What space activity can you view through a telescope?

[Dai-Sifu]

My brother just asked me this question and I have a limited knowledge on astronomy. What can you see with a mid range telescope that is worth it -e.g cool activity? I live in the southern hemisphere if that makes a difference. All answers welcomed. - All I have to offer is rep.

Dai-Sifu

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

I can see comets through my binoculars, so definately that. You can also see solar eclipeses if you have a filter. Not much else though...

[Rolanbek]

Depends on how clear the air is where you are a if that is much bright light from street lights or houses etc. Light pollution, and air pollution can really limit what you can see before yoou start thinking about a telescope.

R

[Syron]

My brother just asked me this question and I have a limited knowledge on astronomy. What can you see with a mid range telescope that is worth it -e.g cool activity? I live in the southern hemisphere if that makes a difference. All answers welcomed. - All I have to offer is rep.

Dai-Sifu

What do you mean by activity? Unfortunately the sky isn't particularly "active", not on human scales anyway! Most activity is only seen by studying objects for a while.


You have comets of course as the above poster says.

You also have the planets as well, for example Saturn. While binoculars won't show much, a mid range (6-8ish inch) telescope will be able see the rings, the faint banding, and be able to pick out the brightest moons Titan, Dione, Rhea, Tethys etc. Similarly with Jupiter you will be able to see the Red Spot, the cloud bands and the Galilean moons. If you watch over a number of nights you will see them as they orbit.

Mira stars are nice, they are red giant stars that are pulsating through expelling their outer layers. They expand and contract and so can drastically change in brightness.

You could also observe variable double stars, many "stars" in the sky are actually composed of two or even more stars, many being true binary star systems that eclipse each other. The most famous is probably Algol in Perseus which winks roughly every 3 days, which depending on where you are you may be able to see on the northern horizon in November/December. There will be plenty of others in the Southern sky if you can't see it.

Also the centre of the galaxy is high in your sky in Sagittarius, that entire region out to Vela is chock full of bright nebulae and globular clusters that the telescope will be able to discern with varying degrees of success.

In the Southern Sky in Dorado and Tucana are the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. The closest galaxies to us.

So particularly in the southern sky there are lots of things to see, and many things I've missed out, but not a great deal of activity!


A good idea would be to perhaps get a digital camera attachment to the telescope, this allows you to get longer exposures and so see things which may be difficult to differentiate with just the eye. A good example is some spectacular nebulae which can appear quite faint to the eye even in telescopes but show up well in digital pictures.

[Dai-Sifu]

Thanks for the advice guys especially Syron.

You also have the planets as well, for example Saturn. While binoculars won't show much, a mid range (6-8ish inch) telescope will be able see the rings, the faint banding, and be able to pick out the brightest moons Titan, Dione, Rhea, Tethys etc. Similarly with Jupiter you will be able to see the Red Spot, the cloud bands and the Galilean moons. If you watch over a number of nights you will see them as they orbit.

Most informative

[Godfrey I of Leuven]

Know that a lot of light pollution can screw up your entire view.. Planets, nebulae and galaxies will have a lot less detail and might even seem dull to look at. Sadly, I'm talking out of experience.

[Aquila SPQR]

I have an 8 inch telescope so I can tell you few things (I live in northern hemi and actually I'm happy because I think sky is here, in northern hemisphere, much more interesting). About planets:
Mercury - I've never seen it.
Venus - you can clearly see the phases of that planet - it's not a "point" or a "star" - it's a disc (in this case actually not a disc, but I hope you know what I mean).
Moon - awesome view of craters - they are sharp and huge. Totally worth seeing
Mars - a rather big disc (like a green reputation circle under an avatar here on forum or even like a this round part of a tennis rocket on your avatar)with clearly visible ice caps and few darker spots on the suface. Unfortunately my sky is rather polluted with light (I live close to our capital) and I didn't buy any filter yet (you can buy a filter and the light pollution is no longer a problem) so I have a worse conditions and thus results than a person who live further from any towns & cities.
Jupiter - huge disc visible (size of a thumb's nail) - I could clearly see the "lines" of clouds (darker and lighter) but unable to see the Red Spot. Galilean moons (four biggest moons of Jupiter) are clearly visible and change their position very quickly.
Saturn - big disc (again like a round part of that tennis rocket) with awesome rings. Unfortunately right now the rings are not visible well because they changed their angle. But they are slowly (very slowly) changing their angle and will be better visible each next year. I personally saw also Saturn's moon - Titan but couldn't locate any other his moons.
Uranus - a small, green dot.
Neptune and Pluto - I've never seen them.

If you manage to find an ISS (International Space Station) and then track it (it moves very, very fast when observed by a telescope) you can clearly see it's shape - modules and solar batteries. If you manage to see a Space Shuttle - it's fuselage is clearly visible - with wings.

Of course you would also see much more "mysteries" of the sky which are not visible without telescope's help - galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. Also a double or more stars. I personally like a beautiful star in Lyra constellation (forgot it's name). When you look at it with your eyes only you can see a small dot. If you look using telescope and small magnification you'll see that this dot is actually "made" of two stars orbiting each other. And when you use greater magnification (telescopes can use various magnifications - my magnifies 48x, 96x, 120x and 240x) you'll see that those two dots are actually... "made of" two stars each. It's a quadruple system - two pairs of stars are orbiting each other.

If you consider byuing a telescope - it's surely worth it!

[Gungalley]

Everybody tells me you can see mars with the naked eye, but I can never confidently spot it, maybe cos I live in the city. Sometimes, I spot a star taht seems redder than others, and think it might be Mars, maybe jupiter? but I have no way of confirming.

[Aquila SPQR]

Download THIS - I think it's the best such program. Mars is clearly visible with the naked eye even if you live in a city. Besides - if you are not sure, then just observe it closely each night for few days. If it's a planet - then it'll change its position. Jupiter is not reddish - it a huge, white "star". Much bigger than other, "normal" stars. But as I said - install Stellarium and you'll see how it looks in reality.

[Gungalley]

Thanks. it is a very cool program. I have yet to scrutinise it, but if jupiter is a huge white star, how do i differentiat it from the north star? Serial observation?

[Aquila SPQR]

Believe me - you'll know it's not a normal star But first - few basics - North Star (Polaris) is directly north of you. Planets always are visible south of your position (unless you live in a southern hemisphere I believe, but you do not because you can see the North Star) - they rise at east (like Sun) and then they travel through sky like Sun and set at west (again - like Sun). Of course the whole sky does it (all stars rise at east and then set at west), but planets are the only bodies that travel through the sky (well, not "only", but forget about it). Stars do not change their positions - every two stars will for whole your life be in the same position relative to themselves. Mars visible on for example March will be in the different position than visible on July (in a totally different constellation).

Run that program and try to set different dates and hours and you'll see how the sky works

[Swagger]

you can see the austronauts having crazy athmosphere-free sex

[LSJ]

Even just the stars are amazing if one has a clear sky and no light pollution. I used binoculars while camping north of Muskoka, and I could see amazing detail - a veritable blanket of stars, with every colour of the rainbow. And between every two stars is even more stars. It is overwhelming, but beautiful.