suggestions for something new to look at tonight

[Jon the Newb]

Hi everyone!  This is my first week star gazing and I'm out every night enjoying the near skies.  However, with my telescope only being 80mm, and no Jupiter, Saturn and/or moon to view currently, I was hoping someone could interest me into their favorite objects to view.  

For location purposes, I'm in Denver, Colorado.  

 

Thank You,

Jon

[SonnyE]

Oh my, today download Stellarium and set it to your time and location.

There will be NO END to what you can view.

 

http://stellarium.org/

[mikeDnight]

If you haven't already seen the Orion Nebula then it's worth doing so tonight. Find Orion, and beneath the three belt stars there are three stars representing his sword. The centre star is the nebula. It will be a nice sight in your 3".

Also try looking at the Pleiades but not just the stars, try detecting the nebulosity that enmeshed them. 

Mike ☺

[Size9Hex]

Hi Jon, welcome to the forum. How is the light pollution level in Denver? With an 80mm you'll get a nice view of Venus and Mars towards the west just after sunset. Venus shows a nice half-moon phase right now. Mars is tiny right now, but it's possible to see a little detail and the beautiful colour. Anything on the Messier list is worth a look. For starters, try the Pleiades, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), the Beehive, and the clusters in Auriga/Gemini (M35 to M38 if I recall correctly). Oh, don't forget the Orion Nebula - just point the scope at the middle star in Orions sword! Good luck.

[Owmuchonomy]

31 minutes ago, Jon the Newb said:

Hi everyone!  This is my first week star gazing and I'm out every night enjoying the near skies.  However, with my telescope only being 80mm, and no Jupiter, Saturn and/or moon to view currently, I was hoping someone could interest me into their favorite objects to view.  

For location purposes, I'm in Denver, Colorado.  

 

Thank You,

Jon

Jupiter is well within your skies if you stay up long enough or get up early!

[Jon the Newb]

I love this website.  I'm going to set the alarm for Jupiter around 4 am.  I'll download that app as well.  The Pleiades and Orion's Nebula are already two of my favorites, but tonight I'll spend more time focusing on the details suggested above.  And I'll look harder to try to see Venus' half-moon phase as well.

 

Thank you everyone!

[brantuk]

You can catch venus and mars just after sundown if you're quick. Andromeda (M31) is on view in the south around half midnight - along with Uranus. Then there's the Pleiades at 2:40am followed by M42 at 4am, Cone Nebula, and loads of globulars approaching south around the same time.  Then there's M41 at 5:20am (pretty low in the south), M35, M47, and the Beehive cluster around 7am. Just before sun up you should catch Leo and it's triplets followed by Jupiter low in the south east at 11:30 appearing as a bright morning star. Hth

[rockystar]

Don't forget the stars too - check out Sigma Orionis, see if you can see all 4 stars, plus a triple star system  in the same view, one of my favourite views.

http://assa.saao.ac.za/sections/deep-sky/double-stars/news-and-articles/sigma-orionis-stf762-and-stf761-january-double-star/