What targets for a newcomer?

[dmahon]

I recently bought myself a telescope/mount (Equinox 80 and HEQ5 Pro) - my intentions for doing so were photographic. Unfortunately my camera and accessories won't be forthcoming for a month or more, so I bought myself a couple of eyepieces from Astro Buy/Sell and a webcam from Dion in the meantime. Last night was the first decent night for viewing since the scope arrived (other than about 30 minutes on the day that I took delivery). I got a pretty excellent polar alignment, even if I say so myself, and set up the GoTo scope so that targets were placed pretty much centrally on my 8mm EP when I selected them. I took some webcam footage of Jupiter, but my Barlows (x2 and x4) haven't arrived yet so the images I have are very small.

Anyway, on to my question:

I'll spend the next few weeks just looking, until I can pick up my camera in November. What targets would you advise a new astronomer to look at (rather than photograph), particularly given the equipment I have? (In future I may also buy a 6mm EP and a 2" 2x powermate to give me 22,11,8,6,4,3 EP sizes - but that won't happen until they come up for sale second hand, or perhaps for Christmas).

[spaceboy]

A good book for visual references is "turn left at Orion" gives description where to find and also a sketch of roughly what you will see once found. I would advise you get a sky map, the reason will become apparent once you look through the book.