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mpaffenr

By mpaffenr
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mpaffenr

mpaffenr

Posted
Posted

Hello all,

My name is Michelle and I am new to the astronomy world but I'm excited about the adventure. I received my first ever telescope for my birthday a few weeks ago, a celestron powerseeker 127eq. I've begun searching and reading about how to get started in astronomy, as well as how to use my telescope, but have found myself rather overwhelmed with the various online articles. I am very interested in truly learning and understanding astronomy so that I can get the most out of the experience even if that means starting out with simple star maps and binoculars. I am excited to be a member of this group and hope that I can learn from fellow stargazers. If anyone has tips, hints or suggestions for starting out in this wonderful world of astronomy, please feel free to share!!

Thank you!

Michelle(:

I'm a newbie.

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swag72

swag72

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Hi Michelle and welcome to SGL - A great place to start would be to join a local astronomy group - You don't give any idea of your location, so can't help with that I'm afraid. There's some good planetarium programmes out there to help you learn your way around the sky, such as Stellarium which is free as well. There's lots of info in the beginners section and stickies too.

Hope that you enjoy your time here and the start of your astronomy hobby - We're all slightly mad too!!! :D

Look forward to seeing you around :)

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Billy Bluelight

Billy Bluelight

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Welcome Michelle - best advice I can offer is:

1) use your scope as much as possible and don't worry about inevitable failures, things you don't understand, disappointments and frustrations - all part of the steep learning curve, all will become clear in time and there is no hurry.

2) By a copy of "Turn Left At Orion" - possibly the best book for beginners and more advanced astronomers there is.  It will help you navigate around the sky in a very simple and easy to understand way.

3) Join a local astronomy club - as a beginner myself I can say this is the best thing I ever did.  I live in Norfolk and even here there are several clubs to choose from.  For me, small is beautiful - big is overwhelming in club terms.  Choose a small one as you will quickly get to know members who will take you under their wing - they are the best resource you will ever find and will short-circuit the learning process by literally years.  I have yet to ask a single question someone hasn't been able to answer immediately.  Where in the world are you Michelle?

4) Don't rush too quickly into the more technical aspects like astro-photography - a mistake I made.  Just enjoy finding and observing the beautiful things there are to see.

5) Google "Messier Index" and print off the catalogue and thumbnails of over 100 fantastic objects to see such as galaxies, clusters and so on.  You will not see them all through your scope but many you will - they are really beautiful

Download (free) Stellarium - a program for your computer or tablet/phone.  Enter your latitude/longitude once (Google it again) or just enter your nearest town/city.  From then on it will show you what is visible right now and - if you advance the clock - later.

Most of all - enjoy!! 

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ronin

ronin

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Looking at the scope you will need to first align the finder with the main scope.

Use the longest eyepiece you have - possibly consider a longer one like a 30mm or 32mm plossl

Take scope outside during the day, find something distant (1 mile+) and get it in view in the main scope, adjust the finder so that the same thing in in the centre. Double check everything is still in view. Leave you to fiddle with the bits.

Set the latitude pointed on the mount to whatever your latitude is.

The mount cannot take a polar sope so at night you will have to manually point the axis of the mount at Polaris, a good approximation is all that will be possible.

Now is the time to go look for things.

Again longest eyepiece and point scope at something preferably big and bright.

Look through finder, put whatever in middle of finder and it "should" be in view in the main scope.

Be aware that the mount does not have motors so will not track - you have to do that with the twiddly things. That will take practise - lots of practise.

Fairly easy to see are M42 Orion Nebula and Jupiter at present, also M45 Pleiades.

Although not an "object" in itself also go for Orions Belt.

If feeling good then the middle star in the handle of the Plough is a double, easy to find and easy to split but it all counts.

Try these initially and get used to the mount and scope.

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Jim Steele

Jim Steele

Posted
Posted

Hi Michelle and Welcome to Stargazers Lounge.

If anyone has tips, hints or suggestions for starting out in this wonderful world of astronomy, please feel free to share!!

The best advice I can give is wrap up warm and look upwards.

Otherthan that, download Stellerium (http://www.stellarium.org) as this is a great tool for planning what to observe and you can print off maps.

Skymaps.com (http://www.skymaps.com) also provide a monthly starchart listing good targets to look for.

Best of luck, clear skies and seasons greetings :icon_santa:

Ben

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Tums

Tums

Posted
Posted

Hi Michelle,Welcome to the Lounge :). , the advice in the previous posts is spot on.

You will need to do quite a bit of reading, just so that you know what your looking for /and at. TLAO is as mentioned a fantastic book to start with. I use Skymaps.com that Jim has put a link for, that's a great Free bit of info, that you can print off, every month, and tells you what you can see, with the eye/Bins/Telescope.

You may feel a little daunted by some of the info, please don't , this is a fantastic Pastime, that will give you some great 'WOW' moments, take your time, you will get frustrated from time to time, but the main thing is........

ENJOY YOUR STARGAZING. :)

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Dannae

Dannae

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Hi Michelle,

Welcome from me too :)

I echo all the points above and add the value of letting your eyes get used to the dark over the course of an hour. You will be surprised at how much more you will see from your first look at an object coming out of the house to when you go back to it later in the evening. Always do the moon last as you will lose all your dark adaption as it is sooo bright :shocked: You can invest in a red light torch to help you keep your night eye pupils nice and big.

I like open clusters which are the jewel boxes of the sky and I like to see colours in stars, I am sure you will find your favourite objects too.

Regards

Dannae

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Michelle and welcome to the forum. Some great advice above on how to get started and the beginner's section is also a good place to ask questions. Ben's suggestion of Stellarium is another very useful tool that you can use and it is free to download. Very popular here among many members and of course you can calibrate (very easy to do!) to match your location there in Los Angeles.

Clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Michelle and welcome to SGL. At the start, to try and assimilate the wealth of knowledge that you can be faced with, through Astronomical research, can sometimes be overwhelming and leave you with your head spinning. You have past the first hurdle in obtaining a nice telescope for observing. Binoculars, if you have them, can also come in very handy. You need to make a start somewhere and the book TL@O already mentioned is a very useful must have for the very near future, however, there are some basic, inexpensive booklets, such as Philiip`s "Guide to the Night Sky" written by Sir Patrick Moore, obtainable from most good book outlets, together with using the free program Stellarium, should help you in becoming acquainted with the stars and Constellations, visible in the night sky from your location.

Take things slow and steady and you will soon find that you brain begins to recognise familiar pointers and Constellation patterns, as they appear and disappear, as the months pass. As you become more adept at using your equipment, you will enjoy the thrill of hunting for the many observational wonders, that lie within the stars and Constellations, by using star hopping techniques and a good star atlas, however, you will have to live within the capabilities of your scope, as to what you will be able to see. This can be improved further however, if you can transport the scope to a site, that has little or no light pollution, enjoy :icon_santa:

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carastro

carastro

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All good advice above.  When I first started Stellarium didn't exist, but I bought myself a planisphere which is a chart with a wheel and you can set that to any date and any time it will show you what is up there and also where to find the planets.  Useful if you are not near a computer.  You'll need one for whatever hemisphere you are in.  

The 2nd thing that I found helped immensely was in the handbook which came with my first scope/mount which was a smaller version of what you have bought a Celestron Powerseeker 114.  This gave an explanation of how the night sky is charted, and how the sky changes throughout the year, and understanding that was a good lesson.

Enjoy and welcome to SGL from another female Astronomer.

Carole 

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phoobar

phoobar

Posted
Posted

Hi Michelle and welcome

My advice would be to learn a couple of constellations that you see most often and try to navigate through all the main stars, then start looking at deep sky objects in those constellations.

Using binoculars first is definitely a wise move as through the telescope or finder can be frustrating at times. Practise practise practise.

Happy xmas

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StarSapling

StarSapling

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Simple star charts and binoculars are a great way to really start learning your way around the sky, instead of just learning how to set up and use a goto mount.  Pay more attention to the sketches posted on this site, not the images.  The sketches will give you a much better idea of what to expect at the eyepiece. 

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