Where to start

[Jakeyboi]

Hi all,

I've just brought a skywatcher 127 and have been playing around in the garden looking stars and (somehow) Saturn.I'm a complete newbie and don't really know where to start. But this weekend I'm going camping and weather permitting plenty of star gazing. I was wondering if anyone could tell me some things to look out forand here to find them.

Thanks jake

[albedo0.39]

As you might know, this time of year, it get's dark quite late. If I were you, I'd be looking for:-

M81 / M82 in Ursa Major - 2 very pretty galaxies.

M51 in Canes Venatici - The Whirpool Nebula

M57 - the Ring Nebula in Lyra (looks like a luminous bike tyre)

M13 and M92 in Hercules - very visible and fine globular clusters

Albireo in Cygnus at the foot of the cross - the most glorious double star in the sky ?

Saturn (if you catch it early enough)

M5 in Serpens - globular cluster

M27 The Dumbell Nebula (might be tough) in Vulpecula

If you bag that lot, you've done well. Now, where to find them ? Either DL a copy fo Stellarium from the interweb, or pop along to your local Amazon.co.uk / friendly Waterstones and grab yourself a Phillips Planisphere, align to the correct date and happy viewing.

Don't forget, to let your eyes dark adapt for a good 20mins or so, and avoid white light whilst you are observing - it really does help you pick out the very best from the skies.

Happy hunting !

Steve

[barkis]

Hi. Jake,

I wouldn't worry too much about finding specific targets just yet. Just try and familiarise yourself with the new instrument and the mount. Learn how it acts on the sky, and how to move it to stay on target with an object. If it is equatorially mounted, then that alone is a learning curve. If you start getting frustrated because you are unable to locate a specific object, it may be a big disappointment. You don't need that on a holiday.

You will have lots of time to get to know the mechanics, and once you have, finding targets will be a lot easier, especially with the aid of a good object location book or chart. Just content yourself with browsing around, and taking in the views that cross your field of view. Try your different eyepieces, to see the differences they make to the field and magnifications the provide.

Learning your instrument, is as important as learning the sky.

Enjoy your camping trip, and your new scope.

Ron.

[Jakeyboi]

thanks for the advice! im not sure i will be able to find any of them. I will proably try and stick to the planets and learn how to use my scope like ron said. however i do like a challenge so i might go for a galaxy or nebula. what would i expect to see through my scope because i dont think a galaxy would show up as much more than a dot, because when i looked at saturn in was pretty small.

jake

[Capricorn]

Another set of advice. I would take the objects given by albedo and get a book that you can follow. Look up the afore mentioned objets in the constellations in the book, can be done during the day - not necessarily when at the scope, then have a go at getting the scope onto them.

Rememebr that many of the DSO's are aptly refered to as faint fuzzies. So you need to know where to look in order to see them in the scope, they don't stand out (usually).

[ako]

get the book- turn left at orion, this helps you find objects that are easily in reach of your scope, has drawings of what to expect to see and good descriptions. breaks it down season by season so u know whats up there.

oh and get to your local society or star party, where abouts in the country r u?

matt

[mdstuart]

just wanted to say most objects will require a dark sky so not before 11pm at the moment. i would start with m13 a bright "large" ball of stars high up to south east in hercules. Do not rush enjoy it try to draw what u see and read about it on wikipedea and then dream about going there!

[Jakeyboi]

Cool thanks I'm in east Sussex. I will have a look for any star parties.

[delsix]

Hi, my advice would be to get in touch with your local observing group. There's a large friendly resource out there.