|
Plenty of time for maps. At least you have something interesting to look at tonight if the weather is kind to you, the lunar eclipse could be a nice first light.
Aside from that, Jupiter is still pretty visible and easy to find (the very bright object more or less due north (I am assuming you are in Australia) and maybe 30 degrees up from the horizon just on dark. The moon is, well, the moon! And Mars is up in the east on dark and will be not too far above the moon and is reasonably easy to find.
A tip for finding planets if you are not aware of it, they scintilate (Twinkle) a lot less than the stars so look for the steadiest looking objects. And they will always be in the reigion around the celestial equator (The line from east to west that is above the horizon by the same angle as your latitude)
Venus is also well up the sky before sunrise if you happen to be up at a silly time in the morning. I have a morning jog as many mornings a week as I can manage and have to leave for work at 7AM so I am well and truly running in the dark, Venus tempts me to be late to work and get the scope out instead, I have usually observed it in the evenings when it is trailing the sun and after the heat of the day it is not much of a target. I keep meaning to have a look in the morning.
At least that gives you some fairly easy targets to pot to get used to the scope.
|