is that you can make it as inexpensive or as expensive as you want as long as you buy good equipent.

Good Luck!

Adolph

Answer 2

Hello Jessay -

I am glad that you are starting to get into astronomy. It's a great hobby that will provide enjoyment for years. The answers above are generally correct (although the Andromeda Galaxy looks much better through binoculars than through a telescope). Geoff has plenty of experience and knows what he's talking about.The secret to enjoying the visual side of astronomy is to understand the following:

1. You generally cannot see things that look like the photos you see in books and magazines. You can record them with a CCD or camera, but you can't actually see them in the same detail.
2. You can however still see virtually all of those objects, depending on the scope that you have. Most of them are relatively large and need little magnification. Some are dim and need sufficient aperture to collect the necessary light. Some are quite bright and are easy to see. The photos of M11 and M13 look very similar to what I can see in my C11 on any early fall evening.
3. What you see may be dim, but it will be the REAL THING. The photons entering your eye will be those that left the source, perhaps thousands or even millions of years ago. This has a certain visual perception value that is hard to put into words. I see its effects every time I show someone a good view of Saturn or M13 (both of which are stunning in even small scopes).
4. There is additional satisfaction that is gained over time by learning what is out there to see (hundreds of things) and where to find them. Computerized GoTo scopes are fine for those that are short on time, but those that use them and never learn the sky are missing half the fun.

So welcome to the hobby... I think you should definitely go to a local astronomy club meeting to see what is available before you buy a scope. Enjoy!

Answer 3

Unfortunately, you'll never see that much detail or color in the eyepiece of just about any telescope. While those particular objects are well within the reach of amateur scopes, the human eye has a lot of difficulty seeing color and detail in low-light situations. Therefore, objects that show fine detail and dazzling color in long-exposure photographs often appear as little more than hazy, colorless clouds in the eyepiece.

That's not to say that visual astronomy is disappointing; on the contrary, I enjoy it immensely. It's a challenge that requires a lot of patience, but it is really rewarding, too. If you want to find out more, I suggest that you look for a nearby astronomy club. These clubs often hold public viewing sessions where you can look through a variety of telescopes. That's probably the best way to get started in visual astronomy. Good luck!

Answer 4

What you can see and what you can photograph, with the same telescope, are two quite different things.

I checked the web site of the guy who made that image, Warren Keller, and he used a quite ordinary amateur telescope, an 8" Newtonian reflector. With a long exposure and a lot of skill, he produced that image, which is better than what the professionals were doing 50 years ago with the largest telescopes in the world.

Looking through the same telescope with your eye, you would see something quite different. You would still see the galaxy (I've seen it many times myself with telescopes smaller than this), but it would appear as a hazy oval of faintly glowing light. You would not see the detail of the mottling in the disk of the galaxy, but you would very definitely see the galaxy.

The human eye is incapable of accumulating light over time, so won't see as much looking at a faint galaxy. On the other hand, a human eye looking through this same telescope at a star cluster would see _more_ detail than a photograph would show, because the eye can resolve the individual stars of the cluster, showing it as a sparkling jewel box rather than a smear of light.

With a telescope the same size as this one, which will cost you under $400, you can see unbelievable detail on the Moon, Mars' polar cap and dark markings, Jupiter's moons, cloud belts and Great Red Spot, Saturn's moons and rings, and hundreds of deep sky objects: star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. To take photographs of this quality will take about ten times that amount of money, by the time you buy an equatorial mount, a CCD camera, and the computer software to process the images. Astrophotography is a rich man's hobby, but visual astronomy is for everyone!

Answer 5

Yes, you can. It will take a telescope and a camera, but you can do it. Your best bet is to find your local astronomy club if you have become interested in astronomy. Don't worry, all of the people in those clubs, at one time, knew nothing about astronomy. They will be overjoyed to show you what is possible with a telescope and even help you in getting your own.
I hope this helps. Good luck!

Answer 6

You probably will be able to make it out but not clearly. It's unfortunate but if you want to see things like what's in the magazines, you would have to spend some money on a decent scope. If you're looking for a near decent scope to see far objects, I'd say somewhere upwards of $300-$500. Of course, I'm guessing you don't want to see something as common as the moon but to see something like a galaxy doesn't mean you have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars. I checked out telescopes from Orion and they seem to be the ones I'll buy. You have to go within your budget. It's not worth it to buy a $1000 scope and not know how to use it. Remember, there are things you can and can't see. Even the Hubble Space telescope orbiting Earth can't see some things. Good luck.

Answer 7

Pictures like the one you cite are made with digital cameras with exposures up to several hours. What you will see with even a large scope will have less detail and little color. To get close to such views as this picture you will need to buy a telescope with the largest aperture you can afford. A Dobsonian type telescope will give you the largest aperture (mirror) for the money. Meade and Orion make some great scopes of this type. Go to http://www.meade.com/productguide/index.html or http://orion.telescopes.com/

Answer 8

You gotta start small. You don;t learn to drive then buy a Ferrari.

And unless you are absolutely crazy about astronomy, any telescope less that 10,000 dollars is going to disappoint. You will see nothing like that picture.

And quite honestly, you can buy quite large Orion and Dobsonian telescopes, but the cheapness of them means they do not come with things like Equatorial mount, clock drives, and computer control.

A 12 inch telescope can see a lot of things, but if you haven't got the bells and whistles with it you have to be one super clever dude to use it.

A 12 inch with all the super finding stuff will cost you thousands.

Sorry to disappoint. The reality is that Hubble pictures are not obtainable with everyday equipment. However, you can do a lot with astro-photography, but you have to be keen. It takes skill and knowhow. You have to know the sky. Do you?

I just don;t want just another telescope gathering dust in a basement or attic.

Answer 9

You can actually see two of those objects, the Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy, with the naked eye. So with a normal telescope they would look awesome.