Advice needed....

[Brentmeister77]

Hi, just wondering how people go about stargazing? Do you just look around and randomly find things or do you plan viewing, if so how do you find out what's where? I'm worried I'm going to get abit overwhelmed/confused and give up at the first hurdle.

[DOBBY]

try downloading...Stellarium it'll give you a good idea of whats available

[John]

I tend to go along the lines of:

- What planets are visible tonight and when ?.

- Is the moon up tonight and what phase is it ?

- What constellations are well placed at the moment for viewing from my garden tonight ?

Once I've worked out the above (Stellarium is good for this) I use a few reference books to research interesting objects in the well placed constellations.

I usually end up viewing a mixture of objects that I know well and a smattering of new objects.

Sometimes though I just concentrate on a single planet or the moon for most of a session. Spending time on an object and becoming familiar with it is the best way to spot the more subtle details I find.

One of the good things about the hobby is that there is no "right" and "wrong" way to go about it though

[LukeSkywatcher]

When i use manual scopes..............its a bit of random scanning and a bit planning. Since i upgraded to Go-To...................its still a bit of random scanning using just the Alt-AZ mode and a bit of the Go-To.

Old habits die hard. I am seeing a hell of a lot more objects with the Go-To then i would ever find/observe manually.

I do still enjoy the hunt for objects manually. The 8" allows me to see them better.

[Double Kick Drum]

"Turn Left At Orion" is a good book to help you select targets.

I think it is best to start with things you can see with the naked eye (Moon, planets, the Pleiades). Then move on to things you can pick up in a finder/binoculars (M31 - the Andromeda galaxy, M13 - Hercules globular cluster, the Double cluster). By the time you have found a few of those you should start to get a feel for more detailed mapping (Stellarium or Cartes du Ciel) and can start on the hard stuff.

Happy hunting!

[OliverP]

One thing I did at first was just to go outside and look at the stars for a bit with the aid of a planisphere to familiarise myself with the constellations. Also of you want to get to know the sky a bit better I would recommend trying to sletch one or two constellations.

I hope this is some help

[Brentmeister77]

Thanks for the guidance folks!

[OliverP]

No problem

[brantuk]

Get Sky at Night magazine for a year - each month the center page guide tells you what's up, how to find it, and the best instrument to use. That's what I did - and it helped me learn the sky over the months and how it changes - very well.

I also second the purchase of the latest copy of TLAO - it's ring bound and can be laid out flat on a small table near the scope for looking up stuff to find - it includes similar instructions for finding, and a diagram of what you're looking for so it's recognisable. Hope that helps

[OliverP]

Personally. I find that Astronomy Now has a better stargazing section than Sky at Night, and it also has pretty good advice on imaging and viewing certain objects. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I also think its cheaper.

[Probablynot]

AN doesn't have any expensive (& superfluous) CDs stuck on the cover!

[OliverP]

Yes, but do you really want to pay an extra £10 a year for CDs with pretty pictures on?!