A New Observer

[Cynicide]

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit new to astronomy, I purchased a Galileoscope after seeing them on the Bad Astronomy blog, an old housemate of mine owned a larger telescope too.

Being in Melbourne I've and managed to observe Betelgeuse and Sirius. These were pretty easy to locate based on the position of Orion's Belt and Betelgeuse's intense red flicker was a pretty big hint and very pretty to look at.

I'm seeing a very bright object in the western sky which I think might be Jupiter, it's the brightest object I can see and is quite large when viewed with the barlow lens boosting the magnification to x50. At the moment I'm using Stellarium to figure out what I'm seeing and it's in the right area.

So my question is, Is this Jupiter? I can't make out any detail on it yet, it's just a very large white circle. Stellarium tells me Jupiter is moving away from us so I guess that means I won't get to see any detail for a while.

What's everyone in Melbourne looking at his time of year?

[Robh]

Hi Anthony,

The fact that you saw a large disk would indicate it was Jupiter. Stars will appear as near points of light. Did you also see perhaps 4 points of light in a line about Jupiter? These would be 4 of Jupiter's moons.
At this time of year, you can view the Great Orion Nebula, the Pleiades in Taurus, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud and the nearby globular cluster 47 Tucanae, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Tarantula Nebula to name a few.

Regards, Rob.

[Nightskystargaz]

Hi Anthony,

Hope you can get a better scope, I know that you will enjoy the hobby, with a better scope.

CS

:thanx:,

Tom