New and help needed

[blackorchid (Trent)]

Hello i'm new here and i'm looking for a little assistance.

I'm heading to Girraween (northern NSW) in about a weeks time for a camping trip
I figure while i'm going, to a place that has -hopefully- no light pollution, that i'll take my telescope with me.
The difficulty i have with this is, i have no idea where/what interesting stuff i should be looking for, nor what time to look for these things.
Has any one got any experience with stargazing or perhaps a website which can tell me where to point the telescope, at what time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Thanks

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Trent
to IceInSpace.

What type of telescope do you have? How long will you be there for?

[Ric]

Hi Trent and welcome to IIS.

A handy start would be to get yourself a Planisphere from one of the Astronomy shops in Brisbane or print one out from here.

http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

These will give you a general idea of what's up there and where to look.

Cheers

[blackorchid (Trent)]

Iceman

The telescope is just a basic simple one ($100) has about 9 different lens/magnifications i'll be goign tomorrow morning and coming back sunday(meant to say a few days this weekend not in a few weeks)

Ric

Thanks for the link they're what i was looking for.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

The moon at this time is always good value. You could even try for Venus, and Saturn atm. Mars is a bit small but still there. they are all in the same area of sky to the north & north west (look for venus) over the next couple of weeks.
Good luck



btw take a pair of binoculars with you

[Paduan (Brett)]

hi i am only new also the two things i bought telescope not included was a planesphere and a star atlas between these two publications you will find hours of viewing

[astro744]

Originally Posted by blackorchid

Hello i'm new here and i'm looking for a little assistance.

I'm heading to Girraween (northern NSW) in about a weeks time for a camping trip
I figure while i'm going, to a place that has -hopefully- no light pollution, that i'll take my telescope with me.
The difficulty i have with this is, i have no idea where/what interesting stuff i should be looking for, nor what time to look for these things.
Has any one got any experience with stargazing or perhaps a website which can tell me where to point the telescope, at what time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Thanks

Welcome!

Note the Moon will be full in about a weeks time (26/7) meaning the sky will not be dark. The brighter objects such as the planets can be seen from the city or in strong moonlight and there are currently a few planets for you to see. If you can postpone your trip a week for last quarter then you will at least have a dark sky from the end of twilight to around midnight weather permitting of course. Take some binoculars with you if you have as you can search for faint star clusters and even galaxies in very dark conditions.

May I suggest Astronomy 2010 as it has all your solar system info as well as some star chats and being into the last half of the year you may pick it up at a reduced price. (Around $20-25 new, usually half price from Sep onwards from some dealers).