The Wow factor of galaxy viewing
I only have a small telescope and it has given me lots of wow moments – looking at Jupiter and its moons, seeing the rings of Saturn and looking at the craters of the Moon. At public events, visitors are equally impressed. We were at a Cubs evening one time and they all loved seeing the Moon. When their parents arrived to pick them up, they wanted a look too. Their reaction was the same – “Wow!” – and , here’s the thing, they said it in exactly the same tone of voice as the youngsters.
First reactions on seeing a galaxy
Looking at a galaxy does not produce the same immediate reaction. The first time I saw a galaxy through a reasonable sized telescope, my reaction was “Oh, is that it ?”. A recent talk by member Steve Woodbridge made me think again on this. If you are expecting to see directly the wonderful details and colour we have become used to from galaxy images, you will be sadly disappointed. Wonderful images such as those taken by our society members involve long exposures of over an hour or more and you never see anything remotely approaching this as you look down the eyepiece of a telescope. At best you see a fuzzy patch with a few hints of structure if you look very carefully.
Getting the Wow factor>
Galaxies can still give a wow reaction though, provided you appreciate what you are looking at. Let’s take the Andromeda Galaxy as an example. This is over 2 million light years away. In other words, the light that reaches you has been travelling for more than 2 million years . As the photons that enter your eye have come all that way and have taken so long just for you, it seems churlish not to be impressed. You might like to reflect on the fact that we are in the fortunate position of knowing what we are looking at. Generations before us had no real idea what the fuzzy patches were. Indeed it was only in the 1920’s that it was confirmed that the Andromeda Galaxy was so far away. Until then, the true scale of the Universe was not that clearly understood.
A more simple Wow factor must be the satisfaction of succeeding in finding a tricky example. Focussing on the Moon and bright planets is a bit of a breeze. Finding a galaxy which you can barely see with your naked eye if at all involves real skill. You can say “Wow, I’ve done it !”. Well done to you.
Steve gave us a few hints in his talk about what makes good targets and how to find them. You need a very clear sky and no moon. Have a definite plan about what you are going to target and decide how you are going to do this. It might involve star-hopping , fixing first on a star which is easy to locate and then moving off to where you hope the galaxy will be. If you can afford a GoTo telescope, then things are much easier, but perhaps that is cheating a bit.
In reality when you look at a galaxy through your telescope, what you actually see might be close to a bit of a fuzzy blob. Don’t be disappointed ! Just marvel at what it is you are looking at.
Written by Katherine Rusbridge