whats next for a newbie!!!need some help

hey all!!!ive had a telesocpe for a while now but all i seem to be looking at is saturn!!!not that its no good,it was my first WOW in astronomy!!!!i used to view mars but its pretty imposible now!!! i hav a 20mm and a 12 mm lense,although i dont now what that means!!!!i am a newbie to astronomy,so dont get too complicated on me!!

is there anywhere i should be looking to see more amazing sights of our universe??????

Hi Joe,

Welcome aboard!

Firstly, to your question about eyepieces, I did a short and I think simple writeup on that in my blog a while ago, you can find it here: www.bartbusschots.ie/blog/?p=158

As for more objects, I'm a firm believer that good starting objects for any telescope are the ones that are generally considered 'binocular targets'. They are bright and will generally show up in the finderscope on the telescope.

Each month on the IFAS podcast there is a binocular target of the month chosen, a lot of those are perfect for beginners with a telescope. Some aren't because they are too big and I'll always say that in the article.

Then, in the monthly sky guide I also concentrate on some of the better binocular and telescope objects that are around.

You can listen to the latest podcast here: blogs.irishastronomy.org/?p=70 and the February edition will be out soon.

You can get all episodes here: blogs.irishastronomy.org/?cat=3 and subscribe via iTunes.

Hope that's of some help,

Bart.

Excellent advice there from Bart.

As for more objects, I'm a firm believer that good starting objects for any telescope are the ones that are generally considered 'binocular targets'. They are bright and will generally show up in the finderscope on the telescope.

For immediate results, Orion (the big man) is now high in the Southern sky. Have a look just below the three stars in his belt, you'll see his sword and the fabulous M42 Orion nebula (use your 20mm for best results).

Get a copy of any astronomy magazine (Sky & Telescope et al.) for details on whats currently in the sky. More details on what type of scope you have would be helpful on recommendinng how or where you should look.

Hey Joe

Welcome to the site.

As a confirmed lover of the moon I like to promote it as much as possible to newcomers. No matter what telescope you are using the moon is stunning, and it's not too difficult to find

As for the lenses, you divide the focal length of the telescope, it's usually printed on the side of the scope, or in the manual, it could be 1200mm or 1000mm or some other figure expressed in millimetres, by the figure on the eyepiece, in your case 20 and 12. For example, if your scope has a focal length of 1000mm, then your 20mm eyepiece will give a magnification of 50, 1000/20=50. The 12mm will give a magnification of 83.33, say 83 for short, 1000/12=83.33.

It's always a little confusing at first, but you'll soon pick it up.

Don't forget the moon.

Paul

Hi Joe,
Welcome to the boards.
I see you are in Tipperary,
You're most welcome to come along to the next
Shannonside Astronomy Club meeting.
(Feb 7th at 8 PM in Room 206 at Mary Immaculate College)

Dave Lillis will be giving a talk on observing the moon &
Tony O Hannlon also gives a monthly 'what to see' presentation...
very informal and best of all Free!

HI Joe and welcome!
As for the 20mm and 12mm, these numbers are the focal length of the eyepiece.
If you divide the focal length of the scope by these numbers you get the magnification the eyepiece gives you.
For example,
A 900mm focal length scope with a 20mm eyepiece gives you a magnification of 45x (900/20). The focal length of the scope is probably written on a badge/stricker somewhere on the tube.

There is no harm and absolutely no pressure to look at as many objects that you can think of, you are doing a good thing by looking alot at saturn, learning its rings/belts and moons. Move on when you feel like it!

The moon is coming around at the moment, and is a great target.

Have a look at the brightest stars, note their colour and tey to pick out binary stars, alcor/mizar in the plough is a perfect star for these, the very act of doing this makes you used to pointing the scopes at fainter objects and gives you good practice at focusing, which is not as simple as you might first think.
When you've done this move on to the orion nebula.

I must get the meeting talk prepared, I'll be using starry night pro and lunar map pro for this, and like Frank said above, all are welcome.