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Old 30-12-2013, 07:27 PM
Finski
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Location: Sunshine Coast
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What can I look for?

Hey all, I am fairly new to astronomy, only had my scope for a few days and have had 2 nights of stargazing. So far I have seen the orion nebula and one other somewhere up from the southern cross. Ive seen Jupiter and 4 of its moons, all of which were amazing. What else could I look for?
I have a 6" StarWatcher Dobsonian, is there anything cool I can spot from the ACT?

Thanks for any advice
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Old 30-12-2013, 07:49 PM
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acropolite (Phil)
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Not sure what you saw around the cross, there are lots of targets in that general direction, look for Omega Centauri, the largest gobular cluster in the night sky, Centaurus A (aka the hamburger) is a Galaxy in the same ares, the large (LMC) and small magellenic clouds (SMC) are easily seen, the Tarantula nebula is part of the LMC, 47 tucannae is another nice Globular cluster near the SMC. The Jewel box is fairly easy to spot, if you have binoculars scan the area first to get a general idea where things are. Download some Star charts or a planetarium package, Stellarium is free and quite useful. download from http://www.stellarium.org/
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Old 01-01-2014, 09:25 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Finski,
The big attraction over the next few evening is the very bright, but rapidly droping Venus in the western sky. Though the scope, it shows as a very thin crescent.
In general, I would recommend that anything that looks 'fuzzy' to the eye is worth pointing the telescope towards.
Better still, if you have binoculars, look for some open cluster (like M41 near Sirius) and then look at those with the scope. Also have a look at the Pleiades (commonly known as the Seven Sisters) with your lowest-power eyepiece.
There are also some interesting double stars, that are not far from the Orinon Nebula. Rigel, the brightest star in Orion has a fainter companion that in reality is much brighter than our Sun. Then there is the triple star Beta Monoceros, with all three stars being relatively bright.
If you feel like a challenge at this stage, try M1, known as the Crab Nebula. You will quickly realies that all the M (Messier) objects are notable. Most of these that are not open star clusters are decently viewed with a magnification of about 60.
If you do not know where to find these, I suggest buying youself a star atlas that has these marked.
Good luck, and enjoy the journey.
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