Celestia Forums

I was wondering, how I would go about using Celestia as a telescope simulator.

I'm currently in the market for a new scope. These are rather expensive and although I belong to a nice Astronomy club, I'd just like to fool around with Celestia to see what I would be seeing...give or take...with different scopes.

For instance, just using the specs from a scope website, could I simulate the FOV and magnification I would get from say a:

LXD55 SN-8 8" f/4 Schmidt-Newtonian with:
Aperture 8"
Focal Length 812mm
Focal Ratio f/4
Highest Useful Power 204x
Resolution (Dawes Limit) 0.57 arc sec
26mm eyepiece (32x) yields actual field of 1.6 degrees

Now, with all that info, how could I go about translating all that into something in Celestia that could give me a reasonable simulation of what I would be seeing in an eyepiece out in the field?

Or is this a bad idea?

ScottGant wrote:I was wondering, how I would go about using Celestia as a telescope simulator.
I'm currently in the market for a new scope. These are rather expensive and although I belong to a nice Astronomy club, I'd just like to fool around with Celestia to see what I would be seeing...give or take...with different scopes.
For instance, just using the specs from a scope website, could I simulate the FOV and magnification I would get from say a:
LXD55 SN-8 8" f/4 Schmidt-Newtonian with:
Aperture 8"
Focal Length 812mm
Focal Ratio f/4
Highest Useful Power 204x
Resolution (Dawes Limit) 0.57 arc sec
26mm eyepiece (32x) yields actual field of 1.6 degrees
Now, with all that info, how could I go about translating all that into something in Celestia that could give me a reasonable simulation of what I would be seeing in an eyepiece out in the field?
Or is this a bad idea?

Dear Scott, I'm 58 and amateur astronomer from 52 years, so I have some imaging experience, that I'll try to use to help you .
First of all, Celestia is a wonderful software, but not due to show what you need: there is no possibility to have star blinking, no high level high speed air currents, no heat from the ground, no atmospheric humidity, no pollution, no light physics limitations, no dirt on the lenses/mirrors, and so on. I mean, Celestia can give, at least actually, a "PERFECT" show of the sky, without anything that can disturb its vision, as happens really .
So, here are my suggestions :
the telescope you are interested on is a good one, but should be used mainly for visual observation or imaging (film or CCD) of wide field and low luminosity objects, due to its diameter/focal length ratio of F/4.
The observation of planets or Moon at high magnification (and 204X is not so high, and moreover an “OPTIMUM” value) would be better done with a long focal length telescope, e.g. a 8" F/10 2000 mm focal length telescope, that could allow higher magnification.
A WebCam could anyhow, even with the LXD55 SN-8 8" f/4, give good results on planets and Moon, because the WebCam sensor is very small, so doesn't need big enlargements, that you can reach simply with a 2X- 3X Barlow lens. But, if you need to see in practice what will show different telescopes with different focal lengths and different eyepieces, go to
http://www.davidpaulgreen.com/tec.html
while following is a link to see the FOV of the different CCDs and WebCams.
http://www.nto.org/whatusee_en.html
Using a sky map, that surely is available in your Astronomy Club, check the differences among the various telescopes/eyepieces.
Hope this will help you.
If you want other information, you are welcome .
By

Andrea

Oh I understand that I won't see star blinking, dirt etc etc...I was just looking for something simular to Starry Night...they have a calculator where you can input the stats for your scope and it will give you a resonable FOV of what a scope would "see".

That's all. Just something to fool around with at home...any time, day or night...just to get a feel. This is MUCH easier than waiting for a clear night AND a night where my club can observe...which with the weather this summer has been barely once a month.

With a simulation I could get a sense...not a perfect simulation to be sure...but a noodle of an idea.

ScottGant wrote:Oh I understand that I won't see star blinking, dirt etc etc...I was just looking for something simular to Starry Night...they have a calculator where you can input the stats for your scope and it will give you a resonable FOV of what a scope would "see".
That's all. Just something to fool around with at home...any time, day or night...just to get a feel. This is MUCH easier than waiting for a clear night AND a night where my club can observe...which with the weather this summer has been barely once a month.
With a simulation I could get a sense...not a perfect simulation to be sure...but a noodle of an idea.

OK, so things are even simpler .
Go to this link
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/index.html
and download the "Cartes du Ciel" software, by Patrick Chevalley .
It's a very nice FREEWARE astronomy map software, showing almost everything, and probably much more than one could think possible .
Believe me, it's unbeatable .
And free !
Enjoy.

Andrea