newbies

[Debs and Nick]

Hello to everyone out there.

My partner has been interested in this subject for a long time so I've bought him a skywatcher SKP1145EQ1 as an early Christmas present.

Now we need advice please and any hints and tips people would like to share with us.lol

We do live in a city, Birmingham UK so not every night is clear.

Thank you for reading and any help.

Debs and Nick.

[Bizibilder]

Hello Debs and Nick and welcome to SGL!!  You can see quite a bit from the city - the Moon and brighter planets for example.  Maybe you could find a local Astronomical society?  they will know the best "dark skies" in your area and meeting like minded people will help get you started.  If you download "Stellarium" (its freeware) you can see what is visible from your location at any time (clouds permitting).

[Purplehayze104]

Hi to you both an welcome to SGL, enjoy your time with your scope.

clear skies

john

[skywatcher58gb]

I would go along to your local astronomical society (I think it is Birmingham Astronomical Society) and they will give you plenty of advice on using your telescope, they will also know the local dark sky sites. All the societies I have visited over the years have been very helpful and like to share their knowledge. Good luck with your new scope.

Dave

[Floater]

Welcome.

It's a great hobby - and I guess it will be doubly so for you two. Have fun on the trip.

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Dave In Vermont]

Greetings and welcome to SGL! Please make yourself at home.

Clear skies,

Dave

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi and welcome.

[bluenotetim]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

I too am  in a fairly light polluted area but there's still plenty to see. I started with the moon and planets. Enjoy your scope.

Tim.

[Feral Rabbit]

Hi Debs and Nick and welcome to SGL. I suppose a good start would be a light pollution filter to help cut down on background light as you seem to be in a well lit area of the UK,  although this will not be anywhere near as good as a dark site it will help, a book titled "Turn Left At Orion"  is also a great addition to the novices arsenal. I also echo what others have said re finding a local astro society for help and guidance.

It's not a cheap hobby but it doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive either but you'll never have enough kit, there's always something else you'll want 

Clear Skies to you both

[Ricochet]

The best place to start that I've found is just to go out and look at the sky with your eyes. In order to find the things that you will want to look at with your new telescope you need to know where to point it first, and that means learning to recognise the constellations. As suggested above, installing Stellarium is a great idea as it will show you the position of each constellation at the current time as knowing which direction to start looking in is a great advantage. If it is planets that you are after then Jupiter and Venus are your best bets at the moment (and Mars but it is much smaller and dimmer) but you will need to be out observing at 4-5 AM before the Sun rises and ruins the view.

[cjdawson]

HI and welcome to SGL.

First things first.  Don't worry about all the instructions and getting all confused by them, take it one step at a time.

For your first night out, I'd suggest pointing at the moon.  Especially the area called the terminator. It's the inside of the crescent part of a cresent moon.  As the month goes on this moves across the moons surface and give you the area of best contrast.  The full moon is also fun, but it's very very bright and sometimes will look washed out.  This is perfectly normal.

After this first night, you'll notice that you have problems keeping the scope pointed at the moon, this is the time to start looking at the instructions.  The thing that you'll be interested in is called "Polar alignment"  as you are doing this for visual work (looking through the eyepiece rather than taking photos) a rough alignment is all that you need.  A very quick explaination of this is... at the top of the tripod there what's called the RA (right ascension) drive.  This needs to be aligned with the north celestial pole.  Sound tricky?  it's actually quite easy.  First you need to find the pole star (Polaris)  here's instructions for that  http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-find-Polaris-the-North-Star/ Next, all you need to do is have the post that comes out of the top of the RA drive, point directly at the pole star.   So that when you spin the scope in RA, that keeps pointing to the pole.   The other drive is the Declination, and that lets you point the scope up and down.

After doing that, you'll have the scope aligned well enough that you'll be able to look at the moon, planets and other things for longer, by slowly turning the RA knob.  This might sound complicated, but once you've done it a couple of times, it'll be really really easy.

Please note that as you are doing this for visual work, it doesn't have to be perfect so don't get all hung up if it's slightly off on a given night, just enjoy what you are looking at.   You'll get better at the alignment part with practice ;-)

I'd highly recomment getting the book Turn left at Orion.  I've got both the printed and the kindle edition, but I'd not recommend the kindle version, it simply doesn't work well in that format.  Get the paper copy

[Astrosurf]

With my mount, the front leg and mount point north. (For some it's the middle of the two 'back' legs, I think!) Use a compass to get the leg as close to north as you can with your eye. Don't get the compass too close to the metal of the mount and legs as it'll get deflected. Make sure your altitude scale on the mount (do you have one?) is set at your latitude. You should be OK to go for visual and will only need to adjust in right ascension to follow the target with possible occasional adjustments in declination.

Welcome and happy viewing!

Alexxx