Hello and
Walaa
That book that NatalieR recommended is a real goody- I have it! It's a teaching book on how to find the constellations by using the brightest stars to hop from one constellation to another. The sky get a bit confusing sometimes when it turns, making finding constellations a bit tricky and challenging (for us beginners anyhow!) Also in the book is a whole section on greek mythology behind those constellations, aye, such a story going on in those skies.
You can preview the book
here
Binos are great to start out with. But not only that, you will find you will use them plenty even when you have the scope. I own the 10x60's and I find them just do-able without a tripod. You can mount them on a camera tripod and there is a bracket thingy to attach them onto a tripod. Andrews Communications sell the brackets for $20). You will have a problem pointing them up to Zenith though on the tripod.
I'm actually now doing something a bit different on my path of binoviewing (I have to wait for my birthday in a couple of months tho
)....
For long observation sessions with binos, my arms hurt, my neck hurts, my hands shake more- just starts to get a bit uncomfy. So I've decided to get a little 4 inch table top dob scope as a grab and go and for longer sessions (but a shorter duration that would have me take my 10" dob outside). It's an Orion Skyscanner. The helpful man at Bintel recommended it and said they sell at least two a week. It uses a parabloic mirror, and is glass unlike most of that kind which (apparently) have plastic mirrors. They sell for $200 at Bintel.
The binos of course still will serve their purpose. Anyway, just thought I'd throw another option at you.
And just a few tips to get you started on the theoretical side of things so when you get your scope you will have some knowledge up your sleeve.
1) Learn the brightest stars in the sky.
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html
This will help when it comes to finding constellations. Also, soon enough they'll end up feeling like friends.
Then they go away and you'll become sad
, then when they return, you'll be jumping with excitement like a kid.
Okay, maybe I just do that..
2) Learn the greek alphabet (in lower case).
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/lan.../answers.shtml
This will help you read maps better.
And possible make you look smarter to other people
3) Learn how to measure the sky in degrees using your hand.
http://oldthoughts.wordpress.com/200...ing-your-hand/
Don't let neighbours see you, those hand gestures could mean something else to them.
4) A Planisphere, most definitely.
This will teach you the sky no matter what time of day or time as the stars rotate around. Remember when I said it can be confusing, well this will definitely help.
I got mine from
here from Australian Sky & Telescope for $14.95 and love it.
I've gone one step further with it and have cut out using post-it notes (the sticky strip), little arrows, which I can peel off and stick on zillion times over for the point of interest on the disc.
Comes in handy for marking places on maps in my books too!
I wonder if I can get rich selling sticky arrows
Hmmmm... for now, I think that's it, from me anyhow. What I've already suggested will keep you busy for a while before you get your scope.
Oh, I nearly forgot to answer your first question. I can see a lot, both with my binos (even 7x50) and scope from my light polluted suburb. When the moon goes away the viewing improves on deep sky objects such as nebulas and galaxies. The Orion nebula should never fail to amaze regardless of pollution as it's fairly bright, and star clusters will be available to you by the oodles despite this also.
Binocular astronomy is a lot of fun and one of my hobbies and I do observation reports on them sometimes too. Have a look at some of my reports to give you an idea of what's up there.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ight+centaurus
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=69321
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...r+observations
Have fun Walaa!
Why can't I ever do short posts!
