Amanda!!!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! You've joined!!!!
ooops nearly forgot one lol ---------------->
Ooooh I'm so happy you finally joined the forum, and now we have another astro chick, yaaay, too few of us on here!
I was going to ask you if you had binos.
Wow... nice size too! We'd been chatting about all sorts of things and each time I completely forgot to ask you.
Laughed at your Hartungs story. I saw it going for $500 on e-bay a couple of years ago.
I have one proudly on my bookshelf and will never part with it no matter how much I can get for it. I paid next to nothing for it too, thanks to a fellow forum member who practically gifted it to me.
Start learning the 26 brightest stars- they will help you navigate the sky.
Also helpful in finding constellations is finding stars close together that move around the sky together. Such as Rigel & Alphard, Spica & Gamma Hydra, Avior & Miaplacidus. You can also use the stars to star hop to your objects. And then one day if you decide to get go-to where you have to find stars to align, that knowledge comes in very handy. Take your time- the sky's not going anywhere.
A particularly good book on how to star hop is,
"A Walk Through The Southern Sky" by Milton D. Heifetz & Wil Tirion.
I find the nights when the moon is out very useful to learn as that's when I go learning stars and constellations naked eye. And then my moonless nights are for observing.
Instead of Hartungs (as a first book), I find a more practical book to start out with would be "Stars & Planets". It's my favourite book and my right hand. It keeps things fairly simple by giving out the objects that are pretty much do-able thru light pollution. And you will still find it very useful when you move to a dark site. I've done a mini review of the book along with some other helpful tips in this
thread here (refer posts #19 & #20).
I've also done a list of objects for binoculars that are showpieces and very easy to find. See
here. I've added more objects in post #11.
Just go the 10" dob.
If you can get someone (or if you're handy?) to attach wheels to the bottom of the base like I have, it makes it very easy to move around. I physically cannot life the tube, but the hubby does that for me if the need arises. Most women don't seem to have much trouble lifting it though- I'm just a weakling.
And you were nervous to join
- sheesh look at all the responses you've gotten so far already.
Great bunch of guys here- forever helpful and friendly. Don't ever be scared to ask a question- there is no "stupid question". We all had to go through the learning curve.
Errrr I think every astro session is forever a learning curve.
Welcome aboard my good buddy! xoxo
P.S. Join me in finding Les D's bino target (M3) when the moon goes away.
Map
here. You'll need to find where Arcturus is if don't already know. It's one of the stars on the 26 brightest list. Sits north- very orange and very big and bright- hard to miss. I'll catch you up on fb about it if you're interested.