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Telescope newbie

Jen68

By Jen68
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Jen68

Jen68

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone, I have just bought a Celestron 114 EQ (I have wanted a telescope for a long time) and saw some stunning views of the moon, Saturn and Mars earlier in the week.  Have now got the whole family looking - husband and kids ages ranging from 8 - 18.  Waiting for some more clear night skies!  Any advice/information of interesting things to look for at the moment would be most welcome!

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Brave Sir Robin

Brave Sir Robin

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Welcome to SGL Jen,

I got the same first scope as you, and I've had many hours of enjoyment at the eyepiece.

At the moment, you could look at the andromeda galaxy in the constellation of andromeda, this is our closest galactic neighbour. You will only be able to see the cental 'blob' of stars, but should be able to notice that the bottom edge is sharper than the top edge. This is caused by a giant dust Lane in the galaxy!

Also another lovely sight is the double star Albeiro in Cygnus. The two stars are golden yellow and sapphire blue and look almost jewel like.

Brave sir Robin ran away. Bravely ran away-away.

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Brave Sir Robin

Brave Sir Robin

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I also agree with the comments above. Get yourself an app/software like stellarium, it will help you to learn the sky. I found it very useful when I started to just look up with the old mk 1 eyeballs to try and familiarise myself with the constellations.

Brave sir Robin ran away. Bravely ran away-away.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Jen and welcome to SGL, you have made a start on a most interesting hobby, I would recommend that you obtain a copy of "Turn Left At Orion" probably the most popular piece of literature published in recent times, that is accepted by many, as one of the best books covering use of the small telescope from novice onwards, enjoy :)

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ronin

ronin

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How many of the constellations do you know?

Basically if I said try Alberio in Cygnus can you go and find Cygnus.

Can you find Casseiopia.

The question is because anything to look at will be described as "object A in Constellation B"

Try this for a simple list, Word file so print it off.

Meant to go on a 6x4 card.

Objects64.doc

Moon is getting brighter so the dimmer ones, galaxies and nebula will be lost

Go for the Ring Nebula before it disappears, Orion is not really present yet as it comes up in the early hours of the morning.

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Brave Sir Robin

Brave Sir Robin

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Jen, regarding advice: your telescope is a particular type of newtonian telescope. It's called a bird-Jones newtonian. Now, this doesn't make a great deal of difference to your enjoyment, but newtonians need periodic tweaking to make sure they give the best image at the eyepiece. This is called collimation.

Bird-Jones scopes have a lens between the eyepiece and the secondary (smaller) mirror. Normal newtonians don't have this lens, and you will need to remove it prior to collimating it.

Now all this is not something that you really need to worry about at the moment - just have fun with your scope, but remember when you need to collimate it, you will need to carry out this extra step.

Happy viewing and clear skies!

Brave sir Robin ran away. Bravely ran away-away.

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