Beyond the planets - what to view?

[Tasaurora]

So I’ve slowly worked out how to utilise my dobsonian 10” scope and impressed the kids with reasonable images of the planets.

My question is - what is a few things that can continue the wow factor - ? I’ve used the tour aspect on goto but many items come up looking like...well stars really. I’ve looked at a couple of distant galaxies and can fit watching in wonderment as I understand the distances and contemplate who is looking back but is there anything I am missing that with the right recipe will continue the wow factor for young teens? Would a filter help show a nebulae?

Silly question - why do cameras allow for such vastly improved imagery - it’s obviously not down to magnifying the image, so must be down to spectrum - so can you buy filters that emulate this or only in PC processing can one gain the imagery seen on many you tube channels?

Just FYI if it helps I’m using and learning with;
10” goto skywatcher. 10mm and 25mm original eye lens.
Celestron 6.5 eye piece and 2 x Barlow lens.
Scope will accomodate 2” eye pieces but I’m not using them.

[PKay]

Hi SI

Many years ago, when I was 10 years old, i was given a telescope, on a tripod.
No camera.
My Dad pointed up and said 'see that bright star, that's Jupiter...'
And then he walked inside.

It was up to me to align and focus.

And the first time I looked at Jupiter, all achieved by myself, I will never forget...

[Startrek]

The human eye doesn’t have the ability to perceive or recognise certain colour in celestial objects but camera sensors use both a Bayer matrix and colour filters to formulate a colour image
That’s why it’s generally a black and white picture show when viewing through an eyepiece. Some UHC filters provide some faint greenish colour of nebulosity in eye pieces

[Allan_L]

Other WOW items include:
Globular clusters: eg The Omega Centauri cluster: it is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years.
Easy to find (even naked eye) near SOuthern Cross
47 Tuc: a spectacular globular cluster located in the southern constellation of Tucana, very close to the SMC (Small Magellenic Cloud)

Bright Nebulae
Orion nebula (M42) is one of the brightest nebulae in the Milky Way, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky in Orion (it appears as the middle star in Orions Sword (or the handle of the saucepan for some).
Eta Carina: luminosity greater than five million times that of the Sun, very close to Crux (Southern Cross)
Tarantula Nebula: an immense region in the (LMC) Large Magellanic Cloud, nebula consists of a cloud of interstellar gas illuminated from within by young, hot stars
Swan Nebula: M17 looks like a swan to many. It is a bit fainter.

Open Cluster:
The jewel box: Very close to Beta Crux described by its founder its telescopic appearance as "...a superb piece of fancy jewellery"

If you need help finding these consult Stellarium. Free planetarium program

[Aron]

How about things with stories? pleidaes is quite good choice as lots of lores are connected with it

[N1]

Peter's got it nailed. A 10" GoTo is a great scope, but it removes a lot of the challenges whose overcoming gets a lot of people WOWed in the first place and provides the spark that turns it into a pursuit. It can deliver effortless results at a pace that will wear out most people's capacity for novelty real fast. It can show thousands, perhaps millions of objects, but nowhere near as many types of objects. So a lot of them will look similar (a lay person would say the "the same"). I fear that unless your kids start putting is some effort themselves, for example reading up on what they are seeing, or setting up an AP rig that produces images they can share with their peers, they'll be tired of the whole thing fairly quickly. Trouble is, you can't make them. They need to decide it's worth their while.

[Tasaurora]

I’m hearing you loud and clear...I’m not sure if it’s the generation or exactly as you’ve described - I’ve given them too much too which...they seem happier on their devices than outside being wowed....which is disappointing.

[N1]

Well, maybe that needs to be incorporated somehow. The technology is readily availabe, for example, to grab an image wirelessly, do some basic processing and share it with others in near-realtime. I appreciate cost needs to be considered also, so their interest needs to be gauged somehow, and you are making an effort, which is good.

[Allan_L]

Maybe ...
Download Stellarium Planetarium (free) to their phones (or whatever) and they can view a virtual real time view of the sky (zoom in etc) and then go outside and look for real.

[ColHut]

Partly it comes down to expectations. The pooliverse is awash with super pretty images taken with modern technology, stacked composite long exposure images etc. If you were expecting to see that in your typical backyard scope it would be a bit of a let down. You can fairly easily do a bit of astrophotography and with the free software available can yourself manufacture some pretty good images.

But really, if what you can see (and you will see more detail with experience, honest) with your own eyes does not float your boat after a while, that is just all there is to it :)

For me, the thrill of knowing those photons actually came from that celestial object for just my consumption is a big thrill, even if a five year old with a pack of crayons can generate a better image after watching one episode of Cosmos!

So if the kids just don't 'get it' after a bit, and after you have explained what they are seeing, then not much you can do :)

Trust me, been there. However my kids do sometimes now come out to have a view, and there remains the hope that they might find it more interesting as the thrill of video games etc wanes (if it does).

Clear skies.

[raymo]

Get up close and personal with the moon. Other than at or very near a full moon, different features come into stark view as the terminator moves across the face of the moon night by night. On nights when the image is steady use your high power eyepieces.
raymo