Where to start?

[sallystar]

Hi,

I am the proud owner of a Skywatcher 200P, the 'Turn Left At Orion' book and a selection of eyepieces and filters.

It seems that I have everything in place to find something interesting in the night sky but even though I have read my ' Turn Left At Orion' book and spent the last two nights in the garden with my son I still can't seem to find anything other than Venus and Mars!

Can anyone advise me on something that I should find easily just to get me started.

I have a light pollution filter that's helping and My view to the east is limited due to the house!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DOBBY]

Have you downloaded http://www.stellarium.org/ yet ?

[rory]

good call , stellarium is great. id say m13 , as its fairly easy to find and is bright enough that its hard to miss. its in your turn left book.

[lhuchison]

Hi Sallystar, What about Saturn? always a fantastic first sight and it should be approx. due south tonight (Sunday) about 10pm. Its just above Spica so the two stars stand out quite a bit on top of each other.

[rory]

Hi Sallystar, What about Saturn? always a fantastic first sight and it should be approx. due south tonight (Sunday) about 10pm. Its just above Spica so the two stars stand out quite a bit on top of each other.

blimey yeah saturn. must see .

[Northgate]

Hi SallyStar,

I'm new too but having read various threads I felt I needed a better eyepiece than the 10mm supplied. I researched various threads and settled on a 10mm BST Explorer and a 3-element 2x Barlow from Skies-the-limit. I fitted it all together last night and from around 9pm to about 10:45 I was enthralled by Saturn. I leo proved last night that you can see it with your 25mm EP - as stated before it is pretty much south and just above and left of Spica at the moment. After you've found it, swap to your 10mm and enjoy. I was lucky enough to be able to get to 300x with my set up but the image moves very fast in that small field of view but you can get to 120x so you will see a lot. Let your scope cool down, it DOES make a difference - after all the sky isn't going away.

[Northgate]

Sorry, not 10mm but 8mm BST Explorer as recommended in this section (the maths were right)!

[sallystar]

Thank you for all of your help. I now have stellarium installed on my laptop and my telescope cooling off in the garden. Sadly I won't be outside very much tonight as we have an early start in the morning but it's worth taking a look even if it's only for a hour.

We are going to try looking for M13 so watch this space!!

[Double Kick Drum]

Hi Sallystar, it sounds like you have more than enough stuff to get started. Nice scope!

As for suggestions, Saturn is a good start near Spica - the brightest star in Virgo.

A couple of other easy objects to find (so you get an idea of how bright deep sky objects are) are M57 the Ring nebula in Lyra which will be rising in the East, and perhaps M13 a bright globular cluster in Hercules. Both of these should look quite impressive in an eight inch scope.

Two of the best galaxies that can be seen in one field of view are M81 and M82 in Ursa Major (the Great Bear) though these are slightly harder to find.

You might find it tough going to start with but I promise that with time it does get easier.

Remember - planets can take much more magnification because they are much brighter than "feint fuzzies" such as nebulae, galaxies and clusters.

Happy hunting!

[JamesM]

Hi Sally and son, in addition to the above suggestions, you might like to view this short video series that illustrates the main objects to look out for each month. It's well presented, clear and instructive and in fact uses the Stellarium night sky to illustrate when and where the objects will appear. It is not too technical and would be great viewing for both you and your son. Hope that helps.

James

[Tinker1947]

Download some Telrad maps , you don't need a Telrad, use the maps and Stellarium to guide you to the DSO's, Cluster are easier to find, there bright and your know when you have found one, Galaxies are a bit harder as the very faint grey smudges.

http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html

[Quatermass]

Hi Sally I have a 200p fanatastic telescope and the Eq5 mount is a great mount as well. Take a look at m y blog to see all the things you can do with the 200p there is lots of videos tips and help on there for a 200p owner and hope you get as much fun out of the telescope as I have over the years.

[nightfisher]

Hi sally, welcome to sgl

[earth titan]

Hi and welcome.

As well as m13, m57 (ring nebula) is nice and easy to find. Should be doable in your scope.

Good hunting.

[umadog]

It's good to focus on one or two objects. M13 and the suggested M57 are good targets (but remember that M57 will look small). Do not use the light pollution at first: it won't help your views unless you're looking at the right sort of object. The reason is that only emission nebulae are aided by the filter. Stars will look worse. So don't use it with with M13, for instance. If you're unable to find stuff then probably you're just looking in the wrong place. Take your time to identify the star-hopping stars in Turn Left at Orion, and all should be good. Both M13 and M57 will punch through light pollution, even though they will appear less impresive from a light polluted location.