Which objects in Elite Dangerous have you looked at with your own eyes?

Nerwan

Nerwan
I have a (fairly small) reflector telescope which I've used to look at objects which are present in the game. Specifically I've seen the Andromeda galaxy with it, some of the globular clusters, the California nebula (I think) and of course Orion's nebula. It struck me the other day that, in game, Barnards loop is incredibly visible. It's like a huge way pointer whenever you're heading back to sol. I remember seeing it for the first time as I came back from Sag A and thinking OMG, Barnards Loop, I'm nearly home! Weird how these local star features come to be important to you when in game.

Anyway, if it's so visible in game where is it in the sky? Well, I looked it up and it turns out that it's right smack over Orion's belt and it's so large that if it wasn't very dim you'd be able to see it easily with the naked eye. Funny to think it's always there behind one of the two most well known constellations. The Orion nebula (which I have seen with the naked eye because it's quite bright) is actually right over the top of Barnards loop which is much bigger than it. I'm going to have to go somewhere very dark and see if I can pick it up with Astro-binoculars.

Anyway, what other objects have you visited in game that you've also seen with your own eyes?

EDIT: Actually further googling reveals that it's too dim to see with most telescopes or binoculars despite its size. Apparently if you want a decent view of it you need to use a camera with a decent lens and do image stacking to build up the light levels. If anyone in game has actually done this I'd love to see the pictures taken by a fellow commander.
 
Last edited:

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
I can always see Sirius from my bedroom window. So I made that my home. Lol

I don't have any telescopes (anymore) due to lack of space.

I'll get one again one day. When humanity stops putting up street lights in front of my bedroom window!
 

GreyAreaUK

GreyAreaUK
I'm lucky enough to own three telescopes: 3" and 6" achromatic refractors (can't afford apochromatic, sadly!) and a 10" Newtonian reflector, plus a reasonably range of eyepieces and a filter or two.

Due to a lack of proper dark skies, the dimmest object I've seen is the Veil Nebula (both the east and west parts of it). That was where I learned the 'averted vision' trick.

M57 (the Ring Nebula) is awesome. Andromeda is *stunning*, especially at lower magnifications.

Jupiter and Saturn are unbelievable. I've watched shadow transits on Jupiter's disk from the Galilean moons. I've seen both the Cassini and Encke divisions in Saturn's rings.

I've never - despite repeated attempts - been able to see the Horsehead or Flame nebulas in Orion.

Sadly I'm too high North to be able to see much of the southern sky objects (I'm close to Edinburgh).
 
Last edited:

Nerwan

Nerwan
CMDR_Cosmicspacehead said:
I can always see Sirius from my bedroom window. So I made that my home. Lol

I don't have any telescopes (anymore) due to lack of space.

I'll get one again one day. When humanity stops putting up street lights in front of my bedroom window!
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I always look out for Sirius. It's one of the 4/5 stars that I can usually identify (along with Vega, Betelgeuse, Aldabaran and a few others)

As for the street light thing just don't do what I did. I got annoyed that I couldn't see anything by my house so I drove out at night to a country park to get a better view. The night sky was a LOT clearer but unfortunately.... it turned out to be a well known spot for other nocturnal activities practiced by certain members of the public.. I was quite perturbed..

- - - Updated - - -

GreyAreaUK said:
I'm lucky enough to own three telescopes: 3" and 6" achromatic refractors (can't afford apochromatic, sadly!) and a 10" Newtonian reflector, plus a reasonably range of eyepieces and a filter or two.

Due to a lack of proper dark skies, the dimmest object I've seen is the Veil Nebula (both the east and west parts of it). That was where I learned the 'averted vision' trick.

M57 (the Ring Nebula) is awesome. Andromeda is *stunning*, especially at lower magnifications.

Jupiter and Saturn are unbelievable. I've watched shadow transits on Jupiter's disk from the Galilean moons. I've seen both the Cassini and Encke divisions in Saturn's rings.

I've never - despite repeated attempts - been able to see the Horsehead or Flame nebulas in Orion.

Sadly I'm too high North to be able to see much of the southern sky objects (I'm close to Edinburgh).
Click to expand...

Sounds fab, I'm jealous. I think I'd get very into astronomy if I didn't live in the middle of a city (Liverpool). Just how close are you to Edinburgh? I do sometimes wonder just how good a view I'd get if I did get a decent telescope. Perhaps I should go along to one of these public star gazing events at some point just to see what's possible. They do have them not all that far from where I live.
 
Last edited:

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
GreyAreaUK said:
I'm lucky enough to own three telescopes: 3" and 6" achromatic refractors (can't afford apochromatic, sadly!) and a 10" Newtonian reflector, plus a reasonably range of eyepieces and a filter or two.

Due to a lack of proper dark skies, the dimmest object I've seen is the Veil Nebula (both the east and west parts of it). That was where I learned the 'averted vision' trick.

M57 (the Ring Nebula) is awesome. Andromeda is *stunning*, especially at lower magnifications.

Jupiter and Saturn are unbelievable. I've watched shadow transits on Jupiter's disk from the Galilean moons. I've seen both the Cassini and Encke divisions in Saturn's rings.

I've never - despite repeated attempts - been able to see the Horsehead or Flame nebulas in Orion.

Sadly I'm too high North to be able to see much of the southern sky objects (I'm close to Edinburgh).
Click to expand...
Like you, atleast we don't have to travel far to get in the middle of nowhere!
(I like smack dab in the middle of Shrewsbury, just on the Welsh border!)

As a delivery driver, I often end up in Wales in the dark. And it's completely dark.

If it's clear, and I get a gap in my deliveries, I'll park up and gaze at the stars. So many. So shiny.
Shame my star gazing app/phone tends to forget it's orientation.
If the moon isn't out, I have no way of telling if my app is lying or not. Lol
 

Nerwan

Nerwan
CMDR_Cosmicspacehead said:
If the moon isn't out, I have no way of telling if my app is lying or not. Lol
Click to expand...

Well, it shouldn't be too bad because there's never a night sky (In the northern hemisphere) where you can't see one of:

The Plough
Orion
Cassiopeia

Which are all very distinctive.

And if you can see either the plough or cassiopia then you can easily find Polaris and hence north (which I think is how the sailors of old used to do it)
 
Last edited:

GreyAreaUK

GreyAreaUK
CMDR_Cosmicspacehead said:
Like you, atleast we don't have to travel far to get in the middle of nowhere!
(I like smack dab in the middle of Shrewsbury, just on the Welsh border!)l
Click to expand...

I used to live not far from there. Ever heard of Loggerheads, near-ish to Market Drayton? I was close to there. Looooong time ago now, mind.
 

GreyAreaUK

GreyAreaUK
CMDR_Cosmicspacehead said:
Of course!
My parents live in Market Drayton. Lol
I walked their dogs in the woods at Loggerheads once.
Never again.

It was like a poop minefield. Lol
Click to expand...

I was up the bank from Loggerhead, in a wee village called Hook Gate. Wonderfully odd microclimate - bottom of the bank, no snow. Top of bank, 4ft drifts of the stuff.
 

Greyza Badger

Greyza Badger
With the Mk.1 eyeball (FDevs recommended search tool) I've probably seen a good chunk of them.

('chunk' being an SI unit and 'good' being a definite quantity, I've scienced the poop out of this!)
 
Last edited:

CMDR Ofan

CMDR Ofan
A couple of friends of mine have invested a couple of thousand into telescopes and such. If we take things like developing picture stacks we have taken as "own eyes" then the list includes (but is not limited to);

Luna
Venus
Saturn
Jupiter
Other local bodies
The Pleiades
Orion
Bernards
Horsehead
Andromeda (an amazing 1st experiment in exposure by a friend that paid of with some incredible pics)
Sol
M81
M82
And a few others that escape my memory.

They have way more under their belt, I've just been a happy guest at some of their outings. It's been a bit cold recently and the scopes have been freezing at night so there haven't been as many trips out. I'm slowly convincing them to get into the game, the are suprised at how accurate some of the things we have are depicted.
 

bootsam

bootsam
I have a 10" newtonian reflector that I built myself, a Meade 105ETX, a Vixen 60mm refractor and a large and expensive number of TeleVue Naglers and Panoptics. Ive looked at nearly all the Messiers, all our solar system and some Nebulea. However, I find myself drawn to our Sun mostly asthe physics of stars is deeply interesting. So now, I am looking at buying a Coronado. I may have to sell some of my gear to fund it.

I used to take the 10" to Scotland in my campervan and pop the roof and just kind of faff around. But it now has rotted and requires serious money to restore. Any VW welders reading this...?
 

Nerwan

Nerwan
CMDR Ofan said:
A couple of friends of mine have invested a couple of thousand into telescopes and such. If we take things like developing picture stacks we have taken as "own eyes" then the list includes (but is not limited to);

Luna
Venus
Saturn
Jupiter
Other local bodies
The Pleiades
Orion
Bernards
Horsehead
Andromeda (an amazing 1st experiment in exposure by a friend that paid of with some incredible pics)
Sol
M81
M82
And a few others that escape my memory.

They have way more under their belt, I've just been a happy guest at some of their outings. It's been a bit cold recently and the scopes have been freezing at night so there haven't been as many trips out. I'm slowly convincing them to get into the game, the are suprised at how accurate some of the things we have are depicted.
Click to expand...

Sounds awesome, Do you have any pics? I'd quite like to see an amateur photo of Barnard's loop.
 

CMDR Ofan

CMDR Ofan
Nerwan said:
Sounds awesome, Do you have any pics? I'd quite like to see an amateur photo of Barnard's loop.
Click to expand...

I'll defo ask them. I have mentioned in the past any good images they get will likely be appreciated on these forums, they seemed ok with the idea of that :)
 
Last edited:

goemon

goemon
to add to this list ... the pleiades. one of the first stellar objects i learned to recognize in the sky ... and was the target of my very first exploration trip ... in my adder :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom