Star hopping involves "hopping" from star to star with your telescope, until you arrive at the location of the target object.
As can be seen in the tutorial, the Plough can point you in the direction of other constellations. By using these signposts in the sky you can soon start star hopping around the constellations.
Star hopping is a method often used by amateur astronomers with low-tech equipment such as binoculars or a manually driven telescope. It involves the use of maps (or memory) to locate known landmark stars, and "hopping" between them.
star hopping
the technique of using recognizable patterns of stars to 'hop' from one part of the sky to another; useful in observing both with the naked eye and a telescope
star party ...
At 10:21pm, by star hopping from eVir and rVir I found M59 and M60. The later looked a lot brighter and at higher magnification its satellite, NGC4647, became apparent.
Lack of fixed field orientation makes star hopping the primary mode of faint object location in non-computerized altazimuth mounts (right-angle sweep and R.A./Dec. setting circles cannot be used).
This is the second number written on a pair of binoculars, and 50mm or better is usually recommended for astronomy, although for this star hopping expedition, even a pair of 40mm binoculars will provide the light gathering ability needed.
Locating faint objects is very difficult and failure to learn how to find these objects is a common reason why people quit the hobby. But learning star hopping is a major accomplishment and brings great satisfaction.
 See also: Sky, Telescope, Star, Cluster, Magnitude
|
