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Old 23-10-2010, 10:02 AM
Allan_L's Avatar
Allan_L (Allan)
Member > 10year club

Allan_L is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Central Coast NSW
Posts: 3,336
Quote:
Originally Posted by lozza000 View Post
Hey all, I am a beginner, and I was just wondering what a beginner should start off looking at?
Hi Lauren,
welcome to IIS.

This question would depend greatly on what you intend to use to look with?
Eyes
Binos
Small telescope
etc.

The best thing for beginners is to start with easy to find objects.

The elephant in the room, of course, is the Moon.
You will be amazed the detail you can see with simple equipment.
the best time is when it is less than half illuminated. Then look along the line where light goes to dark (the terminator) for so much more detail is seen due to the angle of the sun creating shadows that highlight the lunar profile.

Next would generally be the two larger planets.
Saturn is always stunning, but at the moment is probably setting to early to see.
but Jupiter is at a good position. The four larger moons are always a treat.

Maybe next would be some star clusters.
The jewel box near the second bright star in the southern cross.
Tuc47 near the small magellenic cloud.
Omega Centauri again near the cross and the pointers.

Then perhaps Nebula.
the great Orion nebula is easy to find (the second "star" in the sword of Orion) and beautiful.
Then look for Eta Carinae, again in the southern sky not far from the Cross.

After that, you will be enthusiastic enough to obtain star charts with objects and locations.

The Messier objects are a good place to move to then (although some are Northern Hemisphere. Caldwell objects are often overlooked but like Messier, the list is not to long, they are fairly easy to see, and many are Southern hemisphere.

Sometimes I enjoy just panning the milky way from the cross with binos, and discovering the many beautiful objects in that belt.

Have a look at the monthly challenge in Observational Astronomy thread.
Plenty of threads discus whats on.

finally, I like to look in th Aust Sky and Telescope mag for what is on at the moment, and the curent month star chart.

Enjoy.
And feel free to ask many questions.
We all started as you did.
Keep the enthusiasm going by sharing with people as on this forum.
And if you are ever over in the Eastern State, look us up.
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