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Mandopicker101

By Mandopicker101
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Mandopicker101

Mandopicker101

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Hello

Inspired by the run up to the Solar eclipse and indeed by my daughter's curiosity about stars and the moon (mirroring my own when I was that age!), I've rediscovered a childhood interest in stargazing (I'm 40 now...). Having fought my wife off from buying me a National Geographic telescope from Aldi (yes, I read the threads on this august forum), I'm looking at investing money from my recent birthday in a secondhand telescope. Still looking... My local Gumtree swings from higher end scopes to Aldi/Lidl efforts.  

Happily I have a fine pair of 10x50 binocs, purchased about 30 years ago when I was a boy. Having saved my quid a week pocket money for what seemed like an eternity (ok 14 weeks...), I presented what seemed like an inordinately large bundle of pound notes at my local Boots and walked out with a nice pair of of binocs to observe the moon and the night sky. My dad and I had a lot of fun with them.

More recently put to use for wildlife observation and spotting ships on the River Forth, I returned them to their intended purpose and spent an hour or so  last night looking into the night sky. I was very pleased with myself for spotting Saturn with the naked eye and then spent some time trying to get a decent view through the binocs (it was cold and I've got a wonky back at the moment, so not the easiest proposition!). I read somewhere that someone used a soft broom as a sort of mono-pod. Also got a look at Jupiter too.

Is Stellarium the best mobile phone app for star-hopping? I tried Google's own effort, but it seemed to have serious problems working out where it was pointing.

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Sirius Starwatcher

Sirius Starwatcher

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Hello and welcome to SGL A great start to the hobby with your bins really good wide filed views with plenty of targets out their to look at Not sure about Stellarium on a small mobile unit. I use it on the lap top. I have two apps for Phone and I pad. They are Star Walk and Sky Safari. Both very good apps for what they do. The Sky at night monthly mag has a feature each month on what to see with bins and there is a very good thread on her about observing with bins.

Welcome to the forum and good luck for future observing

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swag72

swag72

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Hi and welcome to SGL - Glad that you found us and have rekindled your interest. Like the Hotel California 'You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave' :D

Look forward to seeing you around :)

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Scorpius

Scorpius

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Hi and welcome to SGL - Glad that you found us and have rekindled your interest. Like the Hotel California 'You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave' :D

Look forward to seeing you around :)

Greetings Mandopicker and welcome to SGL!

A couple other seemingly apropos quotes from that timeless classic:

"Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light"

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"  :grin:

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Tums

Tums

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Welcome to te Lounge. 

I have posted this on a thread before, to try and give some basic things for a new starter. 
Hope it helps a little.  ;)





Welcome to this fascinating Pastime.  :)

Firstly, I'd get a copy of a good astronomy Guide, something like, ' Turn Left at Orion ' or 'The Backyard Astronomers guide' books like these are invaluable when your starting out.

There are also some great free software, you can get to show you what's in the sky at night. http://www.skymaps.com Is something that you can print off, and is very handy.
There's also some software called 'Stellarium '. http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/
That's great if you have a tablet or phone with you, whilst observing.

The other recommendation is find your nearest. Astro society, and go along, and see what other people have, it's a perfect opportunity to ask questions.  :)http://www.firstligh...om/locator.html

Also have a good read at some of the beginners threads on here, they are very helpful,and may well give you some answers.

A must read is this. Please don't expect to see things , as you would on TV or in magazines. http://stargazerslou...-expect-to-see/


But for now your main objective is. ENJOY YOUR STARGAZING.  ;) 

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Mandopicker and welcome to SGL, you did well in dissuading you good lady from wanting to purchase a telescope from a supermarket, these telescope do perform, but probably not in the way you would want, for a more serious study of the night sky environment. Take your time in choosing the right scope for you. In the meantime put your bins to good use in familiarising yourself with the night sky and yes, the upturned broom, with a cloth over the over the broom head, is often recommended as monopod to keep things steady, enjoy :)  

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MarkJ44

MarkJ44

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Hi and welcome to SGL.

I have Stellarium and also Celestrons Sky Portal (powered by sky safari) on my phone, i actually prefer the latter because i think it has more features, but just a personal choice.

Cheers

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