New telescope, single eyepiece - what should I look at to have some insta-fun?

[rscott78]

I'm new at astronomy. I just got myself a new NexStar 6Se. It came with a 25mm eyepiece.

I'm in the Western United States. I've been watching the obvious bright spots -- Jupiter and Venus -- both of which are superb! But I'm wondering what else would be suggested that should be amusing and fun to look at (considering my 25mm eyepiece as well).

Also, as a slightly OT question: What other eyepieces should I try to acquire that would go well with my scope?

[rowan46]

m42 in orion is nice the double cluster in perseus is good have a play on the handset I did that for a while till I knew what I wanted to see. The trick with goto is to take your eye off the eyepiece to find the context of the object learn to recognise the constellations around it when you have found an object I use a 10mm 17mm and 32mm as well as the 25

[Gomtuu]

I agree with Rowan about M42. It's the first thing I looked at after the moon and Jupiter and it didn't disappoint.

[rscott78]

Nice tip! Had a hard time getting SkyAlign to work, but luckily Orion is one of those constellation that I can easily pick out

I took a look at M42 - way cool! I've heard the Winter sky is the best for viewing this kind of stuff, too bad it's so cold.

Looking forward to more suggestions.

[Bart]

M35, M36, M37 M38 Are all relatively close, and are all nice clusters. M35 in a dark sky is beautiful.

Also the galaxies M81/M82 in the same field of view is pretty amazing too.

Enjoy!

Bart