SingAstro

How do i get a star map/chart?? I can set the time and all that.. display the grids and constellation labels... but how do i get it to display the magnitude of the star??

Any other functions which is very useful???

Hi!

All of your questions are easily answered in the help file, except that I'm not sure if the star magnitudes can be displayed. If you double click a star though you can get a whole lot of info including its magnitude there.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions that you'll not be able to find the answers to.

Cheers,
Chris

If u are using Starry Night Pro ver 5, u can click on the OPTION side bar then go to STARS menu. Under STARS menu u will see a list of option setting such as GLOBULAR CLUSTER, MILKY WAY, PULSAR and another STARS submenus, point your mouse on to STARS submenu and STARS OPTION will appear, click on it and u will get a bunch of settings and configuration on how stars will be displayed. Tick on the LABELS and change the SHOW drop down menu to MAGNITUDE. U can adjust the slider bar below to show info on more or fewer stars.

Hope this helps.

One thing that is useful to check is the apparent size of the object. For example the object may be 8 minutes big.. so you can estimate which eyepiece to use on your telescope to be able to frame up the object; most objects differ in size rather greatly. But of cos you need to know the true FOV (Calculated by taking the Apparent FOV of the eyepiece / Magnification) of the eyepiece when inserted into the telescope. Also, by knowing the size of the object, it makes it easier to find (especially in Singapore) it as you would be searching for a fussy/hard to see object of a size you roughly know.

Hi,
One recommendation is to use a bigger finder scope, such as a 50mm finderscope or try to use a 50mm bino to look for it first... other than galaxy, planetary nebula and some dim big nebula, most M objects can be seen through a 50mm finderscope or 50mm bino.

Or try to get a good detail star chart such as StarAltas 2000.0 and use star hopping to "hop" from a known star to a star near to that objects.

Have a nice day.

PS: Forget galaxy first... most galaxy is very difficult to see in Singapore unless you got a scope at least 8 inch or you have very good eyesight.

finally starting to get the hang of using starry night pro with my scope.. cant wait to go to somewhere dark!!!! and cloudless!!

Yup.. getting a 50mm finder helps a lot in finding objects. I suggest you get the 50mm UPRIGHT kind of finder as straight through finders are inverted image. From your telescope picture, your finder is straight through meaning inverted image, so you would have to rotate your star chart 180 degree to get the correct orientation. An upright finder is good as you can make direct comparison with your binoculars. Binoculars should have better optical quality than the finder (refering to general finders) so it will help if you use them concurrently. Another suggestion is to add a red-dot finder or any other kind of unit (1x magnification=no magnification) finders such Telrad or Quickfinder. These unit finders will help you quickly point to the general area first, then you use your finderscope to find the objects. It is like a progression of magnification (from 1x to 9x to 30x to 100x etc). As the magnification increase, the field of view decrease, that is why you should start with the least magnification.