Beginning Amateur Astronomers Please Help!?

[avaJasper (Ava Jasper)]

Hey guys, got my telescope today. Put a lot of time and reach search into picking the best one for me, I bought the Skywatcher 150 x 1200 Dobsonian Reflector I heared it was good starter aswell as having a 6' apature. What I'm currently struggling to do it finding objects that I can see with my telescope, I'm decent at moving across the night sky, as I've observed Juipeter and very basics of the Orion Nebular, im not sure what im doing wrong or if im looking in the right places, any tips would be appricated. I live in Southern Hemisphere, Australia EST.
Thanks guy

[Robh (Rob)]

Hi Ava,

You need to get a planisphere or download something like Stellarium onto a laptop you can use outside. These will allow you to locate the brighter stars in the sky for a particular time of night. Using these brighter stars and a star atlas of some kind (e.g. Sky & Telescope Pocket Atlas) you should be able to locate some of the brighter binary stars, clusters and nebulae in the sky.

As you get better at identifying constellations, you will find it easier to pin down fainter objects like galaxies by using the brighter stars around them (star-hopping).

If you go to my website, you can download my free atlas (Night-Sky Objects for Southern Observers) ...
http://sites.google.com/site/southernastronomer/

Also on the website is a list of objects you can look for each month.

Regards, Rob