Deep Sky Objects
Created | Updated Oct 28, 2008
If you are interested in astronomy, and just bought your first telescope, you may be asking, what now?
Well, there are a variety of things to look at thru a small to midsized telescope. You can see the planets, lots of different stars- each with a different color and brightness, or you can look at deep sky objects- the focus of this Entry.
Deep sky objects include galaxies, star clusters, and nebulas. These objects are usually seen best with a scope over the 4.5" aperature although any light gathering instrument will help you see more).
A good instrument to look at objects like these is a scope around 6". This aperature is both large enough to see a lot of stuff, and affordable enough for the beginner astronomer.
Once you have a scope, look at the mount. This can influence how easy it is to find things in the sky, but it dosen't really matter that much. If it is an equatorial mount, you can use setting circles, a way to find things in the sky by using coordinates instead of looking at the stars and pointing the scope that way. You can find lists of objects and coorinates at www.astronomydaily.com. If your mount is computer controlled, a.k.a. a GoTo scope, then all you need to do is set the scope up and tell it what you want to see. If you have a dobsonian, you can point the telescope by looking at the sky, jumping from star to star, and finally arriving at the object you want to see. Deep sky objects are usually clustered near each other, not spread out all over. You will find some areas that you really like to observe, and some that are more challenging for your scope. Depending on the season, deep sky objects may or may not be visible. In the winter and spring is usually the best time to observe these objects. One of the best lists of deep sky objects to observe is the Messier List. The French astronomer Charles Messier was a comet hunter, and finding all of these deep sky objects to not be comets, he put together a list of them - a sort of reject list - so that other comet hunters would have a list of things that were known not to be comets. In making this list, Messier made one of the best lists of the most interesting and brightest deep sky object. This list is avalable from a lot of different places, and you can buy star charts that emphasize on this list. Other lists of objects are out there, such as the NGC catalouge, but are for more advanced astronomers.
I will add more to this entry soon.
