About Astronomy

Here is the current Moon phase:

Observing the Moon is a great way to get started.  However, the Moon is an annoying distraction at times.  As the Moon gets brighter, the stars get dimmer.  This makes it harder to locate Deep Space Objects, along with other faint objects.  Also, because of the brightness of the Moon, a Moon filter will normally need to be used during some of the larger Moon phases.  Otherwise, your eyes will no longer be dark-adapted.

A Moon chart is a helpful tool for identifying parts of the Moon.  You can purchase these online or at most large book stores.  As the name says, a Moon Chart is a chart of the Moon and its surface features.  A fun aspect of lunar observation is trying to identify the craters, mare, and mountains on the Moon.

Not all of the planets are easy to observe.  Mercury is too close to the sun, Venus has highly reflective clouds, causing it to look like a bright yellow blob, and Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are too far away to be clear through most amateur telescopes. 

Now Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and big exceptions.  Through an 8" reflector , a good starter telescope, Mars shows ice caps (When Mars is closest to Earth, at least).  I must admit, though, Mars is a very disappointing planet.  You expect it to be big, showing red and brown sands and clouds, but it won't look like that at all through an 8" reflector.  On the other hand, Jupiter and Saturn are MUCH bigger than you probably would expect.  Jupiter shows four of its moons, tan and red cloud bands, and even the Great Red Spot!  Saturn will show you three of its moons, tan and yellowish-beige cloud bands, its ring system, and the division between the two ring systems, the Cassini Division.  Many People think that Saturn is the most beautiful and breath-taking planet.  You can commonly pull star charts out of magazines such as Sky & Telescope, or download star charts off the internet to locate planets.

Deep Space Objects, or DSOs, are objects outside of the Solar System such as galaxies, nebulae (Nebulae are clouds of gas and dust), and star clusters.  Before you jump into the realm of Deep Space objects, make sure you have some practice finding simpler objects to avoid frustration. 

To find DSOs, you should buy a star chart .  If you live in a city, city lights wash out some of the darker objects, so you may want to head to a darker area for better observation.  A good summer/fall DSO you should look for is M31, which is also known as the Andromeda Galaxy.  Obviously, it is located in the constellation Andromeda.  M42, also known as the Orion Nebula, is a good starter DSO for winter/early spring.  It is located near Orion's Belt in the constellation Orion.

For more info on DSOs, go to Deep Space Astronomy.  This page is specifically about DSOs and which ones to observe.

The typical night is cooler than the temperature in your house, right?  That presents a problem to observing.  When a telescope is stored inside a warm house, the telescope becomes warm, too.  Therefore when you take it out on a cool night and immediately start looking at objects, you will see a blurry and wavy image.  So before you observe, be sure to let your telescope cool down for about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how cool it is outside, and the size of your telescope.  For binoculars, you don't really need to make them cool down for very long, unless of course it's colder than usual outside.

Condensation also presents a problem on cooler nights.  Frost is an even larger problem during the winter.  For larger refractors and catadioptric telescopes, you will need protection from it.  However, heated "dew caps" are available for all telescope sizes.  Dew also tends to condense on the eyepiece.  Every once in a while, take your eyepiece inside and let them dry, or use a hair dryer on low temperature.  If your optics get wet or even soaked, don't freak out.  It's just water, and it will dry off.  Don't rub it with a towel, instead,  try air-drying it.

If you want to get the best out of your observing session, go to the darkest skies nearest to you.  Light pollution (LP) is the reason why.  Here's what the Earth looks like from space because of LP: 

Now you get the point, right?  In skies lit up by artificial light, it's hard to almost impossible to see Deep Space Objects.