Any advice welcome

[Jev75]

Hello all 

just bought a celestron 114 astomaster.

i am a complete beginner. I have always been interested in the stars so decide to jump in with both feet and acquire my 1st scope.
what would be the best things to try and search for 1st? 
any hints or tips would be very welcome  

many thanks

[Tomatobro]

I am going to assume that you have some means of navigation such as a phone app or laptop with some sort of planetarium software. Put the lowest magnification eyepiece you have in the scope, point it to some stars and get it in focus. Globular clusters are a good object to start with as they are easy to identify. It does not get fully dark until after 22:30 but Globular clusters are visible a little bit earlier if you want to try.

M13 is the brightest and biggest so start with that if its visible where you are.

[Jev75]

Thank you very much

yes I have got an app so I have been trying to find my away around the sky. I will give that a try. 

[Neil H]

Hi I answered on the other thread as well look at Orion you have a blue super giant a red super giant a nebula also look at Venus it's up before it's dark

[Jev75]

Yes. Sorry still trying to find my way around this lounge. 
thanks for your advice Much appreciated 

 

[John]

Try and find the constellation of Cancer - it is between Gemini and Leo. There is a lovely star cluster called "The Beehive Cluster" in Cancer which should look nice at low magnification with your scope.

Also, in Gemini there is another great star cluster called Messier 35 (M35). Another nice sight in the small scopes at low power.

Cancer:

Gemini:

[Jev75]

Great. Got loads to go at now. Thanks for all your help. 

[mikeDnight]

Take a look at Venus. You can't miss it as it looks like a brilliant star in the western sky around Sun set. You wont see any surface detail but you will see the phase. And if you observe it often, youll notice the phase change until it becomes a very thin crescent. The Moon will be around again in a weeks time and that is truly spectacular to observe night after night as you watch the detail change day by day. One of the best things you can do in the meantime would be to buy a star atlas and learn your way around the major constellations. Once you find three or four, the rest will fall into place, and although its unlikely you'll remember every one, you'll still be able to find your way around very effectively. Before long, you'll know the positions of a great many stars and deep sky objects without the need of computers or any electronic device.

[Jev75]

Brilliant thank you. Just been out looking at Venus. Having problems keeping my scope still. Thinking my tube is unbalanced,my job for tomorrow I think. 

[Carbon Brush]

Hi and welcome.

Excellent advice from the earlier posts.

I don't know if you have tried this already.

Spend a bit time in daylight, even indoors, with the scope.

Learn about balancing the mount.
Find the loose screws and things that are not too well aligned. All new scopes in this sort of price bracket benefit from a little attention before use.
In particular make sure the finder is correctly aligned to the main tube.

Then when it is dark, you know where things are. You know the scope and mount are correctly set up.
That means you can just look and enjoy.

If you can't find a particular object, don't worry. Try for something else. Just enjoy what you see.
Leave hunting down elusive objects for now.
As your skills improve, and you get to know the kit better, you can start to look for more difficult targets.

Enjoy the journey,

David.

[Jev75]

 

thanks for the sound advice David. My finder Is spot on ( more luck then judgement I think ) but I think I definitely need to become more familiar with the scope. Really looking forward to exploring the night sky’s.