Newbie looking to start out

[Awsomo_4000]

Hey every1. I am just starting out in astronomy and as such need equipment. However, I don't know where to start. Could any1 give me some info on what equipment I need? I would be extremely grateful. Find my forum, or email me on awsomo_4000@teenspot.com
Chaotic Farewells
Daniel

[suntrack2]

buy one telescope, go to your terrace in night adjust your scope on the specific star, adjust the aperture of the lense, get the clear image of that star, look the colour,brightness of the star, also see the solar system, look saturn,mars,jupiter,venus, our moon, everything you can look through the telescope, sometime binaculars are not give contentment to our eyes of observation hence you better buy the telescope, i normally observed the stars through our college telescope that was a medium large and the observations gave us a real amusement and curiocity about the stars.

sunil

[dougreed]

hi, try a local high school science teacher to see if ther is a local astronomy club. Sometimes state or local parks even have an observatory or hold "star parties". Even here in the middle of bubba-hick redneck country, there is an astronomy club and a nice little observatory at a state park with super dark skies. What you "NEED" and what you "WANT", may be 2 seperate things!!! what you need for observing is eyes, what we want is MORE LIGHT GATHERING CAPABILITIES. Binoculars are a fine start as well as a good idea to keep at hand anytime! 7 - 10x can be hand held, more and you may need some kind of solid support. Read product reviews in SKY & TELESCOPE or ASTRONOMY magazine, or online, even some retailers like ORION have really good info on scopes and binoculars in general as well as questions to consider as to what you plan to use the optics for. As with anything, effort will have a direct influence on how well satisfied you are with anything you acquire...see-ya, doug

[Dave Mitsky]

I suggest that you obtain a copy of Terence Dickinson's _Nightwatch_. You may also want to check the local libraries for a copy of Phil Harrington's _Star Ware_, the best book available on astronomical gear.

Here are some web sites to consult:

http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/howto...article_263.asp (http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/howto/basics/article_263.asp)

http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/howto...article_244.asp (http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/howto/scopes/article_244.asp)

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=9

http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html

http://www.r-clarke.org.uk/starting_astro.htm

http://www.floridastars.org/telescop.html

http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers.../telescope.html (http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/telescope.html)

http://www.celestron.com/education/tel4ast.htm

http://www.astronomics.com/main/category.a...elescope/Page/1 (http://www.astronomics.com/main/category.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/How%20to%20pick%20a%20telescope/Page/1)

http://www.telescope.com/content/learningc...NavIDs=19,22,29 (http://www.telescope.com/content/learningcenter/contentmain.jsp?iCategoryID=29&CCNavIDs=19,22,29)

Dave Mitsky

[drjgokhale]

I had a lovely book called Atlas of the skies, which I looked at during some time in the day and then set out to discover the objects at night. It helped greatly to have a good pair of binoculors to actually locate and a handy little telescope as well to then look at the object, though if you can afford a big telescope with tripod all the better for steady holding. About the book of course you might not find that particular one but any reasonably good one giving extensive maps will do, or of course go to internet sites. About a month of this at any given time will have you familiar with basics and then continue through the year roughly once a week at least, so you keep in touch with new things visible. When you are finished iwth what you can see from your own backyard the next step would be to go to another latitude. Good luck.

[ChromeStar]

hi, try a local high school science teacher to see if ther is a local astronomy club. Sometimes state or local parks even have an observatory or hold "star parties". Even here in the middle of bubba-hick redneck country, there is an astronomy club and a nice little observatory at a state park with super dark skies. What you "NEED" and what you "WANT", may be 2 seperate things!!! what you need for observing is eyes, what we want is MORE LIGHT GATHERING CAPABILITIES. Binoculars are a fine start as well as a good idea to keep at hand anytime! 7 - 10x can be hand held, more and you may need some kind of solid support. Read product reviews in SKY & TELESCOPE or ASTRONOMY magazine, or online, even some retailers like ORION have really good info on scopes and binoculars in general as well as questions to consider as to what you plan to use the optics for. As with anything, effort will have a direct influence on how well satisfied you are with anything you acquire...see-ya, doug

Hey doug

Unfortunately for myself and daniel, our school does'nt have anything of the sort!!! <_<

[Awsomo_4000]

Doug
ChromeStar is right. Our school would never fream of ever pursuing something as intellectual as astronomy :blink:

[damienpaul]

As a teacher (science and computing) I have very little time to start any club at all. Mind you, after getting told to get **** too often, I have lost much of the motivation.

[Awsomo_4000]

The science teachers do not teach stronomy. They teach physics and chemistry. They think that astronomy is the same thing as astrology *lol*.

[damienpaul]

not really.... i am well aware of teh difference, as a re many of my colleagues

[Awsomo_4000]

No, what I mean is that I asked my science teacher what astronomy is and he said *fortune-telling*

[ChromeStar]

Unfortunatly, Most of the teachers in our school don't have much of an intrest in space like we do.

For the ones that do have a slight understanding/intrest, they tend not to want to get involved due to time constaints or a lack of intrest from the majority of the pupils etc...

Can't blame it all on the teachers though, Space does'nt seem to to be very big in south africa (as far as i'm aware) <_< . Most people in SA are oblivious to anything other than Mark Shuttleworth's - the first African in space guy - flight into space, with the Russian space angency.