Greetings from West Yorkshire

[Adamw91]

Hi Guys 

I'm Adam and I've been interested in the universe for years but never took the opportunity to study it.

 

Now I've got myself a Celestrom Powerseeker 114eq and I'm getting geared up and ready for my first ever night out stargazing! I'm excited.

 

Any tips for a first time stargazer for tonight?

[Astro Noodles]

Hi Adam

Do you have clear sky in West Yorkshire tonight?

[Adamw91]

From 10pm till about 5am yes

[Astro Noodles]

Just now, Adamw91 said:

From 10pm till about 5am yes

Still cloudy here.

When I started (not long ago), I got a really good book called 'Turn Left at Orion'. I find it rally useful for target selection. I also use a free app called Stellarium so that I can find the damned stuff.

[cloudsweeper]

Welcome Adam!  Download Stellarium to see what you can see in any particular direction.  In the first instance, open clusters are nice and fairly easy targets.

Have fun!

Doug.

[Adamw91]

Hi cloud thankyou

Thanks for the suggestion I downloaded stellarium already and have been looking through it! (To the point where I can now confidently point out the big dipper and north star!)

I was just wondering what a good starting point would be for me and take it from there

[barbulo]

Hi and welcome to SGL!

[cloudsweeper]

36 minutes ago, Adamw91 said:

Hi cloud thankyou

Thanks for the suggestion I downloaded stellarium already and have been looking through it! (To the point where I can now confidently point out the big dipper and north star!)

I was just wondering what a good starting point would be for me and take it from there

Take a look at some clearly identifiable stars, then go to Stellarium and find nearby DSOs or whatever.  You have to "hop" from the starting point to the target by following the patterns you see with what is on Stellarium.  It gets easier with practice!

Doug.

[westmarch]

Hi Adam,

as someone looking up in Yorkshire, I would give you this advice, more as a reference than a guide for tonight:

Tonight is good - look up and identify the different constellations by getting a good and free star guide: Stellarium for PCs, Sky Safari for mobiles or download a free sky chart e.g. :       http://skymaps.com/downloads.html.  Aside from the Moon and planets, I find that Caldwell objects are hard to beat - the  Northern Hemisphere objects tend to be the easiest and most rewarding things to see from UK: https://in-the-sky.org/data/catalogue.php?cat=Caldwell&const=1

Second: Check out the weather forecast - lack of cloud is key here - no sense in getting your gear out and its cloudy.  Plug your postcode into this:  http://clearoutside.com/forecast/50.7/-3.52

Third: try to look up - as far up from the horizon as possible - less light pollution and it means you are looking through less turbulent and hazy air.

Fourth: Ideally get away from surrounding lights - turn off nearby lights, get behind shade or, ideally, go to somewhere dark - seeing most astronomical things is about contrast between dark sky and lighter object. The darker the sky the better and this is worth more than many expensive filters and will often double the number of faint objects you can see.  Light pollution means you end up trying to distinguish  between  different shades of grey. This map shows you nearby darker areas https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=8.27&lat=53.7236&lon=-1.1296&layers=B0FFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFF

This map shows you nearby public dark sky sites:  https://gostargazing.co.uk/location-map/

Last: enjoy yourself - exploration is the heart of the hobby.  Finding new things is what makes it enjoyable.

John

 

 

[Sunshine]

Welcome to SGL! Adam

[Floater]

Welcome. Have lots of fun. 🙂

[Adamw91]

Thanks for the welcome guys and John thankyou for that very detailed explanation that will deffo help me....

Unfortunately for me tonight was a bust I made my way to a pretty dark sky location but unfortunately on the way my telescope hit some trees (I dont have a carry bag for it and me been an idiot forgot to put the lens cap back on. I know pretty careless of me ) and water got all down the tube from the previous rainfall. This resulted in the view been blurry as there were rain spots all over the lens and I didnt have the means to wipe them down properly. so yeah I'm not in the best of moods!

 

Hopefully tomorrow is looking good and ill lbe able to get stuff sorted. I still need to properly align my scope as I havent had a chance to even do that yet as where I live I cant find an object to view that's far away enough!

Pretty annoying stuff!

One question though will I be able to see the meteor shower still? I'm back home now but I so have streetlights and normal lights  everywhere

[PXR-5]

Welcome to SGL Adam, thanks for joining us 🐱

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

[Mr Spock]

Hi Adam, welcome to SGL 

[banjaxed]

Hi Adam, welcome to SGL.

[sloz1664]

Hi Adam, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

[Astro Noodles]

16 hours ago, Adamw91 said:

 

Unfortunately for me tonight was a bust I made my way to a pretty dark sky location but unfortunately on the way my telescope hit some trees (I dont have a carry bag for it and me been an idiot forgot to put the lens cap back on. I know pretty careless of me ) and water got all down the tube from the previous rainfall. This resulted in the view been blurry as there were rain spots all over the lens and I didnt have the means to wipe them down properly. so yeah I'm not in the best of moods!

Yeah, that sounds like a fairly normal night's astronomy.

[Pitch Black Skies]

Welcome to SGL Adam 

[M40]

Hello and welcome to the site 👍

Reading of your "challenge" with lens caps, I thought you might be interested in this topic as after just five or less posts you have something to add....

Enjoy 😜

 

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL enjoy your scope in light polluted areas go for double stars and clusters, Galaxy hunting can be very frustrating and off putting especially to a new observer, I was there once felt like packing in and I had 6" scope. 

Luckily I met a fellow SGLer who gave me loads of information and health issues aside I get out as often as I can I enjoy my sessions. 

Good luck 

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Adam, welcome. 

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome to SGL Adam. Great to have to with us, I can see you're going to fit in well 🙂

 

[Stephen_M]

Hi Adam.

I'm a newbie and based in Ilkley. Wherebouts are you?

I have just joined LAS, but would be good to make some contacts for potential buddies for observing in remote locations. No telescope yet, just ordered one from David Lukehurst and can't wait to get it. Just using some binos at the moment but enjoying learning to star hop!

Stephen

[Adamw91]

11 hours ago, Stephen_M said:

Hi Adam.

I'm a newbie and based in Ilkley. Wherebouts are you?

I have just joined LAS, but would be good to make some contacts for potential buddies for observing in remote locations. No telescope yet, just ordered one from David Lukehurst and can't wait to get it. Just using some binos at the moment but enjoying learning to star hop!

Stephen

Hiya Stepehen I'm in Leeds too! But I'm on the other side in Morley!

Forgive my rudeness but what's the LAS? And absolutely I agree!

On the telescope side of things though I'm having a bit of trouble at the moment. The scope i have turns put to be not a very good scope. Now on hunting for another but I'm not sure which one would be a decent one for a good price (as I cant really afford an expensive one at the moment) I dont trust the review sites that say "best beginner telescopes" anymore as thats where I found my scope.

 

So I'm in a bit if a bind atm 😂 but absolutely would be great to get a group going so we can all travel to dark sky locations and just marvel at the universe I'm totally down for that!