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Hello from Manitoba!

northward

By northward
in Welcome

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northward

northward

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Hey everyone. I'm pleased to be joining this community. 

The stars and night's sky have been a constant source of wonderment for me growing up, but now I am finally wanting to engage more with astronomy. It helps that my 4 year old daughter is blown away when I point out constellations and planets. She has grown up constantly searching for the moon, which means she has me totally wrapped around her finger haha. 

My goal is to learn more in general, and share that with my daughter, and hopefully my son in a few years (the cheeky monkey is only 1 atm). 

At this point, I'm mostly looking where to start. I have to save up for a telescope, so I'll be doing some naked eye investigation for a little while yet. I figured I could start with theory. So where to start? I have an interest in figuring out distances to celestial bodies, as well as the history of astronomy. 

Cheers!

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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Greetings, northward, and I'm glad you have joined us here - we love questions and, more so, helping to find their answers - so don't be shy, it's why we're here!

I thought I'd drop off some easy-going literature on the subject of starting out in this wonderful science/art:

Ed Anderson - New Astronomer Quick Start Guide.pdf

And:

Tips For Beginning (and Not-So-Beginning) Astronomers.pdf

And lastly (for now):

Tips For Choosing Your First Telescope.pdf

Just click-on 'Save' & download to your system - all my materials are swept for any nasty viral-infections, maleware, or 'ride-along' garbage.

And ask away in the many forums to explore.

Starry skies & eyes,

Dave

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laudropb

laudropb

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Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. It is good to start by visually learning the constellations on view and the night sky in general. You could download the free app Stellarium. You will then be able to input your location and it will give you a representation of your sky at any particular time of the night or day. Also lots of information on distances etc. Enjoy your new hobby. It is very rewarding to do so with your daughter.

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Charic

Charic

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Hi and welcome to the SGL.
The 10x50s are a good choice, so would something of less magnification for the younger eyes, maybe 7x50 or 8x40.
This makes them easier to hand hold for longer periods, reduces image shake due to the lower magnification, and generally has a much wider field of view, you wont believe how much more you will see with binoculars against the eyes alone, and I still mount my 8x40s when I can for even better clarity and image stability.

Stellarium was also mentioned, that's just a great learning and exploration tool, an in-door, on-screen Planetarium, and once setup, it will  display  everything up in the night sky for your location, so when its not right outside, revert to Stellarium on the PC in the comfort of your warm home. 

 

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northward

northward

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SkyView has satellites and constellations and orients to your location decently well. I just see stellarium being mentioned over and over. But if it's the same, I'd rather put that $4 toward a first pair of bins or a scope haha 

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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Okay - Stellarium is a large software-program of the Planetarium-Program species. Similar software can easily cost you over $200. But Stellarium is 100% free for keeps. The greatest, imho, deal in the field of astronomy. What follows is a Cut & Paste I maintain:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

On this link is the main page for downloading Stellarium. Choose which version is correct for your computer. Here you go:

http://www.stellarium.org/
 
As for instructions, a full copy of them is bundled with the program that you download. But if you need another copy for some reason, these can be downloaded here:
 
https://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/files/Stellarium-user-guide/0.15.0-1/stellarium_user_guide-0.15.0-1.pdf/download

This program is quite large, so download when you have a few minutes. I'll leave you with a screenshot of mine, and also one of the screen approximating of how it looks when you begin. Please know I am an experienced user.

 

In The Beginning:

 

Stellarium Screenshot - Beginning Screen.png

And the Not-So-Beginning:

 

stellarium-270.png

Click-0n Images for Full-Size

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have fun!

Dave

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