leading on from highworth astronomy club...

[Steve Swancott]

Hello again, as said leading on from high worth astronomy club, on 'viewing nights,

' for example what winter objects would you astronomers suggest to leave members who have never seen planets, stars, nebula, galaxies etc in awe?

And what woyld keep then entertained itherwise some may see it as freezing to death for an hour outside (ifyou see what I mean... but then it would be pointless them coming I guess...)

Anyway any way to answer these extra queries wiuld be very much appriciated

Rhanks

Steve :-)

[ronin]

Get the book A Monthly Sky Guide and do the lazy thing of use whatever it gives for the constellation of the month.

There is a list of things in each constellation.

Very little leave them in awe, everyone goes on about M31, one person I know who saw it for the first time said Is that it? Pretty underwhelming, and to be honest it is.

You may get better results from a list of coloured double stars, at least they look pretty.

A lot will depend on the scope, to see things like the ring nebula needs a bit of aperture.

The planning will take some doing.

Will say search for Iridium flares and meteor showers, the flares are good and the showers mean you can point out the constellation and people can hopefully see some.

[bingevader]

You'll need some kind of chart (or progam such as Stellarium) to let you know which planets are up at a particular time in the month.

Cluster are the other thing that usually at least get an Oooh!

Cheers

[Steve Swancott]

Good job I have stellium then OK thanks for the advice

[x6gas]

Stick with the obvious stuff at first. In my experience, most people are impressed when they see Jupiter and Saturn through a telescope and there is stuff to talk about there too - can you see that the disc of Saturn is squashed, for example, and then talk about why that is. Jupiter is ever changing so there is always something to see...

Don't forget the moon too. Many people will not have seen it through a scope and it's not a bad place for a school society to start; this too can lead on to indoor sessions about where the Apollo landings were, specific craters, how the moon formed, why we only ever see one face etc., etc.

Galaxies - even M31 - can be pretty unimpressive in anything other than very large scopes so I would stick with the obvious and brightest deep sky objects like M42. Patrick Moore's Caldwell catalogue is worth a look in addition to the Messier catalogue...

[rwilkey]

Hi Steve, the monthly guide on the Jodrell Bank website complied by Ian Morison is a good one, and one which we use on our own website, link here: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

Otherwise, the Philips Guide to the year is useful if you want to look ahead as well: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Stargazing-2013-Astronomy/dp/1849072353/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365955301&sr=8-2&keywords=philips+stargazing+guide+2013