beginners targets?

[Wattsy]

what do you guys think are the best targets for beginnersto start on? i've got a 3 inch newtonian i'm going to have a look for jupiter tonight but was wondering what you guys would recommend to start with

cheers

matt

[NGC 1502]

Hi Matt, with the bright moon around just now, I think that after Jupiter,

(don't forget Uranus less than a degree north) double stars would be a

good bet.

Albireo, 61 Cygnus, Gamma Aries, Eta Cass. spring to mind for starters.

When the moon is out of the way, the old favourites, M31, Dumbbell M27,

Ring neb M57 should be ok for you.

Good luck, Ed.

[perrin6]

The moon's presence in the sky tonight will render faint objects less visible so if you're time is short you might want to concentrate on the moon, jupiter and it's moons and double stars. You could view star clusters although they will be best seen without the moon around or when it is only a crescent and less bright in a few days time.

Apart from Jupiter itself, have a look at it's moons and see if you can observe their differences in brightness and disc size at high magnification. You could check out Albireo - a lovely bright and colourful double star. Other double stars you could check out are ; Alpha Herculis, Gamma Delphinus, Epsilon lyrae.

You might find the moon a little overwhelming at first as there is so much to see. What I do is check out the terminator (the edge that varies according to the phase), locate one crater and note what details I can see,in and around it. Then I check a moon map to find out what I saw and write it down and in this way get to know the moon so that it is not just a mass of bewildering details,

Good viewing!

Alan

[perrin6]

In case you don't know - Albireo is Beta Cygni - A brightish star at the very SW end of Cygnus the swan.

[Chris H]

The Pleides M45 is a great target for a scope like you have it's rising in the east about 10pm.

[Wattsy]

managed to have a good stare at the moon and picked out mizar and alcor as well as mizar's double i'll have to remember to have a look for albireo next time cygnus is almost directly overhead

[Ags]

I was looking at Gamma Andromedae earlier and compared it to Albireo - the colors seem much stronger on Gamma Andromedae (gold and blue) to my eyes anyway. It is also easy to find - it is the last brightish star in the chain of Andromeda stars stretching from the square of Pegasus.

[Aussie Observer]

Hi Matt, don't forget to look at the Moon. With a 3" newt you wioll get fantastic views. Venus is also good at the moment showing a nice phase. You should just pan around the sky looking for bright clusters like M6 and M7 in Scorpius as well as double stars like the ones already suggested. I had no trouble picking up M103 in Cassiopeia with my little 3" Skywatcher dob when I was in the UK in May this year.

[Wattsy]

brilliant cheers for the help guys too cloudy last night to see much but had another look at the moon and experimented with different magnifications need a better quality barlow lens methinks