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Hi guys :)

So this is my second night as a telescope owner (not even sure of the propper name lol) and tonight i managed to see jupiter and i think 3 moons around it. Looked like tiny pin pricks, two on one side towards the top right and 1 towards the bottom left, was that the moons? I was kind of hoping jupiter would look bigger, i couldnt really see any detail on it, just looked like a small ball of light. Now i know my telescope is not a very good one but so far ive seen the moon, jupiter and what i think was venus. What else is there that i can see with a not so good scope and also what could i see with a better one? Will i be able to see other things throughout the year or is that about it? Also any tips on keeping the telescope still? Its very light and the stand is very light too, i dont dare breath next to it incase it wobbles. Lol .

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Apart from the moon and jupiter there's the Plieades (M45), Orion Nebula (M42), and Andromeda galaxy (M32), all of which can be seen by eye and make good starter objects.

Get a list of Messier objects and see how many you can bag over the coming year. Also get this months Sky at Night magazine, there's a regular center page pullout telling you what's up, how to find it, and which is the best equipment to use :)

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thanks for the advice, that link had some usefull information in it.

@John. My telescope is a celestron powerseeker 50. like i say its not the best, even i can tell that but it was free so i couldnt say no :)

it has 4mm, 12.5mm and 20mm eye pieces. ive just used the 12.5 and 20mm ones really. cant see a thing with 4mm. it also has a x3 barlow thing, again its pretty much useless and cant see with it.

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As Brantuk states, the Messier list is a good start. There are a few open clusters you should be able to see, together with the brightest globular clusters, the Orion nebula and the Andromeda galaxy.

The Pleiades, the Double cluster and the Beehive cluster should look quite impressive, others perhaps less so but there is also Saturn which now rises well before the Sun although will not be available at a more social hour for another couple of months or so.

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Hi guys, me again with another noob question. :confused:

My son had a star named after him as a christening present, not sure if it really is named after him but we have a little certificate saying so and he thinks it is :o

Anyway, he just asked me if we can see it ;):eek::(

:)

we have a star chart showing its position but im just looking at a page of dots :headbang::confused:

its the one in a circle just to the lower left of the biggest dot, do you think we would be able to see it?

29xhhs7.jpg

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Looks like Leo to me with the biggest dot being Regulus. My star map shows a 6th mag binary star on or very near the point where the circle is drawn. Stellarium will tell you more.

I strongly suspect that the star has not officially been renamed but if your son likes the present and it interests him in the stars thats great !

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Hi Martin

One way of helping to dampen some vibration and make the mount slightly less wobbly is to hang a weight off the centre of the tripod.

If the tripod is a wooden one you can also screw plywood triangles up near the top, this will help to brace the legs.

Regards Steve

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good advice all round.

now i know its very common advice on the forums ,but if you can download stellarium and get a copy of "turn left at orion". youll have enough to keep your head looking upwards for quite a while.

with your appeture id forget the 4mm e/p. the 20mm will be the workhorse

clear skies.

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Looks like Leo to me with the biggest dot being Regulus. My star map shows a 6th mag binary star on or very near the point where the circle is drawn. Stellarium will tell you more.

ah right ok then, so from what i can gather, Leo is under the saucepan looking one? and Regulus is the biggest one at the bottom of that? :)

@Swamp thing, Thanks for the tip, makes sense. Ill give that a try ;)

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....ah right ok then, so from what i can gather, Leo is under the saucepan looking one? and Regulus is the biggest one at the bottom of that? ...

The pic below might help. Leo has risen reasonably high in the east by midnight at the moment. Mars (not shown in pic) is just below it so it's worth tracking down. Download Stellarium though it's a 1st class piece of planetarium software and 100% free :)

post-12764-133877712885_thumb.gif

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Looks like the star "named" is the 7th magnitude star 34 Leo, which your scope should easily show. Anyone can name a star what they like, however with the many companies that claim to sell you naming rights to a star, nobody actually uses that name.

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