Hi Gary: On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 8:08 PM, Gary Bulk <garybulk@the-logans.net> wrote:
*Some more questions from a novice... - Do the above 4.15 & 9.5 Magnitudes sound in the ballpark?*
Limiting magnitude varies greatly in the valley, dependant on local light pollution quite a bit. I live in Granger and its a rare night that I can see dimmer than 4.5, however, it does get much better after midnight, and even better during the wee hours of the morning. Once all the cars are off the road, and most business lights get turned-off, the sky darkens noticeably. *- What would be an expected 'seeable' Magnitude? for dark sky unaided eye ... If I went to some good Southern Utah spot.* Again it varies, and your own eyesight is a big part of it, but magnitude 6.5 at a dark site is not unreasonable to expect. Some sharp-eyed observers can see appreciably dimmer stars. *- What Magnitude should expect I be able to see with a 8" Schmidt-Cass. in town? All the planets? (Pluto is 14.9). I just borrowed a Celestron C8 from a friend who was letting his collect dust. I'm dusting it for him for the next couple months.* None of the planets require a dark sky to see well. A steady atmosphere, and having the object above 45-degrees altitude is more important than a dark sky for solar system objects. Pluto will appear as a tiny star, amid a field of stars. Having a good locator chart is essential, and you may need to compare the view from one night to the next, checking for Pluto's movement. *- And, what kind of difference will I get with the C8 if I go to a dark sky site?* ** On the planets, little or no difference. A dark sky is prerequisite for extended, nebulous objects and galaxies. Objects with low surface brightness. *On my first night out with the scope last weekend (in the moonlight), I had a difficult time finding things. I could find the Orion Nebula. I couldn't find the Andromeda Galaxy, there were no eyeball visible stars close enough for me to successfully to hop from.* ** Just about any light-pollution will extinguish all but the central core of the Andromeda galaxy. It's not surprising that you didn't see it in moonlight. *Also the upside-down & left-to-right reversed guide scope was different than the upside-right but left-to-right reversed main scope, which continually confused me about which direction I was moving as I switched between them. I am wondering if getting a guide scope that reverses things (or not) in the same way as your main scope would help. And/or perhaps a lower power main eyepiece for finding things, then switching to a higher power eyepiece. - Anyone have preferred methods/techniques they would pass along?* ** I prefer a reflex sight for rough-aiming purposes; a bb-gun, "red-dot" type finder. Ive been doing this for so long and accumulated so many different types of finders that I use them all. Correct left-to-right, inverted, inverted and mirror-reversed. Generally matching the finder to the main scope view is a good first step. *I figure I will continue in my backyard until I can find more objects. Then maybe go to the (5 Mile Canyon) close-by area mentioned in another thread for an evening with a little more darkness after I believe I can better find my way in the dark. It looks like a should have a list before I go out away from home in the dark, so I'm not fumbling for "what do I look at now, and where is it?" * You can spot all of the Messier Objects from the valley, if you are judicious about the time and atmospheric conditions for some of them. Also, hundreds of NGC objects are visible from light-polluted locations. The view of all deep-sky objects is always better from a dark sky, but I'll take a mag. 4 sky to no sky any time. Have fun! -Chuck