Amateur astronomy: a view from the inside of the community on hobbies and newcomers' rakes
I apologize if I put the post for nothing in the cosmonautics hub: unfortunately, I did not find a hub with the name "space" or the like. I also apologize for a certain amount of self-reflection in the next three paragraphs, but self-reflection is necessary, since the post is critical for several previously published ones, and for typos that are probably present in my post (but will be corrected as I read them). notice).
To write my post I was inspired by a series of such:
Did you connect the telescope to a computer?
IT guy on vacation: what about the telescope?
IT guy on vacation: add some astronomy?
IT guy on vacation: gadgets to the telescope
')
Thank you very much to the authors that they popularize amateur astronomy, but while reading these posts, my toes were compressed several times due to inconvenience and shame.
Maybe it is not so important: In the end, Habrahabr is a resource for IT, and amateur astronomy is just a hobby, and everyone does the hobby the way he likes. Or maybe not, and criticize, teach, how to engage in a hobby?
This is a post about a rake, on which you are likely to step on, if you get carried away with such a beautiful, romantic, but difficult hobby. My post is not very popular, it is designed for a person who has already read at least something (for example, the aforementioned posts that I did not like, although I still put the authors in karma for popularization). In the post may occur incomprehensible terms. If it annoys you, please do not read.
For priming anecdote.
A buyer comes to the telescope shop and asks:
- Can I buy a telescope from you for three thousand rubles?
- Well ... it is possible, but the lenses will be plastic, and it is better not to, take a 6,000 refractor better. - Seller shows his hand on the most popular among schoolchildren lens telescope
- Well, can I buy a telescope for 25 thousand? - Buyer inquires
“Yes, you can,” the salesman answers, pointing at the eight-inch newton on the EQ5 — this is a very good telescope for beginners.
- Can you see Pleiads through the clouds in it? - asks the buyer
- Unfortunately, it is impossible ... - the salesman shakes his head
- Is there a telescope for 100 thousand? - The buyer does not let up
- Yes, here - the Seller shows a Nexstar 11SE computerized and fancy
“Can we see the Andromeda nebula in it in the afternoon?”
- Unfortunately, it is impossible, - the seller shakes his head
“Why then is he so expensive?”
It so happened that amateur astronomy became my main hobby. I would really like to share with the habrasoobshchestvom, which suddenly dares to find a new hobby, their experiences. Perhaps far from the biggest, but his own. My good friend, whom I consider the best visual observer of deep space objects in Moscow, and maybe Russia, considers himself an observer with an average skill (comparing himself with observers from all over the world), I am a beginner, and all newcomers, it turns out, are out of classification. I do not know if this experience gives me the right to write posts on the subject of amateur astronomy in Habrahabr? I used to think that no, it does not, but the above series of posts changed this point of view, and I really wanted to write a post that would warn novice astronomy fans (not according to the classification of a familiar observer) from attacking a rake , which can discourage the desire to do it a hobby .
“What rakes are we talking about? This is a hobby! Everyone practices them as he likes! ”- the skeptic will exclaim, and he will be right:
For example, IT-cams like all sorts of high-tech buzzing things, well, let them buy a small scoop with GoTo system for a limited budget. Let the small-scope scanner, after pointing to a point in the sky where the Needle galaxy NGC 4565 is located, is so beautiful in the photographs, with its gas and dust clouds show nothing through the apartment’s kitchen window in the center of Moscow, or even from the glazed and warm verandah of the dacha :) that a small scoop buzzes, flashes beautiful red lights on the remote, and the owner of the equipment is pleased with the new gadget and the pleading to the sky, sitting in warmth and comfort, isn't it?
Or is it wrong? If not, welcome under cat. Otherwise, please, do not read my multi-letters about the rake, because in a hobby the attack on the rake may even be a kind of masochism, and in some ways be pleasant to the coming!
To begin with, I considered it necessary to classify the astronomy fans (hereinafter the LA) and other subjects themselves from the LA point of view.
Knowing the classification, it is easier without stepping on a rake, to correctly fit into the group in which you personally will be more comfortable.
Every community has its own slang, and in every community, offensive nicknames are used for people far from the community. Please do not be offended at me, since the classification was not invented by me:
UPDATE:
It seems that not everyone understood that below is not the rating of groups, none of the groups are cooler than others (whatever their representatives think), these “castes” of LA are independent, and neither of them is more advanced than the other. For example, a ballet planter can be a very experienced observer of the planets, and have good equipment, and a visual distributor can use the equipment that prevents him from enjoying his hobby.
Astrophotographers
Many astrophotographers consider themselves to be the “elite” of LA, and even some are “the only true lovers of astronomy,” arguing that they use sophisticated equipment, much the same, or even common to what professionals are using.
All astronomy lovers are very open, friendly, and always ready to share skills to help them in their hobbies. Astrophotographers are also open and friendly people, but, compared to other LA groups, their caste is the most closed: astrophotographers will let you sit at a table at a meeting of astronomy lovers, treat you with alcohol, tell a few tales, but what would you like to become respect, you have to invest a lot of money, effort, labor (even a soldering iron!) in your equipment, spend a lot of time on defective series of shots.
I would say that a successful start by an astrophotographer is extremely unlikely. Most likely, you will feel an inferiority complex from communicating with polite and kind snobs, will aimlessly spend a rather large amount of money, your friends on Vkontakte and Facebook will certainly be shocked by your astrophotographs, but experienced LA photographers will wrinkle their nose and say “Bad : rotation of the field of view, aberration. And go through the mount, lubricate everything, you have a lubricant on the right ascension! "
It is best to poizuyalit year, and a year later, if you do not get tired, return to the idea of ​​astrophotography, by the fact that it is here that lurk the most difficult and painful rapping ...
If you still do not heed my warning, then under the spoilers (unfortunately, it was not possible to put everything under one spoiler) good way, which sometimes allows
Visuals are deep . Since the occupation with dipscale visual is less hardcore than astrophoto and more accessible to beginners, especially if they avoid rakes, I decided not to spoil it, as I placed astrophotographers under the spoiler.
What can you say about them? A Russian-speaking visuals-dipskayschik is such a strange, frost-resistant (If it does not live in the South of Russia, Ukraine, or in the Central Asian republic) an animal that likes to view through the eyepiece of its huge Dobson galaxies, globular star clusters, planetary nebulae. Some of these objects are so weak that they can only be seen with lateral vision!
This is not your hobby, if you live in central Russia, in Ukraine, in Belarus, or in Siberia, and are not frost-resistant. Why? by the fact that in the summer in the central zone of Russia there are also white nights (surprise! They are not only in St. Petersburg!) and night does not come in the summer, but dusk continues until morning!
The LA diplomats in Moscow end the observation season on the 15th of May, and open it only on the 12th of August, by a trip to the south of the Tula region!
Most of the departures of the LA diplomatic engineers occur at a negative temperature, when there is a stable anticyclone in winter, and the temperature is below -15, sometimes -25!
I would also add that it is a very bad idea to observe “at the dacha”: it is completely meaningless! All holiday villages are illuminated either by local illumination or by illumination from the nearest district center. There are practically no such cottages where one could see the outer space in central Russia (I don’t know about Siberia). Most of the young, up to 40 years old, have never seen a truly dark sky. People think that if the Milky Way is barely visible (and they don’t know how it can shine!), Then this is a good sky.
There are two types of flare: local and global. The local is important only for the visuals, since he is knocked down by his dark adaptation of vision, which for some reason is often neglected by many beginners. In fact, the sensitivity of an eye that has just fallen into the darkness, and after adaptation for 40 minutes, is thousands of times different! Therefore, LA visuals use red lanterns, and do not observe them in holiday villages, where one lamp, constantly attracting the eye, can ruin everything. Local illumination is not important for a photographer, as he will not direct the camera directly to the flashlight :)
Fresh maps of flare can be found at astroforum
There are also online services.
There is a classification of zones of global illumination:
Illumination affects the penetration: the higher the penetration, the weaker the stars and objects can be seen. In addition to glare, penetration also affects the height above sea level, and in the Caucasus, in the mountains, where there is clearly not a black zone of flare, but quite a gray one, the penetration is much higher than the deep corner of Siberia hundreds of kilometers from all cities where the real black zone.
Some astronomy enthusiasts do astrotourism, and travel to places with gray and black areas of illumination in the mountains: in the mountain Crimea, in the Caucasus, in the Canaries, in Chile, or in Namibia (go to the last two places to see the southern sky, and their numerous facilities, which we, living in the Northern Hemisphere, are deprived of).
So, what is the secret to the success of a diplomatic visualist?
UPDATE : your entire setup is in total and should cost twice as much as a telescope .This is normal! The pleasure of observing a nebula in a “shout” never compares with observing it with a zoom eyepiece or a complete super: in the first case you are inside the cosmos, and in the second you secretly peep through the keyhole!
I also forgot to write about filters : they are very important for observing nebulae. Buy at least Vladimir Nikolaevich filters from astroforum, he sells ultra-low cost DeepSky (his own brand). Without the UHC and OIII filter, no single observation of the Dipskaya can be complete , unless, of course, this is not only a trip to the galaxies or only to the globes: for planetarok and emission nebulae, these are essential tools.
If you have a normal budget, then buy Lumicon or Astronomic filters. There is also an average option (in terms of price and quality), these are Baader filters. Remember that throwing a GoTo drive out of a telescope and including accessories in it is a better idea than throwing out accessories.
Every IT person likes the way GoTo drives, but it seems that most are not very happy with the barely visible spots without filter, visible in keyhole, and throw a hobby. It is better to touch the cosmos and invest money in optics.
Also the most important moment, which not everyone understands, judging by the comments (although I wrote about it): every kilometer that you travel towards the gray zone, virtually increases your telescope. It can even increase two to three times!The rate of increase of the telescope falls only after reaching the green zone. There is no sense to remain in yellow, because in yellow, as you approach green, your telescope virtually grows almost exponentially!
Sidewalks : People who popularize astronomy and science at sidewalk events: telescopes are brought to the sidewalk in the city to show the planets and the moon to passersby and tell something about Occam’s razor, about Popper’s principle, why we all will not die from the planet Niburu, and why astrology is pseudoscience, and UFOlogs are stupid freaks. A very noble lesson for a man-teacher in the shower :)
I use Maksutov-Cassegren 127mm for sidewalks on the alt-azimuth mount AZ4. The planets and the moon quickly run out of sight because of the rotation of the earth, especially noticeable at high magnifications, but this is even a reason to tell people about the rotation of the Earth, Jupiter (why it has elongated clouds), the Moon, on which one side is always invisible for resonance with the Earth, and more.
Telescopes with a GoTo system have a certain meaning for sidewalks: if under a good sky an astronomy lover with even a little experience will be guided to deep objects faster than a GoTo system, then it is difficult to navigate under the illuminated city sky when there are no stars other than the brightest ones. Even worse, if the sky is broken in the clouds: here, for example, I can even confuse the same Saturn or Mars with a star, if it seems to me that it does not flicker.
Balconschiki: people watching the planets at home from the balcony. Due to the fact that the sky is turning, they can see, having woken in the morning, quite a lot of objects. But the illumination observed in the city makes such observations, if you observe something other than the moon and planets, meaningless. Usually, balconies protect their observations of dipskay objects (or rather, observations of shadows from dipskie objects) to the first exit into the blue zone, after which the pale shadows of bright dipskay objects from the city cease to look, and only the moon and the planets are viewed from the balcony.
The balcony still has a drawback associated with the flow of warm air from the apartment (there is such a flow even through a plastic door). This reduces the so-called siing, and the planets begin to "chatter", dribbling the details on their disk.
Of course, to observe from the kitchen, opening a window, is the most stupid idea of ​​all possible: a warm apartment will make the siing completely zero.
The same crazy idea and observation through the window, because it is not glass with diffraction quality, which is the lens of your telescope.
Balkonschiki-plantechiki not less funny animals than frost-resistant dipskayshchiki, for some reason looking at the weak haze spots.
The favorite topic of an experienced balcon master is the shot (optical quality) of a telescope. The telescope shot can help measure in, for example, the “basement” of the VAGO, if you live in Moscow. If your telescope is thermally stabilized, a bunch of holes are drilled into it, into which fans are placed, then a more “streamer” telescope will show the planets better than a less streamer. Regarding the telescope plugs, incredible battles are boiling between the shops that have sold the next "junk" telescope, and the buyers. Likewise, balconies love to measure themselves with each other with their winds. In addition to balconies , astrophotographers, especially planetaryists, are also interested in the number of shooters.
If you are going to become a balcony man, besides a pipe with a good number of shooters, on which you screw the ventilators, I would advise you to also purchase planetary eyepieces. The best Russian-language eyepiece reviews can be found on the astro-talks forum from Ernest .
Just do not forget about the aperture: there is a rule of thumb that the maximum effective magnification of a telescope is equal to the aperture of a telescope in millimeters multiplied by two. That is, “weaving” will show you Jupiter with a maximum increase of 200 times. Greater magnification will not add to you the details on the disk, even if you put a very good short-focus planetary eyepiece.
Most of the balcony workers overestimate the shot, but underestimate the aperture, although they can be understood: it’s difficult to push the large-aperture telescope onto the balcony: short catadioptric barrels (MAKs and HQs) are convenient.
DressersThis, dear friends, according to the theory of probability, is you who read these lines. You love astronomy, but you do not want to freeze in the field, and even on the balcony, and even more so you do not want to get involved in setting up equipment, the complexity of which is slightly less than the complexity of professionals, like astrophotographers. It is better to read about astronomy lying on the couch, keeping a warm laptop on your belly. Perhaps you even know that amateur astrophotographers can take artistic pictures as well as Hubble (see, for example, Oleg Bryzgalov’s astronomical photographs), which is still a scientific instrument, not an artistic one, and maybe you even have a balcony telescope gathering dust on the mezzanine. Well, laziness is not always bad, and the hobby should be fun :) So lying on the couch and reading interesting texts, as well as looking at fascinating photos, is your hobby, stop reproaching yourself! You can also engage in amateur astronomy from home, so we advised a great link in the comments! It is also possible to process images of the ESA observatory: sometimes astrophoto exhibit images taken with professional tools and processed by amateurs for the competition.
BeaversThis is slang for astronomy lovers. Beavers are usually understood as people who are aggressive towards astronomy lovers. For example, on the sidewalk they think that you came with an artillery cannon to shoot at someone’s window, or even to shoot down the president’s plane.
astrohudozhniki
In conclusion, I would like to talk about for some reason the unpopular form of aircraft in Russia, about astrohudohniki. We have only one topic on astroforum.
Then, as for the “bourgeois”, there are a whole section on claudia nights, just as for astrophoto! .
I do not know what this is connected with: either because people think that drawing space is difficult, or because astrophotography is more juicy, beautiful, and colorful, and in the sketches we see what is with the eye. And if the misty spot is perceived by the eye as “wow!”, Then most people are probably not impressed ...
In my opinion, you need to draw, because you will notice more details this way. In addition, in the picture, the object looks the same as the eye (after looking at it for a long time), and in the photo the radiation receiver acts as a CCD matrix, which is much more sensitive than the eye. Therefore, in the atlas of visuals do not use astrophotography, and sketches.
The Omega Centaurius globular cluster Michael11 from astroforum
To write my post I was inspired by a series of such:
Did you connect the telescope to a computer?
IT guy on vacation: what about the telescope?
IT guy on vacation: add some astronomy?
IT guy on vacation: gadgets to the telescope
')
Thank you very much to the authors that they popularize amateur astronomy, but while reading these posts, my toes were compressed several times due to inconvenience and shame.
Maybe it is not so important: In the end, Habrahabr is a resource for IT, and amateur astronomy is just a hobby, and everyone does the hobby the way he likes. Or maybe not, and criticize, teach, how to engage in a hobby?
This is a post about a rake, on which you are likely to step on, if you get carried away with such a beautiful, romantic, but difficult hobby. My post is not very popular, it is designed for a person who has already read at least something (for example, the aforementioned posts that I did not like, although I still put the authors in karma for popularization). In the post may occur incomprehensible terms. If it annoys you, please do not read.
For priming anecdote.
A buyer comes to the telescope shop and asks:
- Can I buy a telescope from you for three thousand rubles?
- Well ... it is possible, but the lenses will be plastic, and it is better not to, take a 6,000 refractor better. - Seller shows his hand on the most popular among schoolchildren lens telescope
- Well, can I buy a telescope for 25 thousand? - Buyer inquires
“Yes, you can,” the salesman answers, pointing at the eight-inch newton on the EQ5 — this is a very good telescope for beginners.
- Can you see Pleiads through the clouds in it? - asks the buyer
- Unfortunately, it is impossible ... - the salesman shakes his head
- Is there a telescope for 100 thousand? - The buyer does not let up
- Yes, here - the Seller shows a Nexstar 11SE computerized and fancy
“Can we see the Andromeda nebula in it in the afternoon?”
- Unfortunately, it is impossible, - the seller shakes his head
“Why then is he so expensive?”
It so happened that amateur astronomy became my main hobby. I would really like to share with the habrasoobshchestvom, which suddenly dares to find a new hobby, their experiences. Perhaps far from the biggest, but his own. My good friend, whom I consider the best visual observer of deep space objects in Moscow, and maybe Russia, considers himself an observer with an average skill (comparing himself with observers from all over the world), I am a beginner, and all newcomers, it turns out, are out of classification. I do not know if this experience gives me the right to write posts on the subject of amateur astronomy in Habrahabr? I used to think that no, it does not, but the above series of posts changed this point of view, and I really wanted to write a post that would warn novice astronomy fans (not according to the classification of a familiar observer) from attacking a rake , which can discourage the desire to do it a hobby .
“What rakes are we talking about? This is a hobby! Everyone practices them as he likes! ”- the skeptic will exclaim, and he will be right:
For example, IT-cams like all sorts of high-tech buzzing things, well, let them buy a small scoop with GoTo system for a limited budget. Let the small-scope scanner, after pointing to a point in the sky where the Needle galaxy NGC 4565 is located, is so beautiful in the photographs, with its gas and dust clouds show nothing through the apartment’s kitchen window in the center of Moscow, or even from the glazed and warm verandah of the dacha :) that a small scoop buzzes, flashes beautiful red lights on the remote, and the owner of the equipment is pleased with the new gadget and the pleading to the sky, sitting in warmth and comfort, isn't it?
Or is it wrong? If not, welcome under cat. Otherwise, please, do not read my multi-letters about the rake, because in a hobby the attack on the rake may even be a kind of masochism, and in some ways be pleasant to the coming!
To begin with, I considered it necessary to classify the astronomy fans (hereinafter the LA) and other subjects themselves from the LA point of view.
Knowing the classification, it is easier without stepping on a rake, to correctly fit into the group in which you personally will be more comfortable.
Every community has its own slang, and in every community, offensive nicknames are used for people far from the community. Please do not be offended at me, since the classification was not invented by me:
UPDATE:
It seems that not everyone understood that below is not the rating of groups, none of the groups are cooler than others (whatever their representatives think), these “castes” of LA are independent, and neither of them is more advanced than the other. For example, a ballet planter can be a very experienced observer of the planets, and have good equipment, and a visual distributor can use the equipment that prevents him from enjoying his hobby.
Astrophotographers
Many astrophotographers consider themselves to be the “elite” of LA, and even some are “the only true lovers of astronomy,” arguing that they use sophisticated equipment, much the same, or even common to what professionals are using.
All astronomy lovers are very open, friendly, and always ready to share skills to help them in their hobbies. Astrophotographers are also open and friendly people, but, compared to other LA groups, their caste is the most closed: astrophotographers will let you sit at a table at a meeting of astronomy lovers, treat you with alcohol, tell a few tales, but what would you like to become respect, you have to invest a lot of money, effort, labor (even a soldering iron!) in your equipment, spend a lot of time on defective series of shots.
I would say that a successful start by an astrophotographer is extremely unlikely. Most likely, you will feel an inferiority complex from communicating with polite and kind snobs, will aimlessly spend a rather large amount of money, your friends on Vkontakte and Facebook will certainly be shocked by your astrophotographs, but experienced LA photographers will wrinkle their nose and say “Bad : rotation of the field of view, aberration. And go through the mount, lubricate everything, you have a lubricant on the right ascension! "
It is best to poizuyalit year, and a year later, if you do not get tired, return to the idea of ​​astrophotography, by the fact that it is here that lurk the most difficult and painful rapping ...
If you still do not heed my warning, then under the spoilers (unfortunately, it was not possible to put everything under one spoiler) good way, which sometimes allows
don't give up
. But do not read it too carefully, as my experience with successful astrophotography is extremely small. Do not forget about the effect of Dunning-Kruger , when the amateur gives confident advice, and a more knowledgeable person is afraid. Better find yourself a friend of an astrophotographer-LA winner of the astrophoto contest.
Astrophotography differs in shooting dipskay (deep space) and planets. Taking pictures of planets is easier.
Astrophotography differs in shooting dipskay (deep space) and planets. Taking pictures of planets is easier.
- Canon Mirror Camera for astrophotographers. Or a webcam for photographers of planets
- Start shooting at a small focus, and better astro landscapes. Buy yourself not a telescope, but high-aperture lenses: fish, intercept, and 150mm telephoto
- Astroraker and his clones
- Simple, clear and common HEQ5 mount
- sky quality
- Post-processing: in fact, most of the time, an astrophotographer spends his hobby on a computer, processing his pictures. It seems a bit tedious and not so romantic and interesting.
More about Canon:
1) No soap trays, and shooting iPhone through the eyepiece of the telescope! If you want to shoot deep space, only a SLR camera will suit you. In fact, experienced LA photographers take pictures on a specialized CCD with cooling, but I would not advise you to spend money on it, since you still can’t get results that are better than SLRs on a specialized camera. Most people shoot at Canon, some shoot at Nikon. There are many legends about this, why Canon, sometimes even holivars happen, but Canon should be bought by a novice astrophotographer at least for more experienced comrades to help him, because almost no one takes pictures on Nikon.
What is a SLR? Actually, any :) I'm trying to shoot (for now, I don’t have any results that I’m not ashamed to show to anyone from LA, but my friend is delighted :) on the Canon 50D. If you already have a DSLR, then shoot it, do not spend money on a new one! But if there is no reflex camera, buy a semi-front camera used like a Canon 60d, or, if there are problems with money, used an amateur Canon 1100d. It is desirable that the camera had a LiveView, and a rotating screen. All SLRs for LA have two main properties: they are cropping and fullframe. The remaining characteristics are almost not important: in fact, the high sensitivity of modern DSLR matrixes, ISO thousandths, does not work for astrophotography. And the old Canon 30D can shoot better than the Canon 70d, since the latter has a smaller pixel, and more noise due to quantum effects. Here at fullframe of cameras at the same megapixels of noise it is less.
With the help of the camera they shoot a series of shots from which special service ones are deducted (you can ask about a sign-telling astrophotographer about dark, flat and other horrors). Further frames are added, which increases the signal-to-noise ratio. Typically, exposure when shooting objects in deep space ranges from 30 seconds to 6-7 minutes, which requires a special remote for the camera, or connect it to an astrophotographer’s laptop.
For the shooting of the planets, you need a specialized (do not worry, they are all cheap, and cheaper than used SLRs) webcam. The fact is that the quality of the pictures of the planet is influenced by the atmosphere, its turbulence, and from the hundreds of frames of the video of the planet are selected a few of the best, which add.
Glamor Canon 1100d, the authorship watermark did not specifically remove
What is a SLR? Actually, any :) I'm trying to shoot (for now, I don’t have any results that I’m not ashamed to show to anyone from LA, but my friend is delighted :) on the Canon 50D. If you already have a DSLR, then shoot it, do not spend money on a new one! But if there is no reflex camera, buy a semi-front camera used like a Canon 60d, or, if there are problems with money, used an amateur Canon 1100d. It is desirable that the camera had a LiveView, and a rotating screen. All SLRs for LA have two main properties: they are cropping and fullframe. The remaining characteristics are almost not important: in fact, the high sensitivity of modern DSLR matrixes, ISO thousandths, does not work for astrophotography. And the old Canon 30D can shoot better than the Canon 70d, since the latter has a smaller pixel, and more noise due to quantum effects. Here at fullframe of cameras at the same megapixels of noise it is less.
With the help of the camera they shoot a series of shots from which special service ones are deducted (you can ask about a sign-telling astrophotographer about dark, flat and other horrors). Further frames are added, which increases the signal-to-noise ratio. Typically, exposure when shooting objects in deep space ranges from 30 seconds to 6-7 minutes, which requires a special remote for the camera, or connect it to an astrophotographer’s laptop.
For the shooting of the planets, you need a specialized (do not worry, they are all cheap, and cheaper than used SLRs) webcam. The fact is that the quality of the pictures of the planet is influenced by the atmosphere, its turbulence, and from the hundreds of frames of the video of the planet are selected a few of the best, which add.
Glamor Canon 1100d, the authorship watermark did not specifically removeMore about the little trick
2) Do you want to shoot galaxies? Or maybe it is not necessary yet, and it is better to leave the most interesting for later? After all, it is unlikely that something will come out right now! The general rule: the smaller the focus on which the novice shoots, the greater the likelihood that he will get something worthwhile. Of course, I want to remove globular star clusters in the Galaxy Andromeda Nebula with a focus of two meters, only ... You can hardly even in a year :(
It's better to shoot astro landscapes, look at the beauty of this panorama:
pathspace.ru/images/Panoramas/teleskopes-krao/telescopes-krao1.html
Filmed by a wonderful girl Leroy in the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory during the rally Southern Nights.
Shooting through a telescope is, of course, sacral, and gives the sensation of communion with something great, but in fact the telescope is just such a big (long-focus) manual lens.
Can be removed in less detail, but in general, just as beautiful and artistic with a small focus.
I would only warn against some of the zooms. With astrophotography, the astrosetap design must be rigid, and zoom lenses very often, after their intensive use at all kinds of weddings, “fall through” inside. Used fixes in this area are much safer. The author learns to shoot on the old lens Jupiter-37a.
However, if you want to shoot the planets, then, unfortunately, you will not get anywhere from a long focus.
It's better to shoot astro landscapes, look at the beauty of this panorama:
pathspace.ru/images/Panoramas/teleskopes-krao/telescopes-krao1.html
Filmed by a wonderful girl Leroy in the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory during the rally Southern Nights.
Shooting through a telescope is, of course, sacral, and gives the sensation of communion with something great, but in fact the telescope is just such a big (long-focus) manual lens.
Can be removed in less detail, but in general, just as beautiful and artistic with a small focus.
I would only warn against some of the zooms. With astrophotography, the astrosetap design must be rigid, and zoom lenses very often, after their intensive use at all kinds of weddings, “fall through” inside. Used fixes in this area are much safer. The author learns to shoot on the old lens Jupiter-37a.
However, if you want to shoot the planets, then, unfortunately, you will not get anywhere from a long focus.
about astrotracker
3) What is to shoot at a small focus? There is such a wonderful device as an astrotracker, and its numerous (often cheaper and in some aspects more successful!) Clones.
This equatorial mount, that is, tracking the rotation of the sky, is very light and compact, on which you can only hang a DSLR with a telephoto, or, in some cases, with a short, high-aperture refractor.
This equatorial mount, that is, tracking the rotation of the sky, is very light and compact, on which you can only hang a DSLR with a telephoto, or, in some cases, with a short, high-aperture refractor.
about HEQ5
You still do not want to shoot landscapes, but want to shoot on a long focus (that is, through a telescope?)
Many scold this "Chinese stuff" (c), but in fact, this mount has long been a "people's" for LA photographers from all over the CIS. A lot of LA are familiar with it, therefore, buying it, you are guaranteed to get help at the astroforum for any problems.
I really do not recommend the EQ5 mount: I stepped on this rake myself, and now I use EQ5 together with the “national” box of Ivan Ionov's production for guiding. First, the disgusting mechanics with periodic errors, and secondly, the unsuccessful design: several times when I was shooting a series, the mount pulled out its wires “with meat”, and I had to torture a familiar LA with my hands, so that he would repair it , since I do not know how to solder, and generally hands grow from one place.
This is exactly the case when saving money is completely unjustified!
To HEQ5, you definitely need to buy a pole finder, in order to expose the polar axis around which the sky rotates more accurately, and if you are going to photograph deep sky, a camera guide. The camera guide is inserted into a small telescope (usually the second finder on top of the telescope tube), connected to a computer that monitors mounting errors (due to periodic and inaccurate alignment of the polar axis). The program sees several stars through the guide, and adjusts the mount when needed. Without a guide, it is difficult to shoot on exposures, big minutes, that is, this device is a must have!
And what to hang on the HEQ5? Please do not chase after the focus, and take yourself a refractor, which with focus reducer and flattener (optical detail that corrects image distortion) will give you 600 or 400 focus. The author is now trying to shoot at 600mm focus with Maksutov-Kassegren and gears, i.e. , does not like everyone else, and steps on the rake!
And of course, the more luminosity the better. In general, you are unlikely to be able to shoot dipskay, that is, on long exposures with HEQ5 on focus more than a meter.
As for the planets, for them the guide is not needed. HEQ5 in the basic configuration + pole finder is suitable for them. It’s a good idea to photograph the planets through a catadioptric (Schmitd Cassegrain or Max-Cassegrain) with a focus of 2 meters.
Many scold this "Chinese stuff" (c), but in fact, this mount has long been a "people's" for LA photographers from all over the CIS. A lot of LA are familiar with it, therefore, buying it, you are guaranteed to get help at the astroforum for any problems.
I really do not recommend the EQ5 mount: I stepped on this rake myself, and now I use EQ5 together with the “national” box of Ivan Ionov's production for guiding. First, the disgusting mechanics with periodic errors, and secondly, the unsuccessful design: several times when I was shooting a series, the mount pulled out its wires “with meat”, and I had to torture a familiar LA with my hands, so that he would repair it , since I do not know how to solder, and generally hands grow from one place.
This is exactly the case when saving money is completely unjustified!
To HEQ5, you definitely need to buy a pole finder, in order to expose the polar axis around which the sky rotates more accurately, and if you are going to photograph deep sky, a camera guide. The camera guide is inserted into a small telescope (usually the second finder on top of the telescope tube), connected to a computer that monitors mounting errors (due to periodic and inaccurate alignment of the polar axis). The program sees several stars through the guide, and adjusts the mount when needed. Without a guide, it is difficult to shoot on exposures, big minutes, that is, this device is a must have!
And what to hang on the HEQ5? Please do not chase after the focus, and take yourself a refractor, which with focus reducer and flattener (optical detail that corrects image distortion) will give you 600 or 400 focus. The author is now trying to shoot at 600mm focus with Maksutov-Kassegren and gears, i.e. , does not like everyone else, and steps on the rake!
And of course, the more luminosity the better. In general, you are unlikely to be able to shoot dipskay, that is, on long exposures with HEQ5 on focus more than a meter.
As for the planets, for them the guide is not needed. HEQ5 in the basic configuration + pole finder is suitable for them. It’s a good idea to photograph the planets through a catadioptric (Schmitd Cassegrain or Max-Cassegrain) with a focus of 2 meters.
about the quality of the sky
The quality of the sky is of two kinds: the so-called siing and flare. For planets, high siding is important, and for deep lack of illumination. More on this below. In general, the yellow zone of illumination is suitable for astrophotographic dip or better (for galaxies, blue is desirable, as well as for the visual!)
Visuals are deep . Since the occupation with dipscale visual is less hardcore than astrophoto and more accessible to beginners, especially if they avoid rakes, I decided not to spoil it, as I placed astrophotographers under the spoiler.
What can you say about them? A Russian-speaking visuals-dipskayschik is such a strange, frost-resistant (If it does not live in the South of Russia, Ukraine, or in the Central Asian republic) an animal that likes to view through the eyepiece of its huge Dobson galaxies, globular star clusters, planetary nebulae. Some of these objects are so weak that they can only be seen with lateral vision!
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In the eye there are two types of photosensitive cells: cones and rods. Unfortunately, the color sticks, which are concentrated in the center of the retina, are not able to catch the faint light from dipscale objects: the human eye is not a CCD matrix, so you will never see most of the dipscale objects in color, like in numerous photographs. Few objects are visible in color, such as the blue snowball planetary nebula.
This is not your hobby, if you live in central Russia, in Ukraine, in Belarus, or in Siberia, and are not frost-resistant. Why? by the fact that in the summer in the central zone of Russia there are also white nights (surprise! They are not only in St. Petersburg!) and night does not come in the summer, but dusk continues until morning!
The LA diplomats in Moscow end the observation season on the 15th of May, and open it only on the 12th of August, by a trip to the south of the Tula region!
Most of the departures of the LA diplomatic engineers occur at a negative temperature, when there is a stable anticyclone in winter, and the temperature is below -15, sometimes -25!
I would also add that it is a very bad idea to observe “at the dacha”: it is completely meaningless! All holiday villages are illuminated either by local illumination or by illumination from the nearest district center. There are practically no such cottages where one could see the outer space in central Russia (I don’t know about Siberia). Most of the young, up to 40 years old, have never seen a truly dark sky. People think that if the Milky Way is barely visible (and they don’t know how it can shine!), Then this is a good sky.
There are two types of flare: local and global. The local is important only for the visuals, since he is knocked down by his dark adaptation of vision, which for some reason is often neglected by many beginners. In fact, the sensitivity of an eye that has just fallen into the darkness, and after adaptation for 40 minutes, is thousands of times different! Therefore, LA visuals use red lanterns, and do not observe them in holiday villages, where one lamp, constantly attracting the eye, can ruin everything. Local illumination is not important for a photographer, as he will not direct the camera directly to the flashlight :)
Fresh maps of flare can be found at astroforum
There are also online services.
There is a classification of zones of global illumination:
- White zone of illumination: in the case of Moscow, the white zone of illumination is the whole of Moscow (with the exception of Izmailovo Park, where red), as well as most of all satellite cities, such as Khimki, Lyubertsy, Podolsk, and so on. The aura from the megalopolis is so strong that the light is scattered on suspension in the air, dust, water droplets, and we can not even see the contours of the main constellations! I can only see the big dipper bucket with my own eyes, but now I don’t see all the main stars near the letter W. In the white light zone in the telescope, you can see the core of the M31 Andromeda nebula, the pale likeness of X and Al Perseus, and a few more shadows from the dip objects It is better not to look, that would not spoil the impression
- Red zone of illumination: sometimes found on the border of regional centers, but more often they glow white to the suburbs. In fact, too, can not see anything, although the main bright constellations are guessed
- Orange area flare. The Milky Way is already visible here, but it does not reach the horizon.
- Yellow zone of illumination: the Milky Way to the horizon, if it does not rest on the dome of the illumination: a settlement that glows from the horizon. There is a hint of a ring of fire around the horizon. In the yellow light zone, it is possible to do astrophotography, especially with narrow band filters, and the yellow zone is sometimes found in some holiday villages. But it is impossible to visualize in the yellow zone of the illumination, as the nebulae will be broken by the illumination, and you will see only a pale hint at the object
- Green zone of illumination: there are several domes from the cities, shining from beyond the horizon, and ... Here you can already observe all dipskay, except for galaxies. Galaxies that are very far away and from which very little light comes to us, unfortunately, are knocked out in the green zone, and we see in it only the brightest parts of galaxies, or those galaxies that are very bright in themselves, like a pair of Bode M81 and M82
- Blue zone flare. This is already a good sky, and under such a sky a typical city dweller, when he first turns out, says something emotionally expressive! It gives the effect of immersion in space, which is felt around you and without any telescope. In the blue zone of illumination it is easy to forget about the frost, about the piercing wind in the field!
You will never forget the curly gas and dust of any spiral galaxy, visible from the edge, looking at them in a good, apertured Dobson! - Gray zone flare. Well ... This is a great sky, with or without almost flare domes. Here you can see the weakest objects with lateral vision, and consider in detail what was only guessed by lateral vision in the green zone. Many LA would give a few years of life, just to live near the gray area
- Black zone flare. Somewhere there is, but few have seen it :)
Illumination affects the penetration: the higher the penetration, the weaker the stars and objects can be seen. In addition to glare, penetration also affects the height above sea level, and in the Caucasus, in the mountains, where there is clearly not a black zone of flare, but quite a gray one, the penetration is much higher than the deep corner of Siberia hundreds of kilometers from all cities where the real black zone.
Some astronomy enthusiasts do astrotourism, and travel to places with gray and black areas of illumination in the mountains: in the mountain Crimea, in the Caucasus, in the Canaries, in Chile, or in Namibia (go to the last two places to see the southern sky, and their numerous facilities, which we, living in the Northern Hemisphere, are deprived of).
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I specifically bought a compact 200-mm telescope-schmitd kassegren for flights to the mountains. I take it in my hand luggage, put it on the top shelf above the seats. For observation, I hang it on a light alt-azimuth mount AZ4
So, what is the secret to the success of a diplomatic visualist?
- As already mentioned above, the most important thing is the quality of the sky, the absence of illumination! 500mm huge dobson in the yellow zone will show less than 200mm compact keg-Schmidd-Cassegren in blue, not to mention gray or blue in the mountains!
- The second component of success after the quality of the sky is friendship with familiar astronomy lovers. Why is this? Well, according to what I, for example, watch in the field of one is scary. Sometimes the boars grunt :))) and it’s dangerous, some gopnik will stop next to your telescope, and ... they will find your corpse frozen in ice only in spring. Also, it is the astronomy fans who will help you in 2-3 departures, if you are not completely down, learn to see the main constellations in the sky, and find deep objects on a search map.
- I wanted to put it in second place, but too often newcomers make the mistake of self-observation in the exposed dachas, find none of the objects (or do not know about lateral vision, eye adaptation, etc.), and put up a telescope for sale at the astroforum flea market or on Avita. Still, the telescope aperture is very important! remember the formula for the area of ​​a circle, which is equal to pi, multiplied by the square of the radius! This means that a 300 mm telescope does not collect light at all three times more than a telescope with an aperture of 100 mm. If you neglect the shielding, 300-ka collects 9 times more light! Nothing in your telescope for a diplomatic visual is as important as an aperture!
- The convenience of the telescope for you personally: you need to buy such a tool with which you will observe. If you are a weak girl and unmarried, then 400 mm Dobson, alas, is not for you, since you don’t drag it to the car itself :( A good idea to buy 2-3 tools for different trips. For example, you can take one by car, the same 400 millimeters or 300 on the dobson mount, and another for an airplane, say, a 150 mm catadioptric
- Eye adaptation. Already wrote about this above, that the aperture will not help you to collect more light if the eyes are illuminated, since the sensitivity of the illuminated and not illuminated eyes differs thousands of times. I even look at the search map with my left eye with a red flashlight, while I keep the right one closed so as not to light up even with the annoying light of a red flashlight.
- A very typical mistake for beginners is to buy a small-scope small-aperture camera, but computer guided. In essence, the GoTo system is only necessary for an astrophotographer. In fact, pointing to deep objects is not a difficult skill! Most of the objects are faster with the help of reddot and / or optical finder than with the help of the console : I'm absolutely serious, most of the objects in the Messiah catalog from my telescope, which I used to find, will find faster than a novice will poke into his console. do not spend money on electronics, which will fail in the cold, and it is still useless, since you also in 3-4 minutes, having a skill that is acquired very easily, will go over the GoTo system faster! A good idea to spend the budget on the aperture and eyepieces (about them below) instead of GoTo, that is, on the optics. Especially amusing is the statement “I don’t want to learn the sky, I want to watch” in the light of the fact that the sky can be studied without any special effort by any person with normal memory and intellect.
- Do not forget to dress warmly! The general rule: for spring and September observations dress as you dress in winter, when -10 or -15. The author often traveled to observe with newcomers, and on one of the trips the newcomer was not yet warm enough. Everything was freezing, there were never exceptions, and everyone regretted that they were dressed too lightly. , +8, , , , -8… , must have! . , , , . !
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UPDATE : your entire setup is in total and should cost twice as much as a telescope .This is normal! The pleasure of observing a nebula in a “shout” never compares with observing it with a zoom eyepiece or a complete super: in the first case you are inside the cosmos, and in the second you secretly peep through the keyhole!
I also forgot to write about filters : they are very important for observing nebulae. Buy at least Vladimir Nikolaevich filters from astroforum, he sells ultra-low cost DeepSky (his own brand). Without the UHC and OIII filter, no single observation of the Dipskaya can be complete , unless, of course, this is not only a trip to the galaxies or only to the globes: for planetarok and emission nebulae, these are essential tools.
If you have a normal budget, then buy Lumicon or Astronomic filters. There is also an average option (in terms of price and quality), these are Baader filters. Remember that throwing a GoTo drive out of a telescope and including accessories in it is a better idea than throwing out accessories.
Every IT person likes the way GoTo drives, but it seems that most are not very happy with the barely visible spots without filter, visible in keyhole, and throw a hobby. It is better to touch the cosmos and invest money in optics.
Also the most important moment, which not everyone understands, judging by the comments (although I wrote about it): every kilometer that you travel towards the gray zone, virtually increases your telescope. It can even increase two to three times!The rate of increase of the telescope falls only after reaching the green zone. There is no sense to remain in yellow, because in yellow, as you approach green, your telescope virtually grows almost exponentially!
Sidewalks : People who popularize astronomy and science at sidewalk events: telescopes are brought to the sidewalk in the city to show the planets and the moon to passersby and tell something about Occam’s razor, about Popper’s principle, why we all will not die from the planet Niburu, and why astrology is pseudoscience, and UFOlogs are stupid freaks. A very noble lesson for a man-teacher in the shower :)
I use Maksutov-Cassegren 127mm for sidewalks on the alt-azimuth mount AZ4. The planets and the moon quickly run out of sight because of the rotation of the earth, especially noticeable at high magnifications, but this is even a reason to tell people about the rotation of the Earth, Jupiter (why it has elongated clouds), the Moon, on which one side is always invisible for resonance with the Earth, and more.
Telescopes with a GoTo system have a certain meaning for sidewalks: if under a good sky an astronomy lover with even a little experience will be guided to deep objects faster than a GoTo system, then it is difficult to navigate under the illuminated city sky when there are no stars other than the brightest ones. Even worse, if the sky is broken in the clouds: here, for example, I can even confuse the same Saturn or Mars with a star, if it seems to me that it does not flicker.
Balconschiki: people watching the planets at home from the balcony. Due to the fact that the sky is turning, they can see, having woken in the morning, quite a lot of objects. But the illumination observed in the city makes such observations, if you observe something other than the moon and planets, meaningless. Usually, balconies protect their observations of dipskay objects (or rather, observations of shadows from dipskie objects) to the first exit into the blue zone, after which the pale shadows of bright dipskay objects from the city cease to look, and only the moon and the planets are viewed from the balcony.
The balcony still has a drawback associated with the flow of warm air from the apartment (there is such a flow even through a plastic door). This reduces the so-called siing, and the planets begin to "chatter", dribbling the details on their disk.
Of course, to observe from the kitchen, opening a window, is the most stupid idea of ​​all possible: a warm apartment will make the siing completely zero.
The same crazy idea and observation through the window, because it is not glass with diffraction quality, which is the lens of your telescope.
Balkonschiki-plantechiki not less funny animals than frost-resistant dipskayshchiki, for some reason looking at the weak haze spots.
The favorite topic of an experienced balcon master is the shot (optical quality) of a telescope. The telescope shot can help measure in, for example, the “basement” of the VAGO, if you live in Moscow. If your telescope is thermally stabilized, a bunch of holes are drilled into it, into which fans are placed, then a more “streamer” telescope will show the planets better than a less streamer. Regarding the telescope plugs, incredible battles are boiling between the shops that have sold the next "junk" telescope, and the buyers. Likewise, balconies love to measure themselves with each other with their winds. In addition to balconies , astrophotographers, especially planetaryists, are also interested in the number of shooters.
If you are going to become a balcony man, besides a pipe with a good number of shooters, on which you screw the ventilators, I would advise you to also purchase planetary eyepieces. The best Russian-language eyepiece reviews can be found on the astro-talks forum from Ernest .
Just do not forget about the aperture: there is a rule of thumb that the maximum effective magnification of a telescope is equal to the aperture of a telescope in millimeters multiplied by two. That is, “weaving” will show you Jupiter with a maximum increase of 200 times. Greater magnification will not add to you the details on the disk, even if you put a very good short-focus planetary eyepiece.
Most of the balcony workers overestimate the shot, but underestimate the aperture, although they can be understood: it’s difficult to push the large-aperture telescope onto the balcony: short catadioptric barrels (MAKs and HQs) are convenient.
DressersThis, dear friends, according to the theory of probability, is you who read these lines. You love astronomy, but you do not want to freeze in the field, and even on the balcony, and even more so you do not want to get involved in setting up equipment, the complexity of which is slightly less than the complexity of professionals, like astrophotographers. It is better to read about astronomy lying on the couch, keeping a warm laptop on your belly. Perhaps you even know that amateur astrophotographers can take artistic pictures as well as Hubble (see, for example, Oleg Bryzgalov’s astronomical photographs), which is still a scientific instrument, not an artistic one, and maybe you even have a balcony telescope gathering dust on the mezzanine. Well, laziness is not always bad, and the hobby should be fun :) So lying on the couch and reading interesting texts, as well as looking at fascinating photos, is your hobby, stop reproaching yourself! You can also engage in amateur astronomy from home, so we advised a great link in the comments! It is also possible to process images of the ESA observatory: sometimes astrophoto exhibit images taken with professional tools and processed by amateurs for the competition.
BeaversThis is slang for astronomy lovers. Beavers are usually understood as people who are aggressive towards astronomy lovers. For example, on the sidewalk they think that you came with an artillery cannon to shoot at someone’s window, or even to shoot down the president’s plane.
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Sometimes “beavers” are understood to mean passers-by who approach telescopes on sidewalks, but since the word “beaver” has a negative color in the LA environment, it seems to me that it is better not to use this word in relation to people who are genuinely interested in astronomy, even if you have fallen meniscus telescope, or in extreme cases, replace it with "beaver"
astrohudozhniki
In conclusion, I would like to talk about for some reason the unpopular form of aircraft in Russia, about astrohudohniki. We have only one topic on astroforum.
Then, as for the “bourgeois”, there are a whole section on claudia nights, just as for astrophoto! .
I do not know what this is connected with: either because people think that drawing space is difficult, or because astrophotography is more juicy, beautiful, and colorful, and in the sketches we see what is with the eye. And if the misty spot is perceived by the eye as “wow!”, Then most people are probably not impressed ...
In my opinion, you need to draw, because you will notice more details this way. In addition, in the picture, the object looks the same as the eye (after looking at it for a long time), and in the photo the radiation receiver acts as a CCD matrix, which is much more sensitive than the eye. Therefore, in the atlas of visuals do not use astrophotography, and sketches.
The Omega Centaurius globular cluster Michael11 from astroforum
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/226429/
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