Expert: Tom Whiting - 9/26/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi!

My love for physics and astronomy is of cosmical scale! I am an absolute beginner and recently got a small 5" reflector telescope.  I am trying to get acquainted with the night sky and so far found Jupiter and observed the moon.  I want to find nebulas and galaxies but by reading previous posts I think light pollution will not let me see any of that. Could it be light pollution of is it that my "newbie" equipment is not enough to see them?  I have 20mm wide view eyepieces and 9mm regular pieces.  Another question, I also bought a binocular viewer, do you think this viewer could be robbing my equipment of light it needs to reflect or magnify DSO's?

Thanks for your time!
Edna

ANSWER: Hi Edna,
In our great hobby, typically equipment (scopes) come last, not first. Knowledge of astronomy comes first.  Your first task is to learn the naked eye night sky and, yes, the 40 northern constellations. You can't find the armory in Orlando Florida until you know where Florida is (the constellation or area of sky), then the naked eye "star" Orlando... then offset 10 miles to the south from 'Orlando' to find "the armory" (actually in this case the defunct McCoy AFB).  So put the scope away for a while, get yourself a decent star chart (actually a star atlas; Cambridge 2000.0, Sky atlas, Norton's Star Atlas, etc).  Go to a relatively dark sky location with your red flashlight, and learn (self-teach yourself) the 40 or so areas of the sky  Yes, constellations are simply areas of the sky. If you can learn and memorize the shapes and locations of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois - 4 adjoining states, then you can also learn and memorize Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo (4 adjoining constellations).
No men, no animals, simply areas since 1930 when the IAU (International Astronomical Union) set firm, carved in granite, boundaries of the constellations.
  Light pollution affects ALL scopes. Just having a bigger scope doesn't "improve" on light pollution because the large mirror brings in still more light pollution. Even a 200 inch scope in the center of Orlando would be worthless in visible light. One of the things you learn in your readings of astronomy is that there is no substitute for a clear, dark sky, unless you change to radio, infrared, or ultraviolet wavelengths.
With just a 5 inch mirror, expect to see almost any DSO as just a fuzzy spot... it takes at least an 8" and for most a 12" to see any detail in most Messier objects. There are exceptions of course, like the Pleiades (M-45) and the Beehive cluster in Cancer (M-44) will show detail in even a 5 inch scope. (Mainly open star clusters).
Your binocular viewer is not "stealing" any light pollution or DSO light from your primary scope as those are different photons entering the binocular viewer.  
Since you are so new to the hobby, suggest you do all the reading you can on it. Also, join a club and go out to dark skies with other observers and their equipment.  Also, if you have time, punch on our club website and read "Tom Whiting's Sound Advice for the New Observer" at
http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting

Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA
(formerly stationed at McCoy AFB a long time ago).

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Whiting,

Thanks a million for taking time to reply.  I really appreciate an expert's input.  Last weekend I made a little fort to block light from light posts and after a couple of hours I found Andromeda Galaxy (or maybe one of its neighbor galaxies) and it was exhilarating to me.  I could only see a faint "cloud" with a very faint tinge of orange.  Now I have another question, and I am considering your previous answer on equipment, having a similar size refractor telescope, would it make a difference on these objects?  I need to see more and now that I have finally found andromeda I am on a quest to get better at observing and get better equipment.

Your opinion is worth a lot to me, thanks!
Edna

Answer
Congratulations on finding M-31, and yes, we can only see the primary galaxy naked eye. The other two companion galaxies (M-32 and M-110) can only be seen with optical aid.
Some people use the 3 brightest V-shaped stars of Cassiopeia that point roughly to M-31, especially if you follow a line of dimmer stars (including stars Zeta, Nu, Omicron and Pi Cassiopeiae) over to M-31.  I prefer to use the Great Square of Pegasus, which looks like a baseball diamond with "home plate" as the easternmost star. I start at 3rd base (which is actually the star Alpha Andromedae) and count stars on the Northeast line, 1, 2 to a bright one
(star Beta Andromedae), then up one, two to M-31 (all proportional distances.)

A similar sized 5" refractor would not produce that much difference to your 5" reflector.
(And a 5" reflector is far more cheaper than an equivalent sized quality refractor!)
Typically, reflectors (large ones) are meant primarily for Deep Sky Objects, whereas refractors are favored by the planetary/lunar/double star observers. Magnification is higher with a much smaller field of view (FOV) with a high quality refractor, whereas DSO observers prefer the larger FOV at the lower magnification, which also produces a brighter, more pleasing, image.
Again, all this comes from education and experience... that's why we highly recommend you do some reading before getting into the hobby, and again, join a club. Go out observing with other club members, see their equipment and what it can (and cannot) do, listen to their advice, and this is the proper and best way to get into the hobby.
Clear Skies,
Tom