Observing help

[alecras2345]

Hi I'm Ash I'm 46 from the UK.  I'm disabled and use a wheelchair.  I can't go outside at night to stargaze because the cold weather affects my disability.   I signed up to an online telescope but I think I'd be better off using stellarium on my home computer.   What I would like to know is can I stargaze using stellarium?  Say I open the program at 7pm and I see the plough or big dipper is up, can I study the star names and star hopping from one conste to the other?     Also do you suggest looking on Google for DSO's  to search for on stellarium or what do you suggest?  I don't know what to look for in the sky on stellarium.   Thanks  

[Peter Drew]

Hello Ash.

 

You most certainly can!  Stellarium (and other planetarium apps) can provide you with everything you need for wheelchair observing including information text.  If you can connect to a large screen it is most impressive.  If this poor weather continues much longer we will all be doing the same!       🙂

[Anonanon]

Quite a few people are enjoying the way that the Seestar50 allows them to sit indoors in the warm while the telescope is outside looking at the sky and sending its images to the user on their phone. 

I was talking to someone today who bought one about a month ago, and says they're doing much more astronomy - and enjoying the simplicity of it. 

You will need to be able to take it out, stand it on the ground, and level it, but after that, it can get itself aligned, and then you tell it what to look at using the wireless network it sets up, which you can do from inside the house (unless you live in a metal box, the wireless signal should be strong enough), and it sends the image it acquires over the next few minutes to you on your phone. 

So it means you avoid the need to spend too much time outside