9/12/2023 0 Comments Small refractor telescope![]() It’s easy to see with 2.4- and 3-inch telescopes. If you live in the lower 48 states or Hawaii, this is one of the most amazing sights in the sky. Visible in both 2.4- and 3-inch refractors, this view is one of the grandest galaxy pairings in the sky. It is nicely resolved in 2.4- and 3-inch refractors. This celestial sight is also visible without filters,but an OIII filter still enhances the view.įrom a dark-sky location, you should be able to see this cluster with your naked eye. Type: Emission nebula and open star clusterīoth of these targets are easy to pick out without an Oxygen-III (OIII) filter. The reflection nebula M78 lies just outside the field to the northeast. With a 3-inch refractor, you can easily spot the nearby Flame Nebula, as well as hints of the emission nebula IC 434, which harbors the shadowy Horsehead Nebula. Located just west of Rigel in Orion, you need a dark site and transparent skies to see it. You may need to nudge your telescope slightly while viewing the area to notice how the nebulosity moves in the field. ![]() To see this very subtle target within the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, use the lowest possible power and an Hβ filter. And while such a mount may seem like overkill for only a little 3-inch refractor, the excellent handling it provides makes it a breeze to quickly view a lot of different objects during a single night of observing Indeed, I have a fairly robust equatorial mount that I can equip with several scopes at once. I recommend getting a mount with slow-motion controls, if possible, as they allow for quick and easy fine adjustments. A solid mount for a small, lightweight telescope is relatively cheap to purchase, and it makes it much easier for you to locate and spot the details of your target. But a small, portable telescope also makes for a good travel companion, providing an excuse to venture to spectacular dark-sky sites like national parks.ĬONSIDER A STEADY MOUNT. There’s simply no getting around the fact that urban skies wash out deep-sky objects. Dark skies make the contrast between the object you seek and the surrounding sky much more apparent. I cannot overemphasize enough how tracking down deep-sky objects with a small scope is far more rewarding if you do it from the darkest, least light-polluted site you can find. Thus, I began an astronomical adventure to see what else a 3-inch would reveal under a dark sky. It was a pronounced, distinct view that stood out from the background. That little refractor, combined with a 2-inch wide-field eyepiece, 2-inch diagonal, and a Hydrogen-beta (Hβ) filter, produced the best view of the California Nebula I have ever seen. Almost as a lark, I eventually decided to try my luck with a short-focal-length 3-inch refractor. So, to get a better view of the California Nebula, a notoriously faint and expansive object, I started to employ smaller and smaller telescopes, including 10-inch, 8-inch, and 6-inch, achieving various degrees of success. ![]() And while these scopes did produce memorable results, a big telescope has a serious drawback, other than being a beast to transport: You only see a small portion of the sky at a time. I was using large telescopes in rural locations to chase down galaxies, as well as obtain detailed views of brighter objects. About 10 years ago, I was severely bitten by the aperture bug.
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