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Hi from Shropshire

banders808

By banders808
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banders808

banders808

Posted
Posted

Hello all.

New on the forum and pretty new to star gazing. My 5 YO daughter got a telescope for her birthday (Sky-watcher Heritage 76) and we've been out in the back garden a few times, she really likes the moon, we had a good look at Venus and I had a look at Orion Nebula. Thing is, I've gotten rather keen myself.

So, what else should I be able to see with the scope from my back garden?

 

 

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faulksy

faulksy

Posted
Posted

hi and welcome to sgl. glad you (your daughter) is enjoying the night sky. down load a free copy of stellarium it a software program that shows you what is in the night sky, you can then plan what you want to see. plenty to see in your dob :icon_biggrin:

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westmarch

westmarch

Posted
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Hi there,

welcome to the forum.  There are so many naked eye objects to see with your daughter: meteor showers, satellite passes, constellation patterns and more. 

Telescope objects can sometimes be a little too subtle at her age to maintain interest but your enthusiasm will plant a seed.

Clear skies.

John

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Floater

Floater

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Welcome to the forum and the hobby.

Advice above is, as always, good. Lots of stuff online and, unles it's changed, Turn Left At Orion is available as a free PDF download. Just Google it.

Hope you and your daughter have lots of fun.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Posted

Hi and welcome to the forum.

To help both you and your daughter to both learn and enjoy the night sky, may I first suggest that you download a free piece of planetarium software called Stellarium which can be downloaded here. it is packed with lots of features that will help you quickly to find the locations of some of the more familiar objects. It will also help maintain her enthusiasm when the clouds come in and it is also a useful device to anticipate when objects will be best placed (advance time/date feature) to view them given that some of them may not be available till the early hours! 

Well I'm sure your daughter might appreciate the fact that stars actually come in many different colours. Over in the constellation Cepheus (half way between the bottom two main stars forming the 'box' ) she will be able to see Herschel's Garnet Star which is a super giant star that is very red! This star has a radius of 1650 times that of our own sun and is a sight to behold when you see it. If the earth was a ping pong ball and you placed it at one end of the Golden Gate Bridge, you could double the length of that bridge and that would give you some idea of its diameter of that star in relation to our planet - pretty damn big! Then there is Albireo over in the constellation Cygnus which is in fact a double star containing both a golden and a blue star and represents one the best small scope showcases out there. It can be found at the 'head' of the great bird.

As suggested above, a quick question over on the observational sections will yield many more suggestions.

Clear skies for now and hop that you both enjoy the this forum.

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tomato

tomato

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Posted

Hello and welcome to SGL, plenty of useful, friendly advice and help to be found here. 

You  also have some great dark sky sites that can be enjoyed in Shropshire. Do have a look at Stellarium, as already highlighted, it's free and plenty to look at when it's cloudy outside.

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