Deep-sky Observing

Amar A. Sharma

Bangalore Astronomical
Society
2011
 ABOUT THE OBSERVER
 Started astronomy in 2002 (in 1st-PUC)

 Tagged along with seniors of ABAA on observing trips to superb skies of Sivanahalli
(Bannerghatta forest)

 Immediately realized extremely fascinated by observing the celestial wonders beyond!

 Started observing clusters from home terrace @ JPNagar with a 6” f/9 in 2003

 Paired with new ABAA members, and formed observing team with guru Akarsh Simha,
Shashank and Neetesh for out of city trips in late-2005 [Co-founded B.A.S in mid-2006]

 Varied observing sites; Sivanahalli (35km) [2002-2005], Mysore Road (45km) [2003-2004],
Devanahalli (55km) [2005], Hosahalli (70km) [2006-present]

 Observed extensively from 2006-2008. Till date, managed to observe:

33 comets (half of attempted!)

310 galaxies
80 globulars (exact half of all Milky-way ones!)
500 DSOs (75% of these with only an 8” scope!)

 Love astro-sketching. Also binocular observing – 10x50 & 25x100 (currently 85 / 110
Messiers with just 10x50 binocs!)
 Observing in the dark
 Basically the realm of Deep Sky Objects (DSO) appears
“boring” !

 Shall never see color visually, as in photographs!

 Only the best and brightest objects in the sky exhibit stark
detail …yet minus the color

 Eye (muscular camera) cant expose for looong like a

mechanical camera, else its a very sensitive equipment

 Generally DSOs appear colorless, featureless, invisible,

without any distinct boundaries

1. Diffuse (low surface brightness) 

2. Condensed (high surface brightness) 
 Observing conditions
Several factors determine visibility
[Your log-book should ideally contain these parameters]

 Light pollution (background sky glow: red, black, gray)

(depends on distance from nearby largest civilization, dust-prone air
polluted areas)
 Transparency of sky
 Seeing conditions (steadiness of atmosphere)
 Various types of clouds (Upper and lower level)
 Haze, humidity, fog, moisture, dew
 Naked-Eye Limiting Magnitude (NELM) = 6.0+ mag very
good sky
 Structure of Milky-Way (with details like dark rifts seen
naked-eye)
 # Star Chart Objects / Category of
Highlights observer
1 Edmund Mag 5 Stars upto mag. 5 with Beginner
some brightest DSOs
2 Mag. 7 Star Atlas Stars upto mag. 7. Many Beginner
celestial objects visible
with an amateur telescope
3 Collins Gem Night Sky Pocket sized book for Beginner
Star basic celestial objects with
info on constellations

Atlases 4 Norton’s Star Atlas 8800 stars upto 6.5 mag, Intermediate
600 DSOs
5 Cambridge Star Atlas 8800 stars upto 6.5 mag, Intermediate
920 DSOs
6 Sky Atlas 2000.0 81,312 stars upto 8.5 mag, Intermediate /
2700 DSOs Advanced
7 Uranometria 2000.0 280,000 stars upto 9.7 Advanced
mag, 30,000 DSOs (260
charts)
8 Millenium Star Atlas 1,058,000 stars upto 11 Advanced
mag, 10,700 DSOs (1550
charts)
 Softwares
 Eliminates the need to carry a hard copy and find
objects by turning pages in the dark.
 Also has a very extensive database, you can upgrade
comet elements, and take custom-field printouts:

1. Stellarium
2. Sky Map Pro
3. StarryNight Pro 6
4. Cartes du Ciel
5. Mega Star
6. The Sky X
7. DeepSky Astronomy (planner)
 The Human Eye
 Rods & Cones

 Rods in periphery, Cones in central fovae

region

 Cones sensitive to bright light, responsible

for color vision while day

 Rods active in low light and insensitive to

colour
 Dark adaptation
 Eye is an automatic camera, self-adjusting to incoming light

 Eye pupil dilation ranges from 2mm - 7mm

 Fully contracted pupil dilates in 5-10 mins in darkness

 But the real process does not happen till 30-45 min

 Rhodopsin (visual purple) chemical needs to be released, to

increase photo-chemical sensitivity

 If hard-earned dark adaptation is lost once by an instantaneous

exposure to bright light, the process has to be re-started!

 Red wavelength least hampers night adaptation; hence use dim

red light while observing faint

 Also use an eye-patch and/or hood (blanket) to shield from stray

light while observing
Averted Vision
 You might run over faint objects un-noticingly hundreds of
times with direct vision!
 While observing, look “away” from the central focus,
however, being aware.
 Photons WILL catch the attention of your peripheral vision
 Requires practice; the more the better. Rest is instinct.
 Mastery over averted vision is a key to seeing those horridly
low surface brightness objects

 Slight wiggling the telescope helps. Eye + Brain catches

(slow) moving fuzzies
Graphic created by Akarsh Simha
Naked-eye Averted vision

Charts created by Akarsh Simha

A.V. applies for DSO observing in eyepiece as well
as naked-eye observing
Star hopping
 Locating a DSO using pathways of star patterns, either
in eyepiece, or naked-eye

 Create patterns of stars to reach your destination DSO

 Trains the hand-eye-mind coordination; increases

observational skill

 You can flaunt your DSO pointing skills to rival a GOTO

telescope’s pointing skills! :-P
Lets find Andromeda Galaxy…

Charts created by Akarsh Simha

Charts created by Akarsh Simha
Charts created by Akarsh Simha
Lets find a DSO; telescopically

M4 is a globular cluster near Scorpius’ brightest star, Antares

The view through finderscope, one eye closed

Antares is centered, but M4 is outside the f.o.v

Place the centered Antares now at the edge of f.o.v in eyepiece

Pick any pattern of stars, from where you will move ahead
There…just one field away was the misty patch.
This was a simple one-step star hop.

Hope you are now ready to star hop multiple fields 

 Aperture
 Foremost…you do not need larger apertures to do good
visual astronomy

 Use whatever aperture you have…just don’t let it gather

dust!

 An experienced observer with a self-made 8-inch can see

hundreds of objects in a dark sky, upto 12th magnitude

 Suit your equipment; Observing with your time-spent,

accustomed equipment will help you “see more”

 On really best moments of sky conditions, with small apertures

you can even resolve details, like spiral arms and features in
certain NGC galaxies!
 Ultimately the visibility of a DSO for an observer
depends on a combination of all factors put together:
(Vary one and the observability changes)

1. Sky quality / Local atmospheric conditions

2. Aperture of equipment

3. Observer’s experience + eye sensitivity (proper dark

adaptation)
 Surface brightness
 Very important! Least understood and often over-looked

 Apparent magnitude of DSO is not sufficient alone, to judge

an object’s brightness.
 S.B. coupled, will define the visibility of the DSO

 Magnitude is mainly for point sources, S.b. is for extended

objects

 Take the total light from the object and divide by the area.
 S.b. is a gradient of the magnitude of the DSO spread over
each square arc minute

 Not yet made sense? Good ! This example will… 

 Take M31, the famous Andromeda
Spiral Nebula

 Its magnitude is 3.4

 But its surface area is spread out over a
large area [3 degrees (189'x 62') or 6 Full
Moon widths]
 Which means the apparent magnitude of
3.4 is evenly stretched out to over 6
Moon widths

 Or vice versa: if the 189'x 62’ big galaxy is

compressed to a point, M31 would shine
like a star of 3.4 mag.
Another example, UGC
 Well, thats the definition of its magnitude
9749, is a 10.9 magnitude
 But how much of each square arc unit galaxy in Ursa Minor. But…
area of that stretched 189'x 62‘ large …it has a surface
M31 will be, is measurable as a low
surface brightness of mag 13.5 brightness of magnitude
17.8!!
 DSO Taxonomy
 Galaxies
 Nebulae
1. Spiral
a) Face on 1. Planetary
b) Barred spirals
2. SNR
c) Edge on
3. Diffuse
2. Elliptical 4. Reflection
5. Dark
3. Irregular
 Extra-galactic features
4. Galactic Mergers
1. E.G. nebulae
2. E.G. globulars
 Clusters 3. Supernovae
1. Open
2. Globular
 (A) Galaxies
(i) SPIRAL FACE-ON

Appears overall uniformly

fuzzy & circular

Sometimes with a
concentration toward the
center and spiraling arms

Some face-ons are

moderately visible, rest are
l.s.b.
Some are extremely faint: M101, M74 (Phantom galaxy), NGC
6946 (Fireworks galaxy)

 TIP: Observe with the lowest power / widest eyepiece

 You need contrast with background sky
 Use averted vision
 Then switch over to medium power for further examination
 Use the largest aperture + dark skies to extract most detail within the
galaxy; like arms, knots, emission nebulae regions
(ii) Barred spiral Gals

Sketch by Akarsh Simha

Same as spiral galaxies, except for the stretching

bar in the center
Some bars seen with 8-inch aperture;NGC 1365
 (iii) Edge-On Galaxies
Faint streak, maybe
with a cutting dust
lane

Will be challenging to
find, needle-like,
because of their
thin-ness
 NGC 4565 sketch by Amar A. Sharma

NGC 7640, NGC 4945, NGC 891, Integral Sign galaxy

TIP: Find with medium power then switch over

Good finder chart will help, using nearby star patterns
Look for the slightest thinnest elongation
 (2) Elliptical Gals

High surface brightness, round

Basically appear like only cores of spiral galaxies

Will see NO feature in them, except that bright fuzz!

E.g. – M87, M49, NGC 1316

 (3) Interacting Galaxies
Antennae galaxies sketch by Amar A. Sharma

Merger of two galaxies, either before or after

M51 (Whirlpool galaxy) shows the galactic mass transfer with

even a 4-inch.

Most are very faint & need larger apertures.

Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038 & 4039) are just visible in 8” as

heart-shaped
(B) Star Clusters
(i) Open Clusters
 Loose and scattered, or more dense

 Generally they cover a wider field, hence binoculars needed

to appreciate them

 Telescope could be used to count stars

 Some stars show stark colors within the cluster; e.g. in the
Double Cluster
 (ii) Globular clusters
 Only 150 GCs known to exist in MW
In Messiers, 7 exist in Ophiuchus & 8 in
Sagittarius alone

 Observationally two types:

1. Concentrated toward center with stars at edge
resolved
2. Uniform, low surface brightness

 With 10x50 binoculars, they all appear

as a fuzzy spot.

 Best known to mimic new comets!

Especially when comet hunting in MW
regions.

 Few of the farthest MW globulars are

visible even with an 8” aperture
Intergalactic Wanderer (3x MW!!!), Palomar 9
& NGC 7006
Sketch by Amar A. Sharma
 (C) Planetary nebulae
 Like GCs, even PN’s can appear similar.

1. Highly condensed and stellar Photo by Nikolas Hericks

2. Low surface brightness and uniform, like face on spirals

 LSB are hard to observe, like Owl Nebula, Skull Nebula

 Stellar ones generally show vivid blue, green colour in

medium aperture telescopes!
 E.g. Blue Snowball, Ghost of Jupiter, Blinking Planetary, Cats Eye,
Eskimo

 Other genre of nebulae require special Nebula Filters to

enhance their view. They are generally photographic
and not observational objects
Extra-galactic objects
 Even other galaxies obviously do possess their own
DSOs like our MW does
 Some nearby galaxies showcase rare sights within
them, at that distance

 Ever observed the bright & easy M54 (Sagittarius) and

M79 (Lepus) globulars?
-- They belong to Sagittarius Dwarf & Canis Major Dwarf Galaxies resp,
and not our MW !
-- Technically, these are extragalactic globular clusters!!

1. Globulars in M31, more difficult is within M33

2. NGC 1049 g.c. is relatively easy to see while the
parent galaxy Fornax A is ultra-high faint!

 Wealth of clusters and nebulae can be observed in our

neighboring companion dwarf galaxies; LMC & SMC
Globulars in Andromeda Galaxy

Credit “Atlas of Andromeda galaxy” website

Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Galaxy
Binocular v/s Telescope
Theory that 2 eyes are better than one:

 Enhanced signal perceived by brain since both

eyes are employed

 Increase in resolution, contrast, color perception

by 20 – 40 %

 Feels to render a 3-d visual image

 Less strenuous than one eye observation, more

effective
 Portable, small and light-weight. Hence can
compensate for hardships of telescope portability

 Wide fields (2* - 6*) & low magnifications (7x –

25x) offer stupendous views for scanning starry
regions of the night sky

 Disadvantages of binocular:

1. Fixed low magnification

2. Lower apertures
3. Hence restricted magnitude limit & resolution
4. One of the largest commercial binoculars 25x150
(Fujinon) cost more than a large computerized scope @
$7,000 & weigh-in 10 kilos !!
What can binoculars show me/you?
10x50 (~ 6* f.o.v)
Stars & DSOs to 9th mag
All 110 Messiers under very dark skies, by a very experienced
observer; lots of other NGCs (as basically smudges)
Wonderful wide-field Milky-Way vistas

20x80 (~ 3* f.o.v)
All Messiers by a good observer, more of NGCs

25x100 (~ 2* f.o.v)
A mini-telescope (5 kilos! Never for hand-held observing, need a
very sturdy mount)
Mind-blowing Milky-Way and starry sky vistas!
All Messiers; many visible more than mere fuzzes
Galaxies & comets upto 11th magnitude with good experience
For a more experienced observer 12th magnitude galaxies!
Battling false positives
 Glares and internal reflections
External un-shielded lighting sources
 Tap the telescope; DSOs will stay fixed w.r.t stars, while
glares will not, they will stay fixed in their location
 Move your head; DSO will move, glare will not.
 Use a hood / blanket to avoid external lights

 Asterisms
Close groupings of stars whose collective glow mimics dso’s
 Resolve using higher magnification

 Imagination & Hallucination!

Lack of sleep and oxygen circulation / Over will power!
 Call for another observer 
Visual impressions of the sky
Sketches by Amar A. Sharma
 Thank You

Happy Deep-sky observing!