Star Party - Astronomy away from the city.

What is a star party?

A star party is a gathering of amateur astronomers, telescopes, binoculars, and other night sky observing equipment at a location away from light pollution, with the aim of learning, observing, astrophotography, CCD imaging, home made telescope exhibition, networking etc. In this event the newbies are introduced to stars and constellations, taught how to locate objects in the sky and how to handle a telescope etc. Astrophotographers spend their time capturing images and others observe through telescope binoculars or naked eye.

Bangalore Astronomical Society Star Party at Agumbe January 2012

From the time of receiving  the mail of a star party, to the moment of writing this mail the excitement had never diminished. While i can never forget the experience i had in this trip, i write this mail only to accumulate all thoughts and climax them so that i can overcome the overwhelming distraction and go back to my everyday work. 

Although i have been quite active on the mails and with my telescope in lonely nights i had never been able to go to any of the star parties. On getting the mail i was overjoyed as it seemed i could make it this time. 

Before 20th January Friday: Registered for the party, made few calls to Vivek and received excellent cooperation from him.

20th January, Friday: Rushed from work to home after getting a working Saturday off request approved from my manager after some effort. Stared at the baggage in which i had packed my scope and wondered if it will come back alive. With this scare in mind reached the pick up place on time and boarded the bus. Navin welcomed us and described the agenda, after which we went to sleep. Me (and i guess many others) did not know anyone. It was a nice night. Sleep was less and irritating blue lights inside the bus did not help fulfill my desire to stare at the stars outside the window while the bus traversed the highway. 

21st January Saturday: Early morning arrival at Agumbe, a very small village. The bus was parked outside the 'hotel' where we witnessed the red horizon sunrise, while Vivek and others went and organized the big group of 30-32 into our rooms. As we reached the rooms and people got ready the silence was broken as Rajesh with his humor he sparked a conversation and we observed the magic which happens when like minded minds meet. From Engineers to teacher, from managers to students, from kids to moms, all united by the magic of astronomy. In the guys room there was no introduction no stupid talks all had dived into the open sky. With the mood being set with this morning conversation we were invited for the breakfast, after which we went for the short trek. The waterfall was good and many relaxed with their feet in cold flowing water. The walk back was good. After reaching our hotel all had lunch and had a nap. We later went to sunset point and observed the sun. Few of us were able to see the sunspots at sunset. Great experience from a mountain top. 

Agumbe

Sunspots visible at sunset from Agumbe sunset point.

                           As the twilight set we rushed back to the observing spot where the equipment was already set by BAS. We were divided into groups with a leader. My group leader was Amar, amazing guy. His explanations and descriptions simplified everything even the 3 small kids of our group were understanding so clearly. The enthusiasm of the kids was awesome, future of astronomy looks good with such kids. Parents you deserve to be appreciated as well. A small guy was awake so late with us while half the others had gone to sleep. Amar showered us with information about Venus, Sun, other planets. Explained how distance to the stars is measured and various other phenomena. His talks kept the audience engrossed in his voice for about 1.5 hours which seemed to pass in a flash. He was not finished and neither were we satisfied when Vivek called us to see Jupiter through the monstrous 17.5" scope. We took turns and many amazed with the wow, To look at something which you cannot see with the naked eye, whose beauty you have not yet appreciated enough, whose mysteries you haven't yet solved, and its out there, with nothing between you and him(Jupiter), is a surreal feeling. It cannot be described completely in words. This feeling which gives me goose flesh each time i see through the eyepiece, i am sure each one experienced it to some level.

Telescope and sky in background

We were served dinner under the night sky, after which we proceeded with Navin who explained the celestial coordinate system with brilliance. He explained how earth's coordinate system relates to the celestial sphere, he showed various constellations, stars, planets with continuous flow of information. Later Navin showed us Sirius, Aldebaran red giant. Explained life cycle of a star. Showed Orion nebula and various other celestial objects. 

22nd January Sunday: It was around midnight we were sitting around in a circle with Navin who took us into the history and explained how astronomy emerged as a science. Many had desires to see galaxies, they look wonderful. with this aim Navin - the hero of this story started aligning telescopes. But every story has a villain. Here the humidity. Dew started setting in on eyepieces first. Cleaning of eyepieces helped at first but then the fog became denser making things tough. By 2-3 am sleep started dragging people to bed. But many stayed to observe Saturn from the 17.5". It was amazing. But it would stay in the field of view for fleeting moments. I questioned why they make such huge scopes and give it a dobsonian mount. The scope need to be moved after every observer. Later in the night we saw polar ice cap of Mars too with the huge scope. By 4am almost everyone was asleep. At that time Navin guided the very few of us awake to see Omega Centauri. Saw it through binoculars and my scope. Though not very bright i was amazed on seeing it. By 5:30 my legs, my back and eyes gave up and went to sleep.

Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ and Celestron Powerseeker 70 EQ wet with dew.

We said bye to Agumbe at around 10 am. Left the small beautiful place with a great experience. On the way back we went to the famous Sringeri temple and by late night everyone was home.

To conclude, the star party was a culmination of great minds, awesome people, excellent equipment, pure knowledge and hunger of exploration. To quote Prakash "Such a wonderful weekend it was ! My life's first Star Party ! Never imagined the night sky to be so awesome ! Excellent minds around, powerful telescopes by the side, freezing temperature in the middle of a dark deserted forest, is there any way to fly out of this world and join the cosmos ? Fabulous experience altogether !" and Gaurav "No camera flashes, no lights, torches-n-mobiles covered with red films ... half a dozen telescopes along with a monster 17.5" and few binoculars .. witnessed Jupiter moons, Saturn rings, mars polar caps, Orion nebula .. Knew nobody when I left and came back with a dozen of good friends .." not to forget hilarious jokes of Rajesh, experiences of Muhen, knledge base of Navin... i now know that stars do not exist in sky alone.

Celestron Astromaster 130 | Star Pointer, illuminated Red Dot Finder

Finding objects in the night sky is a challenge with every amateur astronomer. With Celestron Astromaster 130 it becomes even more difficult. The red dot finder is perhaps the most criticized part of a Celestron astromaster 130. I have read approximately 20 to 30 posts and blogs where this item is regarded as completely useless and replacements have been suggested. However, I disagree its that bad. It does the job for me. I am able to point at Moon, Jupiter, Polaris, Betelgeuse, M42 etc at one go. It takes a little getting used and practice. It becomes slightly difficult to find fainter stars with this but some star hopping eventually leads to the desired object. Here are some useful tips to use the red dot finder at its best.

CHECK FOR EXACT ALIGNMENT OF RED DOTS:

As mentioned in my earlier posts I have had lot of difficulty when I had received the telescope and wanted to point at some object in the sky using the red dot finder. Later I discovered the red dot finder was improperly aligned. So instead of helping me out finding a star it was misguiding me. Here’s how you can check if your red dot finder is well aligned.

Note: This activity can only be performed in well lighted area. So I suggest you do it before deploying your telescope for observation.

In your red dot finder or star pointer you will see two circles each of same diameter. You will also notice that there are two thumb screws on the top. Go to the front side of scope, in front of the aperture opening and observe the star finder. You will see the nearer circle enclosing the farther circle within it. Now the thing to observe here is whether these to circles are equally separated all through their circumference or not, as explained in the following diagram:

Alignment Star Pointer - Red dot Finder scope

Another condition to check is whether the front red dot completely covers the rear dot when these circles are equally separated or not. If these above conditions are not true on observance, you will have to adjust the two screws on top to achieve perfect alignment of the circles and the dots. This process requires patience as you might get lucky to get the right alignment at few twists or you might not get it for long, as motion of the transparent panel is quite weird when screws are turned. After this is done your Star Finder/Red dot finder is ready for use.

POSITIONING YOUR EYE:

Initially when I had begun I used to try a lot of positions to see through the finder. I tried going far, near, from the finder, behind the OTA etc. Finally I settled for a position which works best for me. Its about 10- 15 cms behind the finder over the OTA. Now the trick lies here, once you have positioned your eye like this and the two dots are overlapping perfectly, close one eye and do not move. Move your scope as you move along with it as if one. Now see the star through the finder, overlap it over the red dot and you will see it in the ocular too. However if you had moved your eye considerably if u moved the scope you need to realign for perfect alignment of the three, the two dots and the star. See how alignment impacts the view:

Celestron  star pointer mechanism

The above method works well for bright objects, however for faint objects there is another small trick involved, you will notice while pointing to a faint object you are not able to view the object itself through the star finder. Now this gets really irritating. You can eliminate this problem by doing the following.

LOCATING FAINTER OBJECTS:

Fainter objects cannot be seen when viewing through the starpointer. This is a solvable problem. All you need to do is bring the red dots of pointer near to the star and now open one eye to view the star alone. Now make an estimate about the star’s position and move the OTA accordingly after closing one eye and keeping watch that the two dots are aligned along with your eye as you move the Optical Tube Assembly (OTA). Now open the other eye again and repeat the process. See whether you have reached nearer to the star or not. This technique needs some practice especially because the star’s position appears to change in the sky when viewed with both eyes and when viewed with only one. But if you practice for sometime you will know what I am talking about and make this method work for you.

That’s all is required for viewing through the starpointer. If it doesn’t work for you still, you may substitute it with a telrad or something. Happy viewing and clear skies.

Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ Review

Around a month has passed since I got my scope and I have used to for about 10-12 short and long sessions. I’m now in a position to write a review of Celestron 31045 AstroMaster 130 EQ Reflector Telescope. I will try to make it as detailed as possible.


Many of the reviews i have found on the internet of this telescope are the one's written by experts having 10" and higher scopes, 
Here are some of them:


Review at Astronomy Forum
Cloudy Nights Review and comments.


Some other reviews:
At telescope reviews
Costco review


Very obviously they will not like this scope much. They forget the fact that no one who is an expert is going to buy this telescope, its not meant for the one very experienced with telescopes, then why review it as an expert. The person who is looking for this scope is the amateur first buyer, just like me.

I purchased a Celestron 31045 AstroMaster 130 EQ Reflector Telescope.The telescope arrived home in a heavy package, heavier than I had expected, around 15 Kilograms.  These were the included parts as I remember:

1. Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) (dark green metallic)

2. OTA Lid (Plastic, light black)

3. Eyepiece cover (plastic, black)

4. Dovetail bar (metallic orange color).

5. OTA holders (rings) (light black)

6. German Equatorial CG3 Mount. (heavy, same color as rings, with RA setting circles and slow motion gear of metallic orange color which looks great)

7. Tripod (Steel)

8. Mount to tripod locking knob

9. Latitude adjustment screw.

10. Counterweight bar (steel).

11. Counterweight safety screw (metallic orange color).

12. Two wedge shaped counterweights with locking screws.(approx 1.2 kg in weight, not sure)

13. Accessory tray.

14. Two slow motion cables/knobs.

15. One 20 mm erecting eyepiece (plastic casing).

16. One 10 mm eyepiece (Metal casing).

Recieved parts of Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

I guess I am not missing out anything but will check once more and update if that’s the case.

So I received these parts and started assembling the equipment. First I expanded the tripod and extended the legs to full length and tightened the knobs in all three. Tripod is lighter than it looks in the images or videos, but sufficiently strong. I placed the mount on the tripod next, attached the latitude adjustment screw, then the dovetail bar, and attached the counterweight bar next, then the weights and the safety screw. Next I placed the OTA and tightened the screws. Balanced the assembly on declination and right ascension and it was ready. This whole process took me around 15-20 minutes, and it was easy. For the first time I got stuck once when I forgot to attach the latitude adjustment screw but the official celestron video of how to assemble helped me out and I was back on track. I would advise all first timers to have a look at the video and then go ahead assembling the scope; it makes the process easier and flawless.

In the first observing session I did not know how to polar align the equatorial mount, and I did not bother about it either, was just too excited to have view from the scope first. I removed the eyepiece cover and inserted the 20mm Eyepiece, then aimed at the moon and with some difficulty was able to point it in right direction. It took some time and I cursed the red dot finder as it was’nt so helpful. This red dot finder is perhaps the most criticized part of this particular make telescope, but it’s not that bad once you get used to it and use it correctly. Please read how to configure and point a red dot finder correctly in the next post.

The moon appeared majestic and in extraordinary detail, even with my camera at 40x zoom I had not been able to view such immense detailed view of moon at just 33x with the 20 mm eyepiece. At first view itself the telescope boasts its power well. I was impressed and ready to insert the next 10mm eyepiece with 65x magnification. The view became even better. It was impressive. I tried viewing terrestrial objects too after that and actually I could not locate what I saw through the scope from the naked eye. This was amazing too.

The first day itself I aimed it at Jupiter; it was difficult as the star pointer was mis-aligned but I had no idea, scope that it could be mis-aligned and can be aligned to point correctly. More about using the red dot finder here. 


So finding Jupiter was tough but I did not give up and finally viewed it in the ocular. With the 20 mm eyepiece I could see the four Galilean moons and Jupiter clearly. On the first day I forgot to change the eyepiece to 10mm, as a result of over excitement. But later I have observed Jupiter, and you can make out the upper band of Jupiter (after the lower band and the great red spot vanished last year) and the four satellites clearly Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. I should also mention that the focusing knob moves very smoothly and it’s very easy to focus.

In the next few sessions I learnt how to polar align the telescope, which, opposed to the common conception is quite an easy process. The Celestron Manual which accompanied the telescope describes 3 methods of aligning the telescope to Polaris, after polar alignment it is easier to view and track objects, without the knobs and mount coming in the way, or leading to some direction of motion which is not possible. That used to happen with me when I used it without polar aligning it first. I really thank the equatorial mount for the ability to view objects and I am glad I did not choose a alt az mount telescope, for I can now figure out how difficult it will be to follow an object with such a mount. At high zoom the object moves out of scopes view in 8-10 seconds. You have to keep rotating the RA knob to follow it. An alt az mount must be very difficult to use.

The CG3 German Equatorial Mount of Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Counterweights Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

The counterweights are so beautifully shaped it adds to the looks of the telescope. None of the telescopes have so good looking counterweights. Along with the metallic orange gears, screws and dovetail the telescope is a beauty.

The piggyback camera mount is also helpful and I have taken few nice pictures of constellations using it. The front lid has a small aperture covered with a cap which can be opened and helps in reducing brightness of very bright objects such as the moon.

Piggy back mount on Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ Lid

Till now I have had about 10-12 observing sessions. Some of them lasting all night, and I am very satisfied with the telescope. I have seen the Orion Nebula M42, Saturn and its rings, Venus in its phase and various star clusters such as the Pleiades. All this with only the supplied eyepieces. Celestron specifies maximum usable power of this scope as 307x. Which is a lot compared to the maximum I have seen with it at 65x (with the supplied eyepiece). I have ordered a solar filter and Celestron accessory kit with various eyepieces, filters and Barlow to extract the maximum out of this scope. Definitely expecting a lot more to explore with the upgraded eyepieces.

The supplied eyepieces of Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Nothing can be made perfect, so it is with the Astromaster 130. The tripod could have been stronger and sturdier, every time you rotate the knobs it shakes for about 3-4 seconds before stabilizing which gives eye strain. The extension of the legs slightly bends out away from their axial line, which was not what I had expected, but it might be the case with all such tripods. The focuser is not very firm and moves sideways slightly. Yes, I will also mention that the red dot finder is not as good as a finderscope could have been, but not as bad as the degree of criticism it has received. The setting circles could have had vernier scales, as in some skywatcher telescopes for more accurate pointing and lastly the telescope supplied accessories are highly insufficient, one has to buy better eyepieces and a Barlow lens compulsorily to enjoy the scope fully.

 Red dot finder Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Overall, for a beginner I think it is one of the best scopes available and huge value for money considering that certain nexstar series scopes and certain meade telescope of the same aperture have very high price for very few added features. I would rate this scope 7 out of 10.

More images at : This page

How i chose my first telescope

From what i remember, i started off browsing products lists of various telescope manufacturers like Meade, Celestron, Orion etc. It was helpful as i got to know about all of their products. I had studied about the three types of telescopes before i.e. The Refractor, Reflector and Cassegrain.

The Refractor Telescope

Its called the refractor telescope because it achieves magnification by refraction. This was what was earlier known as the 'spyglass' and was invented by Hans Lippershey, to whom the credit of inventing the telescope is awarded. These are the oldest type of telescopes, used by Galileo and others, till Sir Issac Newton invented the newtonian reflector. Well a lot can be written about the construction and working of refractor here but it is out of the scope of this journal. I studied them for information and better understanding and concluded that they have these advantages and disadvantages, well summarized at this link: Advantages and disadvantages of refracting telescope.

So refractors are rugged, more weather proof, easy to maintain and give more steady and sharper images. But, i was a buyer of limited resources. If i could i would have bought the best schimdt cassegarin telescope worth many grands. This brought me to consider the next type of telescopes, the reflectors.

The Reflecting Telescope 

Yes, it achieves magnification by reflecting, and for reflection we need a mirror. So it has a concave mirror (primary mirror) in one end which collects the light and focues on a secondary mirror which reflects it to the eyepiece. I studied about them too and made the following conclusions, summarized at this link: Advantages and disadvantages of reflecting telescope.

So reflectors are without chromatic aberration, and are cheaper than refractors of the same size and can be made bigger. 

Considering the above aspects a reflector was a more suited choice for me. Notice that i have not even considered Schimdt Cassegrain Type here beacuse the cheapest of them are unaffordably costly for me in India right now.

Celestron Powerseeker 70 EQ - The Telescope i chose, but then...

Now the search began for a telescope on ebay. Due to the limited budget and shipping and availability constraints i settled for a 'Celestron Powerseeker 70 EQ', price 7142/- INR. Free shipping. Yes it is a refractor, but you need to read the second sentence of this paragraph again. Yes, i had chosen and ordered my telescope, who new something else was in store for me. Find out in the next post.