"put away your telescope for the rest of the month"
Since I picked up a Meade 2045 at a garage sale a few weeks ago I've been looking at star charts, reading books, articles, etc. Yesterday I ran across an article named "A Primer for the Beginning Astronomer" by John Barra which looked interesting.
The first paragraph reads:
Quote:
It does you no good to have a new telescope and a bunch of star atlases if you cannot find your way around the sky. My suggestion is this: put your telescope away at first and just learn the sky. If the temptation to use your equipment is too great, take your telescope out when the moon is bright. Gaze at the moon or at the easy-to-find planets of Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Then put your telescope away for the rest of the month...
Obviously I've been doing it all wrong! I wonder how many people actually do what he suggests. To me it sounds like a good way to quell your initial enthusiasm for astronomy.
My approach has been a bit different and to me much more rewarding. I picked an obvious constellation (e.g. Crux), printed a simple star map of it and identified some objects I wanted to find (e.g. 4755). Then I went and found them. Using Crux as a visual anchor I went on to Carina and the Southern Pleides. I may not know all the stars in a constellation like Carina, but I can recognize enough to eventually find my way around.
As I expand my vista from Crux I've become familiar with Musca, Triangulum Australe, and parts of Centaurus and Carina and enjoyed some beautiful sights.
If I'm having a bit of trouble recognizing a constellation SkEye is handy for pointing me in the right direction and identifying it.
So I don't see the benefit of putting your telescope away for a month, or the advantage of just studying constellations for an extended period of time.
If I can locate the constellation and recognize enough of the structure to find objects of interest why not do it that way?
You're on the right track Don, just go for it. I used the Southern Cross myself to begin with. Just finding all the little clusters and asterisms nearby is the best way I discovered. We all learn differently, what suits one may not suit another and there is no 'wrong' way so just go for it.
Stellarium, mentioned many times in this forum is a great help as well. The only time to put the scope away is when it is cloudy, and that's when Stellarium comes out to keep you busy and learning.
I had just a pair of binoculars in the beginning and highly recommend it for when you first start off in the hobby. With them you can learn all the basic skills of reading star charts and star hopping through the constellations, all without being constricted by a telescopes narrow field of view.
So I can see where he's coming from.
I think that a pair of binoculars and getting to know the sky before using the scope is really useful.
Especially when trying to find things in the finder, the sudden recognition of little groups of stars that you know by heart makes screaming around the sky so much easier.
"A Primer for the Beginning Astronomer" by John Barra!
He is WRONG we're 21st century now....
Just get a "GOTO" scope
You'll see so much more quickly & will get 2 know your way around the sky soon enough.....
"A Primer for the Beginning Astronomer" by John Barra!
He is WRONG we're 21st century now....
Just get a "GOTO" scope
You'll see so much more quickly & will get 2 know your way around the sky soon enough.....
A lot of goto scopes require you to find at least three stars to get the goto function to work properly, and often only get you in the rough region when seeking objects. It is helpful to know your way around when trying to find stuff in the finder scope.
"A Primer for the Beginning Astronomer" by John Barra!
He is WRONG we're 21st century now....
Just get a "GOTO" scope
You'll see so much more quickly & will get 2 know your way around the sky soon enough.....
Yup, totally agree. Even a "push to" with an Argo Navis or the like attached if the $ will stretch.
100% on the money, If i buy a new camera for instance it dose not come out of the box until i have read the booklet that comes with it twice at least, then i take it out and read it again with the camera in hand.
Thank you very much Brent, jjjnettie, Poita, Rob, PeterM, and Leon for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.
I can see the advantages of starting with binoculars but I don't have any. For the moment I seem to be making some progress with the scope and RDF. I do have a EP with a TFOV equal to the scopes TMAX (about 2.85 degrees) that helps somewhat.
One thing that makes binos less attractive to me is that I don't have binocular vision so don't get the enhanced perception that binoculars provide. There are a few monoculars on eBay that might work around the $100 range (e.g. a 10x50 & 8x70), although I wouldn't expect really great optics. Not sure if that would inhibit learning the sky although they probably wouldn't give high quality views of objects. I noticed some night vision monoculars, I wonder how those would work for dim stars...
Regarding a GOTO scope or an Argo Navis, I'm just starting out and don't know how deeply I may get involved so I'm reluctant to spend that much (besides, I don't have it to spend!). I have spent good money alread on EP's and they've made a dramatic difference over the 9mm & 25mm MA's that came with the scope. I feel they can be sold without a horrible loss if I don't continue.
Thanks again for your comments, and thanks jjjnettie for the chuckle!
IMHO there is no right or wrong way to get started. If you are happy with a goto and do not want to learn the night sky thats fine. If you want to get familiar with all the constellations, thats fine. If you want to leap in the deep end and buy a 25" dob as your first scope that fine also.
As long as people are getting into the hobby and enjoying the night sky, we should all be happy.
I happen to think there is a very good pathway taht is available to amatuers that wasn't available years ago with the affordability and ease of use of moderate sized dobs in the 8-10" range, but whatever newbies do is fine as long as they are out observing.
No Binocs, get some cheap on the local auction site. I picked up a pair for $10, they don't look much but they work quite well enough to scan the skies.
Binocular function, doesn't matter at the distance you are looking, almost infinity. You are only looking for a widefeild viewer and a small 80 mm achro scope would do that just as well. You can use binocs with one eye closed, it is now a monocular, same as a small spotting scope. It's that wide feild view you need to start spotting the groups and dimmer stars that give you pointers around the sky.
I've always got my binocs with me at night even just to scan round while the scope takes pictures and look for the next target area.
IMHO there is no right or wrong way to get started. If you are happy with a goto and do not want to learn the night sky thats fine. If you want to get familiar with all the constellations, thats fine. If you want to leap in the deep end and buy a 25" dob as your first scope that fine also.
As long as people are getting into the hobby and enjoying the night sky, we should all be happy.
I happen to think there is a very good pathway taht is available to amatuers that wasn't available years ago with the affordability and ease of use of moderate sized dobs in the 8-10" range, but whatever newbies do is fine as long as they are out observing.
I wonder how many people actually do what he suggests. To me it sounds like a good way to quell your initial enthusiasm for astronomy. 
MMMM , 25 inch Dob ... 
, nice.
. Sorry everybody
