Need some helpful information for my first outing

[Raradir]

Well my telescope hasn't arrived yet, but I'd like some info for when I make my first outing with it. You see I'm a newbie, I can point out things like Orion and the Plough in the night sky and thats it really. So I can imagine my first outing is going to be me just pointing the telescope in the sky and looking through, hoping to see something nice. So any help of where to find star charts online or maybe books from my local library, I'm also thinking of buying an Star Chart App for my phone, any good?

Thanx

Raradir

[John]

If you have not already done so, download and install the freeware planetarium software Stellarium. Just pointing and hoping is going to get frustrating very quickly so a guide like "Turn Left at Orion" would be a good investment and maybe a red dot type finder - they make pointing the scope at the right bit of the sky pretty easy.

[Astro Imp]

As has been said Stellarium is a great piece of free software.

Before you go out assemble your scope and mount in daylight and take your time. If you've not done this before it can be a bit daunting.

Next align your finder on a distant church spire, pylon, TV aerial or some such, you won't find anything if you can't point your scope in the right place.

To start with don't be over ambitious in what you want to see, make a note of perhaps three or four objects and find these and have a good look.

Without kowing what scope you are getting it is hard to suggest what to look, certainly Jupiter will be on your list.

Others you might consider M31, M15 the double cluster in Perseus, all fairly easily found.

HTH

[Raradir]

Well just bought a really good Star Chart App for my phone, accurate aswell, it should come in handy, and gives alot of information when you click on a certain star, should be very useful.

[brantuk]

Check out the Messier list of 110 objects and use stellarium (or your phone app) to locate the ones that are in your current sky. Stellarium will show you exactly what's over your house right now

[NeutrinoWave]

If you have an Android Phone, download GoogleSky app