Date: January 10, 2011

Title: So You Got a Telescope? Part 2

Podcaster: Jeff Gortatowsky

Description: Telescope tips for observational astronomy. Part 1 aired on Dec. 31, 2010.

Bio: Jeff lives in Redondo Beach California with his wife Kim and six felines. When not feeding cats Jeff enjoys Astronomy, building and flying Radio Control Sailplanes, building and launching model rockets, and generally reliving his youth of the space age. His most memorable night was the night he spent on an amateur owned 48 inch telescope in southwest Texas. His favorite deep sky objects are galaxy trios and other galaxy groups.

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Transcript:

Hello. My name is Jeff Gortatowsky a Software Architect with eHarmony by day and an avid amateur astronomer by night living in Southern California in the United States of America. Many thanks to Nancy Atkinson and her crew for their hard work on the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. Folks if I can do a podcast, so can you. So please get to it!

This 365 days of Astronomy podcast is about astronomy observing tips I’ve learned over past over 14 years now as an active amateur and observing with some of the best observers in the world. This podcast is the second of two parts of astronomy tips I feel are worthwhile for any observational amateur astronomer. By that I mean useful to someone who observes the night sky through a telescope. I’ve dabbled with some webcam astronomy, and its ok, but frankly imaging is just not for me. I prefer to place my mark one eyeball to the eyepiece.

Some of these tips are controversial. By that I mean not every amateur you talk with will agree with me. Thats ok. Good amateurs can agree to disagree sometimes and this first tip is a doozy when it comes to disagreement.

Next tip: Use a laptop
This is is going to raise a few eyebrows. I have used paper star charts extensively in the past with some success. And I’ve used printed star charts that I made with a computer. Again with some success. However in my opinion there is a better way.

I have always had far more success finding objects, especially in dense star fields like the Milky Way, using a competent star charting program, live, on my table or tailgate, at night while observing. Before everyone goes crazy yelling about how it will ruin your night vision, or the cost, read what I have to day.

I bought a cheap laptop on eBay. It was used and it came with 3 good batteries. Those 3 can last most of the night if not all with aggressive power management. I’ve had this type of laptop before and I knew it gets great battery life. I only installed the charting program and the obligatory anti-virus software. Nothing else to waste processing time on or keep the hard disk from sleeping to save power. And yes, to bug star parties I carry a 55 amp/hr deep cycle battery and a DC to DC converter. That will run my little laptop for 3 or 4 nights.

Here the important point: I set the star charting program to display red objects and text on a black background. I dim the screen all the way down using the hardware dimming function, then I tape a three layer sandwich of a red plastic film called Rubylith, to screen. When you combine my program color settings, with my hardware display settings, with my red filter, the screen is so dim I need a tiny red dimmed USB light to just see the keyboard. There is not enough light from the screen to type by. That is how dim I keep the computer. It is dim enough to NOT affect your dark vision enough for 10s of thousands of deep sky objects.

Yet you will hear purists tell you that you are compromising your night vision. I assure you however, that in my experience you are doing no such thing. I have seen the very same people who complain that any laptop is too bright for use at night, use at far brighter touch (flashlight to some) to read their charts.

I know, no I am certain, using a properly filtered laptop with a good star charting program like SkyMap Pro, MegaStar, or The Sky version 10 is far superior to any print star chart ever produced. You can customize the displayed star field in innumerable ways. This lets you see, on your screen, exactly what you should see or are seeing in your telescope for the magnification you are using. You can match the field of view, and the orientation of that field of view. You can add stars, take stars away, rotate the field to the exact orientation for your mount type be it equatorial or altitude and azimuth. You can mirror reverse the field; Zoom or widen the field. None of that is easy with a decent printed star atlas. Armed with my 45cm truss tube newtonian and my laptop running SkyMap Pro or MegaStar, I’ve hunted down nearly 15th magnitude galaxies and planetary nebulae. If that is ruining my night vision, you know, I guess I’ll suffer. By the way, when I say 15th magnitude, I mean visual magnitude not the Blue-Violet magnitude like many catalogs use. By those standards the magnitudes I am mentioning is more like the upper 15th magnitudes.

I am not going to convince those that want to use printed star charts. They look at a laptop and think of imagers, whom often do have the screens too bright because they are not interested in their dark adaptation. And many distain laptops because they have a love of the printed low tech atlas. Heck so do I. I collect printed star atlas’! But I know the superior tool is the laptop because nothing makes it easier to see (or confirm you did not see) an object than when you match the exact field of view in the eyepiece with the field of view shown on the screen. Often half the battle of star hopping is knowing you are exactly where you think you are. I can not tell you the number of times I know I saw a very faint object because I could match 13th or 14th magnitude stars in the eyepiece to ones I see on the computer screen and therefore zero in on the precise spot and stare. No printed chart goes that deep.

Yes I keep a print set of charts like Uranomatria 2000 2nd edition in my car just in case the laptop dies. But as long as I have kept the laptop running continuously and had a box to cover it from the dew, I’ve not been let down even in dewing conditions and freezing dewing conditions.

So my suggestion is use a laptop. But if you observe in a group remember to keep that screen dim and filtered. If need be put it in a box and point the screen towards you so that no one can see the screen. Because some people will not been convinced a properly filtered and dimmer laptop will not harm their dark adaption, you need to be accommodating.

5) Mine the net

My final tip for this pod cast is Mine the Net; If you are an observational amateur astronomer looking to grow beyond what I call the Messier Merry-go-round, then I have a few web sites I’d like to bring to your attention if you are not already aware of them. By the way, the Messier Merry-Go-Round is the name I give to the activity I have observed in many amateurs where they basically observe the same bright Messier objects ever year, each season, over and over again. There is nothing wrong that, it’s their choice. However I believe there are 1000s of objects to see with my own eyes and life is too short to observe the same few objects night after night. Sure I love looking at show piece objects. However the deep sky is far more diverse and amazing the further off the Messier path you get. The URLS for these sites are in this podcast’s transcript.

The first site I’d like to bring to your attention is Adventures in Deep Space (http://astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/). Just search and you’ll find it in any search engine. Adventure in Deep Space has dozens and dozens of wonderful observing programs from easy to hard and for all seasons. The articles there could keep you going for quite some time.

The next web site I think is an invaluable resource to the observational amateur astronomer is the NGC/IC Project. Here you’ll find an amazing accounting of the NGC/IC catalogs including historical background and corrections. But the treasured mother load here is the observational logs of deep sky luminaries like Steve Gottlieb done with 35cm and 40cm aperture telescopes. These logs are worth seeking out and can help you confirm your own observations. http://www.ngcicproject.org/

The next site is perhaps not as well known as it should be. I belong to group that calls itself The Astronomy Connection. Call it TAC for short. TAC is a loose association of some of the most amazing visual observers in the United States and in the world. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and with members all along the United States western coast, TAC has a motherlode, a treasure trove, a gold mine of observation reports online stretching back some 15 years. Have a look at at the site and enjoy http://observers.org/reports/

Finally, Amastro is a yahoo group. As such you’ll have to register and have a Yahoo! account to read the group. Amastro is a Yahoo! group whose members are amongst the most advanced and talented observational amateurs in the world. Reading the archives of this group is a complete masters degree in what is advanced observational astronomy. A word of warning however. The group was form by and for advanced observational amateur astronomers. It’s not for beginners to ask questions in, it’s not for intermediate observers to ask questions in. There is a very very high signal to noise ratio in the group and the jealously guard that. I read this group. I’ve virtually never posted a message. There are plenty of beginner and intermediate amateur astronomy forums, like those on CloudyNights.com (http://www.cloudynights.com/), or astronomy.com. Amastro is not one of them. However the information in the archives could keep an observation amateur astronomer busy for years to come.

Next tip: Get a dark cloth
This one may seem obvious but so many people
So thats my tips. I hope you found in them something useful. I know some of these tips are opinionated. I wanted to create a podcast that went beyond the basics. Something for those who want to move ahead in amateur astronomy. If you’d like to hear more tips, please leave a comment on the 365 days of astronomy web site.

For me, the night sky is a personal journey into the wonder and beauty of science and the natural universe science reveals to us. Paraphrasing Carl Sagan a bit, The night sky holds all we know, all we can see, and even holds where we are going. Everyone, everywhere, is connected by that sky. Everyone, everywhere came from that sky and they will return to that sky. For me, there is no need for any other magic, majesty, high place or cause. That sky IS magic. It’s all right there for you and I to see. I hope this podcast helps you explore that sky.

From Southern California this is Jeff Gortatowsky wishing you clear skies, good transparency, and good seeing.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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