Hey Guys..?

[Rabbayazza]

Well, i'm pretty sure that theres not alot I can do here, but here it is:

I want to learn about astronomy and such, but my school does not provide any courses and it is 2 years before I can go to college, so is there anything here that can help me start astronomy, I just want to learn things as I find space intriguing and want to learn more about it.

Thanks

Robert.

[insomnia]

A good idea is to search for a local astronomy group near to you, normally they will hold guest talks and a chance to look through some scopes as well

[Rabbayazza]

Yes, but is there any way that I can just learn before I look through a scope?

[Brett]

Getting a good set of binoculars is a good start, Lidl were doing a reasonable set of 10x50 binoculars for £14.99 recently and may still have some. Also a good book to buy is Turn Left At Orion and maybe a Phillips planisphere to learn your way around the night sky. I'm a newbie myself and find all of the above very helpful. Other than that just ask on here

[Rabbayazza]

Thank you, I might just go buy a pair of binoculars tomorrow, and I've saw that book alot of times in my hour here so it may be worth investing in.

[Capricorn]

Would help if you included where it is that you live. Someone might know of a Intro to Astro that is on your doorstep. Just no-one knows where that is!

Close to me the Institite of Astronomy at Cambridge has just finished their public open evenings, a 45 minute talk on astronomy, 45 minutes of viewing through their scopes, aimed at people with little knowledge especially children, tea and biscuits. All free.

As to a book have a look at a few, find a decent sized bookshop. You need a book that suites you, I have TLAO and have opened it once, I just don't like it and so don't use it. Different people, different books.

[yeti monster]

I've found Sir Partick Moores "Atlas of the Universe" to be very informative regarding the solar system and beyond. He covers a great deal in an easy to understand non-hubristic manner, and I do like his subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) humour. There are starcharts showing where the fuzzies live too, and we all like fuzzies don't we. It's available in just about any decent bookshop and will very soon become all dog eared and tatty from being taken everywhere and read and reread.

[nicnac]

open university provide a course in astronomy, its the kind you do at home.

there should be details on their web site if you are interested.

otherwise, i would go down to your local library, you can find some very useful source material there

[ollypenrice]

There is an excellent LARGE textbook on astronomy called Universe, by Freedmann and Kaufmann.

Here is the book's website;

Freedman & Kaufmann, Universe

This is a serous book written for astronomy students at university but it is very accessible with the mathematical and technical aspects in separate boxes so that the text can stand alone without them. This would probably be my 'desert island book'.

It is not at all dry. Quite the opposite, it is written with imagination and passion.

It is very different from amateur astronomy books, which are none the less very good.

To find inexpensive second hand books do you know the website www.abebooks.com

This is a fantastic way to find second hand books but prioritize UK booksellers in your search because post from the USA is expensive.

Olly

[Astro_Baby]

Hi Robert,

Two questions really - where are you ? JUst generally speaking - that would help people perhaps suggest a club, society, college etc that runs some courses.

Second question is what do you want to learn ? JUst general stuff ? Learn the sky so you can spot constellations, learn stuff thats more in the astro-physics area etc ?

Its s abig field but I would sugget to start with getting a few magazines like Astronomy, Astronomy Today etc.

As a firts pass you could always download 'Stellarium' off the web - its completely free and its a minim planetarium for your PC.

Hope thats some help and its great you want to learn this stuff - I'm sure people on here will be only too happy to help out.

[Bizibilder]

No one has mentioned Stellarium yet - Its a free to download sky simulator and is very realistic. You can zoom in on interesting objects and have artificial satellites zooming all over the place (or not, if you prefer!). The other softwere I would suggest is Virtual Moon Atlas - It shows all the features and includes very detailed photographic coverage as well as "drawn" maps.

[ZOG]

I have to agree with Stellarium, and a planisphere. Learning the constellations and the position of interesting objects within them will give you a flying start when you get your first scope.

[brantuk]

You could do a GCSE (O or A level) part time in astronomy in the 2 yrs before college. Try this link for Edexcel - they featured in a comparison in SAN recently:

GCSE from 2009  | Astronomy  | Edexcel

Hope that helps

[Rabbayazza]

I'm from Glasgow, Scotland, which means I can't do a GSCE .

I downloaded stelarrium about 1 month ago, and don't get it. It's confusing.

[Bizibilder]

What is confusing you about Stellarium? We can help!!

[Rabbayazza]

You can only, to my view, go to planets visible by the naked eye at that current moment.

[brantuk]

Hi Rab - that link to Edexcel is actually a correspondence course (distance learning) and I'm sure you can do it from Scotland (or anywhere for that matter). All you need is a postal address

[Bizibilder]

If you want to see the fainter planets and asteroids go to the "Sky and viewing options" window and put the "planets" slider to the far right. Then as you move around the sky they will all be shown.

I have attached a pic to show what you can do - Mercury and Venus in the sunlight at this very moment!

Hope this is what you mean!

[Rabbayazza]

Yes I've done that, but theres still only 2 planets. Is there any way.. for example, I can see... Jupiter?

[Iris]

Hey Rabba, yes you can see Jupiter and any of a whole host of different astronomical objects. Stellarium defaults to show you what you would see at the 'current' time - you can switch the atmosphere on and off (gets rid of the blue sky) and you can choose the time you want to see the sky for.

To switch the atmosphere off you can do one of two things - hover your mouse down near the bottom left of the screen and the Stellarium Icons bar will appear the Icon that looks like a cloud will toggle the atmospere on and off. Or you can change it from the Sky and Viewing Options dialog as suggested earlier - this can be accessed either from the left hand edge of the screen near the bottom or by pressing the F4 key (easier).

You can choose the date and time to view by pressing the F5 key (this will pop up a dialog).

If you want to find a particular object (say Jupiter) then use F3 and type its name into the edit field press enter.. but note that if Jupiter is not above the horizon for your location at the time it will not be visible and the window will appear to be pointing at the ground (it is effectively trying to look through the earth in this case)

At any time pressing F1 will bring up the help dialog with a list of all the key meaninings. If you scroll down to the end of this dialog you will see a bunch of links to various resources - particularly the User Guide which I recommend you download and look at - it will give you a better idea of what you can achieve than I can.

Hope some of this helps...

[Tantalus]

In Stellarium, you can also turn off the ground plane by pressing 'g' or by clicking the icon that looks like two lollipops, giving you a view of the entire sky. If you're having trouble locating an object, you could use the find function.

Have you tried looking online for other resources? Just type 'astronomy for beginners' into a search engine and it'll throw up hundreds of result. Wikipedia also has many articles on astronomy - again use the search engine to locate the info you're looking for.

Good luck and welcome to astronomy, Robert.

[Robert Watson]

Hi Robert,

Stellarium is the best if you find it hard just sit and press all the icon's you'll be amazed at just how soon you'll pick it up.

PS a good star atlas is worth the money.

[Capricorn]

Have a look at The Astronomical Society of Glasgow

Looks as if they did/do some astro talks.

Also they have an unfinished beginners section, may be worth an email to see what it is thay they intend.

After that it is a question of what you want. Have to say that pointing a scope at the skies and looking at stars, DSO's etc isn't astronomy, well not these days. Mention this as you may find an Introductory Course and then find that it isn't what you thought.