Star Hopping Guide - Rob Hawley

1 star Hopping Guideto theMessier Marathon(Text Instructions)Copyright 2006-2009 Robert J. HawleyiRob HawleySome Rights Reserved2/24/2009 TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION1 star Hopping 1014 SUNSET OBJECTS (TWILIGHT 9 PM)12 WINTER messier OBJECTS (9 PM TO 10 PM)14 LEO AND CANCER (10 PM 10:30 PM)17 URSA MAJOR OBJECTS (10:30 PM 11:30 PM)18 DOWNTOWN VIRGO (11:45 PM 1 AM)20 EARLY SUMMER OBJECTS(1:15 AM 3:30 AM)23 SUMMER MILKY WAY (3:30 AM 4 AM)26 SUNRISE OBJECTS (4 AM TWILIGHT)29 ACTUAL OBSERVED OBJECT TIMELINE30 ANNOTATED star HOP EXAMPLE34 ENDNOTES35 IntroductionPage1 IntroductionThis document, along with its companion book of charts, is intended to supplement DonMachholz sThe messier Marathon Observer's Guideiiand his bookThe Observing Guideto the messier Marathoniii.

2 The object orders and many of the star hops are taken fromthe Marathon is great experience that can really help a beginner learn to efficiently use hisscope. That was certainly my experience. Yet manybeginners quake at the prospect oftraversing Virgo. It basically comes down to not having the correct tools. This book willsupply all of the charts required for a beginner to complete the produce another Guide when there is so much information already available? In2004 I was getting ready for my first Marathon. I bought Don s book, but after somepractice sessions decided that it was not enough information for a beginner tosuccessfully complete the marathon. The finder charts in Don sbook are small. It lackedthe detailed charts necessary to navigate Virgo.

3 Finally the directions in Don s book areoptimized for using a German Equatorial Mount. For example, his directions for locatingM37 From M35 go preceding W and preceding north to M37are easily translated into actions using a GEM. Using an Alt/Az mounted Dobsoniansuch directions where less useful. I realized that what I needed was a set of overview anddetailed charts that are optimized for star Hopping to the objects. Using my Planetariumprogram SkyMap Pro I created a detailed script for the evening. I could zoom out foroverviews, yet when it came to Virgo I had a detailed script that contained finder fields ofview (FOV) and specific star hops that I could justexecute. This paper converts thatwork into book book is set up for the messier Marathon of March 25, 2006 that is conducted atHenry Coe State Park near San Jose, CA.

4 Aside from the location of the planets it shouldbe useful for other marathons run at different times and different important part of my approach to star Hopping is that you have a series of chartsa)Wide angle charts to locate the portion of the sky and point your reddot (SeeEquipmentSuggestionsbelow). These should cover about90 of sky and show the stars to about visual magnitude. TheBright star Atlasivis an excellent example of such a )Finder charts to allow youto navigate to the correct star should cover at least 16 of sky and show stars to magnitudeIntroductionPage29. The Uranometriavcan be used for this, but I find the size andweight of the book rather )Detailed charts to fine-tune your at least half of the messier objects are finder visible, detailed charts are notrequired for many objects.

5 I have included detailed charts for some areas such as Virgowhere you will probably star hop at the evening is broken into sections based on my own timeline starting on page30. Eachsection is for the objects that you would typically look for at some time in the evening(say at 12 AM). Each section has an overview chart (a type A chart), a series of B typefinder level charts, and text description of the star hop for each experienced star hoppers this is all that should be needed to quickly find all of theobjects. Less experienced star hoppers may benefit from first reviewing the section StarHopping 101 . It will give you a better idea of how to use the book best to Things to Keep in Mind During the Marathon Read the charts withDIMred light.

6 Using a bright red flashlight (or heavensforbid a white light) isa nice way to blow your night vision. Protect the book from the inevitable dew. Otherwise you will have pulp bymorning. I suggest putting it in a plastic bag. Make sure you maintain a checklist of objects observed. Otherwise it is too easyto skip one. Don t be too literal with the object order. My changes from Don s order weremainly due to the horizons at Coe. Use low magnification. I suggest a combination that gives you a 1 field of the TimeLineThe messier Marathon is the perfect exercise for those with Type A behavior1. Itencourages your (my) goal oriented, competitive nature. Keep in mind that this issupposed to be fun! There are some portions of the evening that you will be very will include the first two hours after sunset, about midnight, and after 3 AM.

7 Notefrom the suggested timeline there are also wide gaps. If you work efficiently there willbe points in the evening when you will run out of objects. When this happens enjoy thecompany of your fellow the actual timelines on page30are for two messier Marathon run in mid Marchandare in PST. Since Congress messed with DST in 2007, all of the times in this documentwill be 1 hour object order in this book was a compromise from Don s order based on the realitiesof the horizon at Henry Coe State Park. When you start on the summer objects (M13 andlater) you will need to wait for the earth to take the suggested timeline as a Guide and don t become anxious if you don t do thisas quickly as I did or in a different the ChartsAll of the charts in the companion chart book were generated by SkyMap Pro version 11viusing my marathon notations.

8 Some contain DSS images that were shippedwith SMPviior downloaded directly from DSS circles on the charts represent a 5 field of view that corresponds to an Orion 9x50 Finder. Smaller circles represent a 1 field of view, which is the recommended eyepiecefield of view for this exercise. All charts have a scale in the lower right corner and acompass in the upper that charts labeled Eyepiece are upside down to represent what would be seenfrom the eyepiece of a Newtonian stars are represented using larger images on the charts. The dimmest starsdisplayed areVisual Charts9 Detail andEyepieceCharts13 Visual and Finder charts are displayed zenith up corrected for the time of the chart. Thusthe sky will correlate to the charts either visually or using binoculars.

9 Finders andeyepieces will introduce rotation and/or mirroring. If you are not familiar with these thenI suggest you readStar Hopping give three types of direction. Left, right, up, and down are movements of the telescope and not the finder views. Where I need to be more precise I have used north, south, east, and west. Thesedirections are discussed inStar Hopping 101. Where I say toplace the object in the finder in the position remember if you donot have a correct image finder you will need to adjust these SuggestionsThis book assumes that the user has available both some sort of red dot finder and amagnifying finder with crosshairs. You can do the marathon with just one of these (the2004 marathon that is the basis of the timeline only used a Rigel), but you will be moreefficient with red dot I mean a device the projects a variable intensityred image on this are two main kinds of these Calibrated circles such as a Rigelviiior TelRadix.

10 These can be handy since youcan estimate star hops with them. A simple red dot such as the good magnifying finder also helps. Ipersonally prefer the Orion 9x50 right anglecorrect image finderxi, but you can use a reversing finder. Make sure you understand howthe finder rotates/mirrors what you Hopping 101 Iteach aboth a short and longversionof how to use charts to locate objects in the presentations areavailable onmywebsite chapter is a subset of thematerial from that Your Way in the SkiesWhen I first started using a telescope about8years ago I got lost every time I looked forsomething in the sky. This was particularly true if I did so from my light polluted backyard in suburban San Jose. Sure I recognized the bright star patterns I learned asa cubscout like the Big Dipper, but the rest was a mystery.