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Hi I am new to astronomy and telescopes, and was just looking for help on using the telescopes and tracking down objects. I was just wondering how you can find all the stars/planets and when found them, how to set up telescope to view them, just wondering as not all stars/planets can be seen by the naked eye and was just wondering how people find them and look at them through telescopes.

if there is anyone that can help me that would be great.

Thanks

Nick

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got to agree , get Stellarium first, then learn a few constellations, finally look for the brighter objects, planets, and brighter deep sky objects,

the idea is not to give up or to get frustrated, have patience, and find one object at a time, Enjoy the night sky ...the rest will come to you. :(

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hi nick welcome to the forum I see from your introduction that stellarium has already been recommended to you, but if your computer isn't portable a planisphere may be the way to go. A book called "turn left at orion" is highly thought of by those in the know as being excellent for beginners. And for imaging a book called "making every photon count" appears to be very highly thought of as being great for beginners. Let us know what equipment you use and I can promise you that somebody who knows a darn sight more than me will be along to give you better and more tailored advice. Theres always somebody to give good advice and like all enthusiasts seem genuinely thrilled to help somebody new. by the way welcome from a fellow newby

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Hi Nick'

I've not been long into the star's myself 'A good place to start (and this helped me a lot ) every month i buy the sky at night mag . It's always full of good stuff, and it tell,s you where everything is on that month. So if you've got an Eason,s book and paper shop close by you can get it there .You also get a free CD with it it only cost,s£4.25.

So happy viewing and welcome aboard

Robert

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Hiya

Thanks for the help.

Ive had Stellarium for a while now, dont really know how to use it, only just started with astronomy and telescopes so i only know the basics. Ill have at the books and mags referenced and see if they can help me.

My Equipment is:

Celestron Powerseeker 675 114mm Reflector Telescope

114mm Newtonian Reflector Telescope

900mm Focal Length (f/8)

Pre-assembled Aluminum Tripod

Mount Equatorial

Star Pointer Red Dot Finderscope

Eyepieces:

20mm - 1.25"

12mm - 1.25"

4mm - 1.25"

Barlow Lens: 3 times - 1.25"

Hope this helps.

If there is anymore help out there, id be greatful to learn.

Thanks

Nick

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Hi Nick and Welcome!

The most intuitive method of finding things in the sky is called star hoping. As the name says the idea is to locate an object using the brightest stars near it and hop from star to star till you reach the object.

For example, to find the Orion nebula you 1st find the Orion belt, which is composed by 3 very bright stars in a row (currently it's in the south after sunset). Under the belt you have another 3 stars row (known as Orion's sword), this are a bit less bright but still easy to see. Point the telescope to the middle star in Orion's sword, use the 20mm EP and you'll have it on sight. :( It's also visible with binos so if you have some you can use them 1st as it will be easier then the scope.

The book Turn left at Orion haves step by step instructions to star hop to many objects and it's a great way to get going.

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As Pvaz says you need to use the stars that you can see to get to the objects that you want to see.

Single stars (most) are easy as you first locate them by the red dot finder and the scope should then have them in the field of view.

DSO's will be a bit more complex.

Using The Plough which in pretty high and circumpolar there are 4 or 5 DSO's close to it.

M108 and M109 are close to the two stars that form the base of the pan so if you locate each star in the RDF then they should be in the field of view of the scope.

M101 and M51 are basically either side of the last star in the handle BUT are a fair distance from the star so a little searching and a degree of luck will be required. But good practise.

You will need a book that gives the main constellations and the relevant objects in them. You will also have to recognise the major constellations or at least find them with book in hand.

I use the Monthly Sky Guide as it suits me and lists a "easy" constellation of the month.

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Any 10x50 binos are comfortable to use, if you buy bigger then that, you'll need a tripod or very steady arms. :(

Mine are just some old ones I had at home. I started on astronomy by using binos and soon after bought a scope as it gives much better views, but the binos are ideal to get used to starhop. I saw a thread here saying lidl haves some very good ones under 20£.

Another useful accessory for star hoping is a red dot finder (attached to the scope), specially the telrad or the rigel quickfinder as they don't magnify and they draw circles at fixed distances, which helps you measure the distance from a bright star so you can pinpoint the object location.

I chose the telrad as it haves 3 circles instead of the 2 on the rigel. The rigel is smaller and probably better suited for your scope.

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Hiya all

As some of you mentioned about constellations and star hopping, that sounds like a really good start, but I really dont know anything about this sort of thing, only just started and started looking into it, have used my telescope a couple of times, but only looked at the moon as it is very visible, going on from here I would not have a clue, was looking at the software stellarium to show me the locations of planets and what can be seen on the what day I am setting up. Going on from there and setting the telescope to any planets or stars but the moon and dont know how to do.

If there is anyone that can give me any guidance in what I should do would be great thanks.

From Nick

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I was in the same situation last September.

The 1st thing I did was to get this free monthly maps:

Skymaps.com: Astronomy and Space Articles

And a free star wheel:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/letsgo/familyfun/Make_a_Star_Wheel.html

Then I went outside and tried to find the constelations on the map. Did this for a couple of weeks till I could find them without the map help. I also located some of the binos objects listed with the monthly map.

About a month later I got my copy of "Turn Left at Orion" and learned to star hop to the DSOs.

Also use this charts, that show the Messier objects on each constellation:

Messier Maps

Don't be intimidated, it's not rocket science. You just need to start finding one constellation at a time and slowly go from there. Be patient too, sometimes it's not so easy to identify patterns in the sky. I recommend you use a red light to read the charts in order to preserve your eyes dark adaptation. You can use an old flash light and borrow some red varnish to tint the glass.

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Hiya pvaz

Thanks for the help, Ill get on with getting one of them star wheels and try what you said about finding the constellations, hope I can get better at this soon, would love to start looking with my telescope properly.

I see that you mentioned a book called "Turn left on orion", I have that book as and electronic book (pdf) so ill have a look through that too see if it can help me.

Thanks for the help

From Nick

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Find the plough and casseopoiea and then you can work out the pole star and movement of constellations around it. Stellarium is very good at illustrating this.

Find the ecliptic and you'll have the path of the planets - stellarium will show you which ones are up at any given time and where.

Everything you find will be relative to these three basic items - once mastered you can find anything.

Cheers :)

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Hi Nickbrookes1991,

You have definitely come to the right place, lots of help on here !

For the planets you can see every night, where to look and when, and lots of other planet info Planets To See In The Sky Tonight | astronomycentral.co.uk

The only planets you can't really see with the naked eye are Neptune and Uranus. Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter are all available to see with the naked eye right now.

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I use Cartes du Ciel (as well as Stellarium) you can [click here] for it.

I hated it at first. It looks like a prehistoric Windows program. However, now I've learned to use it - especially it's animation features such as object tracking - I use it all the time, and love it to bits. I also use it to remote-control my telescope if I've got a bit of a difficult mission going on.

I very rarely use Stellarium these days other than to produce pretty pictures (simulated images). Cartes du Ciel I use every day - even if it's just to get the baby to sleep by making her watch the stars circling around Polaris.

For moon observing I like Lunar Phase Pro - although many people use Virtual Moon Atlas.

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Hiya

Ive got the program on my mac now thanks, but got a bit of a problem, when i choose United Kindom and then look for my area, it only goes up to so far and does not show my area, I have tried inputting my longitude and latitude but I cant get anything to work, do you have any ideas.

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Hiya

Ive got the program on my mac now thanks, but got a bit of a problem, when i choose United Kindom and then look for my area, it only goes up to so far and does not show my area, I have tried inputting my longitude and latitude but I cant get anything to work, do you have any ideas.

Yup - it's a bit weird on the new version (which I installed last night) - type the first letter of your town into the search field on the right and press the search button. The drop-down list then gets populated with towns beginning with that name.

This new version is WELL WORTH the effort though (I was playing with it for hours last night) - I do appreciate it takes some work to get going though - and you probably need to install some star catalogs from the web site.

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I'd second Paulo's advice for a telrad / quikfinder. this small bit of kit (also reasonably cheap) has transformed my ability to point my scope to about the right place. from there you can then find most things with your widest angle eyepiece. I also use telrad maps eg Sky Maps which show you where the Messier objects are in conjunction with one of the above finders.

I tend to print off one for a constellation I know will be viewable that night and then try and find all the ones on the map if I have time / good enough seeing.

good luck and keep asking questions!

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