In the first two parts of this little series on Beginning in Astronomy I’ve talked about starting observing with binoculars, something I consider a near essential part of learning the night sky. In the second part I mentioned the danger of wasting money on poor cheap telescopes. In this part of Beginning in Astronomy I’ll go up-market a bit and talk about some of the newest self guiding astronomy camera telescopes.
So, what is one of those? What I’m talking about is not a telescope you look through, it’s a computerised instrument that once you’ve learnt to use it properly gives rather good images, photos if you want to call them that, of things in the night sky. A decent one can just be put down and connected up, it will know where it is, and point precisely at whatever target you choose, they’re also incredibly compact. They work best on deep sky objects such as nebulas and galaxies, and less well on planets although even when pointed at Mars, you’ll see more with one of these than you could ever see with your eye through a small home telescope.
How do they work? I’m not going to get too technical about this, suffice to say that a truly dark sky is vital and when connected via an appropriate app on your phone, they know exactly where they are and where they are pointing. This allows them to rotate slowly to counteract the rotation of the Earth and stay locked on to whatever target you have chosen. They then will take a long series of pictures and automaticity stack them together, resulting in a high resolution image.
Not long ago all this was either impossible or would have needed a stack of technology costing a fortune and needing a lot of skill and knowledge to use, now most of us can spend a few hundred Euros and get excellent results.
How good are the results? surprisingly good actually, certainly good enough for most people. They are not as good as a dedicated proper telescope and astro camera set up, but something like that needs a lot of money and a huge amount of skill to use properly, for an occasional user or someone who wants an easier introduction these devices are excellent.
Lastly, which one and how much to spend. This is the hardest part, the problem with technology is that a great model today is out of date in a few months. You could keep putting off spending your money and never actually get anything. Look at models from Zwo like the Seestar s30 and s50, and models from Dwarflabs and Vaona. Prices begin a little over 500€.
This month I’ve tried to give the impression that these instruments are relatively simple to use, which is true, but you will still have a learning curve and if you aren’t reasonably proficient in astronomy and computer and phone use it will much harder.
This month picture is of the Orion nebula, imaged with a Seestar s50.
Charles Oates, Vega Baja Astronomy Group.
● To find out more about observing and astronomy why not join our group, email us at vegabaja.astronomygroup@gmail.com to find out more.
