New to Using a Telescope?

Sometimes people wonder what to see once they’ve found the moon and bright planets.  Turns out there are lots of great celestial objects, but you have to know what they are and where to find them. 

 

Ultimately this site will have 5 easily-found objects for each quarter of the year, picked especially for beginners.  For each object, there will be information about what kind of object it is, where to find it (including finder charts), and why it’s interesting to see.  In any quarter of the year, some of the previous quarter’s objects will still be visible early in the evening, and some of the next quarter’s objects will be visible late in the evening.  Always start with your lowest-power eyepiece before trying higher powers.  Some of these objects can also be seen in binoculars.  Expect all of them to look smaller and fainter than you expect from pictures.

 

Find each object’s part of the sky by using the Acadiana Sky star maps (or an app), and then use the finder chart for the object.  The charts and star maps show black stars on a white background to make it easy for you to write notes on them, and were made using Cartes du Ciel software.

 

If you print out the quarterly objects and Acadiana Sky star maps to use at your telescope, light them with a red-light flashlight to avoid stunning your night vision.  If you use them on a laptop or mobile device, find some way to make the screen give off red light for the same reason.

 

A good next step for finding more objects is the guide book Turn Left at Orion, by Guy Consolmagno.  It’s available on-line and through bookstores, but maybe your Library has a copy or can get it through Interlibrary Loan.