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Visibility of Orion's nebula?
- Thread starter Bobby
- Start date
To improve the details on the planets, you'd need to get an eye-piece with a shorter focal length. I assume your telescope came with a standard 40mm or perhaps 20mm eye piece, which would give you magnification of 22.5x and 45x (respectively). To see nice details on saturn, jupiter or mars, you'd need a magnification of about 150x and more, i.e. you'd need an eye-piece of 6mm or shorter.
For now, consider buying an eye-piece kit, Celestron has a pretty good one for about $150, with a great combination of eye-pieces, color filters and should also include a barlow.
When it comes to non-stellar objects, i.e. galaxies and nebulae, visually you cannot do much without increasing the aperture. The only way to get views you see around the internet is photography, with exposures of 10s of minutes. Astrophotography is quite complex and very expensive hobby with an incredible steep learning curve. If you have a look at the Amateur Astronomy Picture Of the Day (AAPOD) those guys use equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars and have been doing it for a while.
If you have a DSLR camera you could take images of brighter objects using a set of adapters to connect the camera to the telescope (instead of an eye-piece) but you just won't get results close to those you see on the internet.
BTW, most pictures you see on the internet are in "false" color, that is, virtually every nebula or galaxy seen through the telescope will appear gray-white. The only way to make it colorful is to combine exposures taken through different color filter (in a similar manner a color picture has RGB channels combined).
For now, consider buying an eye-piece kit, Celestron has a pretty good one for about $150, with a great combination of eye-pieces, color filters and should also include a barlow.
When it comes to non-stellar objects, i.e. galaxies and nebulae, visually you cannot do much without increasing the aperture. The only way to get views you see around the internet is photography, with exposures of 10s of minutes. Astrophotography is quite complex and very expensive hobby with an incredible steep learning curve. If you have a look at the Amateur Astronomy Picture Of the Day (AAPOD) those guys use equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars and have been doing it for a while.
If you have a DSLR camera you could take images of brighter objects using a set of adapters to connect the camera to the telescope (instead of an eye-piece) but you just won't get results close to those you see on the internet.
BTW, most pictures you see on the internet are in "false" color, that is, virtually every nebula or galaxy seen through the telescope will appear gray-white. The only way to make it colorful is to combine exposures taken through different color filter (in a similar manner a color picture has RGB channels combined).
I have a reflection 114mm aperture 900 mm focal length telescope. i want to nebula and i know that the best filter to use is say the Orion skyglow. i just don't have the cash for it right now. Is there a coloured filter that i can use to improve the visibility of Orion's nebula? as all i can currently see is three bright lights and a little hazy white puff of light around them. i want to see colour in the nebula... also saturn mars and jupiter is are all just light balls. i cant really see and surface detail.. granted i can see the rings of saturn but i want more.
what if i use an #80A filter? will that "dull" Down the planets and show more detail and contrast?
ok... so i feel stupid but there are two caps on the sky watcher telescope. one small cap in the middle of a large cap. i was taking off the small cap meaning i had only 60mm aperture instead of 114mm... everything looks 10 times better!!!! oh and Viola some of us aren't rich.. so don't be so rude!!! in south africa i earn R4500.00 (rand) ( south africa) per month! that is only $600.00 per month. i had to save for a year to buy that scope. so don't be so blunt!!!
what if i use an #80A filter? will that "dull" Down the planets and show more detail and contrast?
ok... so i feel stupid but there are two caps on the sky watcher telescope. one small cap in the middle of a large cap. i was taking off the small cap meaning i had only 60mm aperture instead of 114mm... everything looks 10 times better!!!! oh and Viola some of us aren't rich.. so don't be so rude!!! in south africa i earn R4500.00 (rand) ( south africa) per month! that is only $600.00 per month. i had to save for a year to buy that scope. so don't be so blunt!!!
wilde_space
New member
114mm (4.5 inch) is really a beginner's telescope. A little haze of white light is all you will see in Orion, unless you get a much more powerful telescope. And by powerful I don't mean magnification. Light-gathering ability, which is determined by the aperture, is much more important for seeing deep-space objects like nebulae.
Don't expect to see any colour, it only shows in long-exposure photos or through a really big telescope. You will probably see more of the nebula, and more detail in it, if you pick a really dark night away from any light pollution, and be patient to let your eyes adapt to the dark. Also, try using peripheral vision some time. It means not looking directly at something, but looking around it. This will let your eyes pick up more detail and spot some very faint objects.
As for the planets, try using a yellow, orange or red filter. It will bring at least some detail in Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Don't expect to see any colour, it only shows in long-exposure photos or through a really big telescope. You will probably see more of the nebula, and more detail in it, if you pick a really dark night away from any light pollution, and be patient to let your eyes adapt to the dark. Also, try using peripheral vision some time. It means not looking directly at something, but looking around it. This will let your eyes pick up more detail and spot some very faint objects.
As for the planets, try using a yellow, orange or red filter. It will bring at least some detail in Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
wilde_space
New member
114mm (4.5 inch) is really a beginner's telescope. A little haze of white light is all you will see in Orion, unless you get a much more powerful telescope. And by powerful I don't mean magnification. Light-gathering ability, which is determined by the aperture, is much more important for seeing deep-space objects like nebulae.
Don't expect to see any colour, it only shows in long-exposure photos or through a really big telescope. You will probably see more of the nebula, and more detail in it, if you pick a really dark night away from any light pollution, and be patient to let your eyes adapt to the dark. Also, try using peripheral vision some time. It means not looking directly at something, but looking around it. This will let your eyes pick up more detail and spot some very faint objects.
As for the planets, try using a yellow, orange or red filter. It will bring at least some detail in Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Don't expect to see any colour, it only shows in long-exposure photos or through a really big telescope. You will probably see more of the nebula, and more detail in it, if you pick a really dark night away from any light pollution, and be patient to let your eyes adapt to the dark. Also, try using peripheral vision some time. It means not looking directly at something, but looking around it. This will let your eyes pick up more detail and spot some very faint objects.
As for the planets, try using a yellow, orange or red filter. It will bring at least some detail in Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.