South Facing - What to look out for?

[Hipolito]

Hello again

I have since my first post doing a bit of research ... I know a bit more about telescopes and the differences between reflectors/refractors, Newtonian and Dobsonian scopes etc. I guess it's a start. I've also got hold of a copy of Astronomy for Dummies from a friend which is proving to be a good read so far and a basic pair of binoculars. I've not had much luck picking out stars however - the amount of cloud and wind the past few days has been awful

Anyhow, I was just wondering what to look out for from a south facing view (that is, from the skylite window in my loft), Are there any particularly bright or notable objects to focus on?

Thanks again for all your help so far.

[Ant]

South is the best view to have.

At the moment there is Jupiter which is quite low down in the south... It's visible most of the night and if you look south and can't see it - it must be cloudy!

With Bino's (lean them against the window frame) and you should be able to see the 4 moon and maybe the two main bands.

Cheers

Ant

[themos]

Yup, Jupiter. It helps enormously if you can run a planetarium program on a computer. It can show you what's where when.

[SteelRat]

It helps enormously if you can run a planetarium program on a computer

Stellarium's a nice free one 8)

[Hipolito]

Stellarium's a nice free one 8)

Fantastic - thanks for that!

Not sure I'll be able to see Jupiter though. As its quite low in the horizon it'll probably be blocked by a rather large building that's in that direction - but maybe not! Today seems to be a vast improvement on the past few weeks. All I see are blue skies here and hopefully tonight will also be clear.

Thanks again.

[dogfish]

If you have a southeast view you should be able to see Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. It's quite high up in the sky, so should clear any obstructions. Just a wee bit east of Vega is the double double of epsilon Lyra. I can easily see that this is a double star in my 10X50's and a suggestion (i.e. the stars are blurry) that each of these stars is also a tight double.

Enjoy, Martin

[The Warthog]

You have a good southern view, you lucky, lucky man! You can spend hours looking at the clusters and nebulae near and above Sagittarius, in one of the richest parts of the sky. You also have the ecliptic in view all year, so if there's a planet there, you can see it. Get a good guide, and observe!

[ElijahB]

It helps enormously if you can run a planetarium program on a computer

Stellarium's a nice free one 8)

It also runs nicely on Vista without any playing around..... something that Starry Night does not do.

[proflight2000]

In respect of the starry night and vista question, there are a number of threads now doing the rounds on the starry night yahoo group, seems some have managed to sort it. Get there by clicking on the support tab in the starry night software.