Very very new to this -

[Turner]

Hi

Having recently moved from a town to a more rural location, have found the sky from my back gardem looks pretty amazing on a clear night ( Not much light pollution in the sticks!) That got me thinking about telescopes and astronomy - something i never would have thought about before. Anyway, have bought some 10x50 binoculars and a planisphere - hoping to get out and have a look once all this snow has gone. I have read that Orion is a good starting point for this time of year?? i am also hoping to get some nice views of the Moon as well - would that be possible with these?

Many Thanks anyway

Andy

[Eyeball]

Hi

Having recently moved from a town to a more rural location, have found the sky from my back gardem looks pretty amazing on a clear night ( Not much light pollution in the sticks!) That got me thinking about telescopes and astronomy - something i never would have thought about before. Anyway, have bought some 10x50 binoculars and a planisphere - hoping to get out and have a look once all this snow has gone. I have read that Orion is a good starting point for this time of year?? i am also hoping to get some nice views of the Moon as well - would that be possible with these?

Many Thanks anyway

Andy

Welcome to the forum Andy

[red dwalf]

moon will be good and should be able to see the orion nebula ok, hardest part is keeping them still

[ashenlight]

A very warm welcome to the forum Andy! You've made an excellent start. COncentrate on learning the constellations with your binoculars (best piece of equipment in my opinion) and your star map - you'll soon be whizzing around pointing things out to people

The Moon will be beautiful through the binos. You'll get some great views of the larger surface features - you may find it hard keeping them steady, allowing you to pick up more detail. Just stick with it, you can always get a tripod at a later date.

Orion is a good starting point because it is a well known constellation, fairly large in size. You can use the stars in it to get to other points of interest in the sky. This is called star hopping. So, for instance, find Orion's belt - the 3 stars that make up a distinctive line through the middle of the constellation, marking the Hunter's belt, and draw an imaginary line down from the middle star. You'll come to Orion's sword, which contains the nebula M42 - a stellar nursery. The 'misty' effect you should be able to see in this area is the 'clouds' that make up the nebula. Cool, eh?

A line from the bottom right star (called Rigel) through and past the top left star (Betelguese) takes you to the constellation Gemini - there's some lovely open clusters there for you to explore with your binos.

Follow the top right star of Orion out at a 'half past 1' clock-hand position and you'll come to the constellation Taurus and the open cluster known as the Hyades (small in comparison with Orion) - which houses the bright orange/yellow star Aldebaran. Carry on and you'll come to the naked eye open cluster M45, or the Pleiades.

Whilst you're finding things out in the night sky, take a few minutes shortly after sunset to find Jupiter. It's a very bright star like point of light in the South - you can't miss it - it'll be visible even when the sky is still hanging on to some of the sun's light. Use your binos to look at it and you should be able to make out the disc of the planet and 3 or 4 moons surrounding it. Also, in the Southeast much later in the night (try about 11pm) very high up is the piercingly bright red star-like point of light which is the planet Mars. It's near the constellation Cancer. It's too small to make out any detail with just binos, but it is nice to know where it is

Just use that star hopping technique I mentioned to find your way around - it sounds like you are quite lucky with your light pollution so you should be OK finding your way around

Also, see if you can get your hands on a copy of the January issue of Sky at Night magazine (should get it in WHSmiths or a large supermarket etc) - it has a full year guide to astronomical sights - something for everyday of the year. It should get you off to a great start

Once again very warm welcome. Any questions just go right ahead and ask

[Turner]

Hi

Thats Brilliant, thanks so much for the advice. Cant wait to get started now.. sounds like i need to make sure i get my North and South correct will definately check out the magazine you mentioned. May pop into my local library as well, think i will need to do some serious reading on this subject.....

im sure i will have many more questions

Many thanks again

Andy

[glowjet]

Hi Andy,

A very warm welcome to SGL, bins are an excellent way of learning the night sky, try and obtain a copy of Turn Left at Orion, you may also like to download Stellarium or TUBA which was created by Philip S Harrington for studying the night sky with bins, at some time in the future Sky & Telescopes Pocket Sky Atlas, by Roger Sinnot, would not go amiss, whatever you do enjoy the forum.

John.

[pvaz]

Amanda's reply is great!

Just a little addenda. Download stellarium. It's a free simulator software. Set up your location, then pick a time and date and it will simulate your sky at that given date. It great to check whats up there.

I also used it as a beginner to learn the constellations on cloudy nights. If you turn of all the labels and stuff you get just a replica of the sky and you can star hop as if you ware outside.

[Astro_Baby]

Hi from me too - with a dark sky you should be able to see quite a bit with 10x50 binos. Maybe worth getting a photographic tripod and an adapter for the binos which will make them steadier and take some of the weight off your arms.

[ashenlight]

can't believe I forgot to mention Stellarium, thank you Paulo

it is great software, you will love it Andy. To learn your north and south, just remember "it sets in the west" - find where the sun is going down, and you know then it west. Works for me I'm rubbish at getting my bearings

[ian_d]

Hi Andy - great first post, you'll be hooked in no time guaranteed! With the advantage of having dark, rural skies you'll be able to see a lot of things that just aren't available to most city-dwellers - not least, the simple majesty of a starry, moonless night.

And once you start getting into binocular astronomy - not to mention telescopes! - you will really start to see some stuff that will knock your socks off!

Keep posting on your progress!

cheers

Ian

[mark skelton]

Welcom to sgl Turner, may I sergest geting a tripod mount for your bins. If you are planing a look at the moon try lunar 100 map witch can be down loaded from www.spacegazer.com/libary.asap this will help you lern your way round the moon.

[Turner]

Thats great - thankyou - i downloaded Stellarium last night, pretty amazing application. just need to use it now.

Although couldnt see a thing last night, hope for a more clear evening soon

A couple of other good targets... Find Cassieopeia.. a W very high in the sky. Stellarium will help with this. Come downwards following the middle to lower right line, and a short way you'll see what look like two blotches of light, keep an eye there and you should start seeing a couple of lovely clusters (The Double Cluster). If you carry on down in a straight line, you should see 3 stars almost in a line pointing back to Cassie, this is Perseus. The star in the middle (Mirfak) is offset slightly to the right, have a look at that one. There's a fair number of stars in an interesting formation around that star (looks like it's holding it in a cup), and is known as the Mirfak Association.

There's several more in Auriga, but they are harder to find.

[jgs001]

Welcome aboard Andy... there's a link to some Bino observing challenges in the Bino Observing board when you've got used to them and feel a little more confident and want a challenge.