Beyond the Solar System (Hunting Deep Space)

Now that you have mastered Stellarium and captured Jupiter, you are ready for the ultimate test: leaving our solar system entirely. Your Koolpte 80600 is powerful enough to see bright deep-space objects like the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Pleiades star cluster.

How to hunt them:

1. Open your Stellarium app and type "M42" or "Orion Nebula" into the search bar.

2. Follow the arrow until your phone is pointing at the constellation Orion.

3. Use your finderscope to zero in on the glowing "sword" of Orion, and look through your 25mm eyepiece. You won't see a sharp star, but rather a beautiful, glowing, ghostly cloud of cosmic gas—a stellar nursery where new stars are being born!

<Mentor's Pro Tip: The Enemy is Light > You cannot hunt deep space from a brightly lit city balcony. City lights will completely wash out faint nebulae. To successfully complete this mission, you must take your telescope to a dark, suburban or rural area, and let your eyes adjust to the darkness for at least 15 minutes.