Reddit reviews The Night Sky 30°-40° (Large; North Latitude)
We found 6 Reddit comments about The Night Sky 30°-40° (Large; North Latitude). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
An 8" Dobsonian reflector telescope, such as the Orion XT8i with Intelliscope to help you find your way around the sky. $640.
The book NightWatch, $20.
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, $30.
A planisphere. Get one appropriate for your latitude. $10.
A comfortable camping stool for sitting at the eyepiece, or your back will quickly complain. ~$30.
SkySafari for your iPhone/iPad, $3.
A pair of good binoculars, 8x50 or 10x50, $120.
A nice wide-field (62-degree) eyepiece, like the Explore Scientific 24mm. $140.
That's about $1000.
One more thing to add: a dark sky. Priceless.
For cheap/free accessories, here are my recommendations:
Find a local astronomy club and go to a few meetings. Astronomy clubs love new members, and they'll answer every question you have. If they have an open observing event, bring your telescope and you might even get to try a few of the accessories others have mentioned. You may get to see what Saturn looks like in your telescope with a 10mm EP and barlow before you buy.
Also, there are club members with old EPs for sale. Somebody's always upgrading their collection and looking for a new home for their old Plossls.
If you have basic woodworking skills, you can make a Denver Observing Chair for <$30. I think I made mine from these plans, but there are plans and how-to's all over the web. It beats hunching over the eyepiece for hours. Your back will thank you.
An accessory case is nice to have. Keep all your stuff in one place, and you won't accidentally forget something when you go out to observe. I use this 4-pistol case for $20 from Amazon.
If you're learning the night sky, get a planisphere and go out with it for 10 minutes once a week for some naked eye observing. Learn a new constellation each time. I think WV is in the 30-40 degree north range? Or for free you can download and print the map each month from SkyMaps.com
For getting started finding interesting stuff in the telescope, a book like Turn Left at Orion was a great help for me. Step-by-step instructions for star-hopping to the best and brightest stuff in the sky.
You can get some good views of the gas giants. Assuming you are in the continental U.S., Saturn should be viewable shortly after sunset and Jupiter should be viewable shortly before sunrise. Saturn would probably look better than Jupiter with your binoculars.
You should also be able to see Andromeda's galaxy around this time of the year. I can't say for certain how much detail you can get out of it but with good light conditions, I'd be willing to bet you'd be able to see the disk.
Star clusters are where binoculars really shine (sometimes even providing better views than telescopes), you might want to take a look at the list of Messier objects to find some good star clusters to look at. Make sure that you take a look at the Seven Sisters this fall, it is definitely my favorite star cluster.
If you are new, you should really invest in a good planisphere such as this one. Just make sure to get one for your correct latitude. You should also get some sort of red light, whether a red LED flashlight, a regular light with a filter, or just a flash light you have lying around with some red cellophane or brake light repair tape on it. There are even books specifically for binocular astronomy that might be a good investment.
Most importantly, have fun and clear skies!
I have the same unit but w/o the motor drive.
William Herschel said that using a telescope is like a musical instrument - you have to PRACTICE.
I found the directions for setting up the equatorial mount tripod not very user friendly (makes sense if you already understand it, though!).
There are other videos, but I found this one hit all the bases:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plx6XXDgf2E
...and he's a regular Redditor.
I also found, with this same unit, that the finder was completely useless. Even adjusting the knobs, the finder didn't zero onto the subject! I ended up removing it. These Telrad finders are considered tops for a reason. You may luck out with the factory supplied one, however, your time will be a total waste of time if your finder doesn't work.
Turn Left at Orion. Yes, it's that good.
Get Stellarium and find out what's going on!
Get a planetsphere. You may get that Star Atlas with Pegasus on the cover, but I have yet to use it.
PLAN your sessions. Using Stellarium look at what the night's going to look like and pick some objects. Do some research on them. Honestly, you're not going to find the 6th moon of Pluto, but you can see the rings of Saturn and the blue hue in Alberio. Learn to find the constellations, certainly the big ones. Read up on their lore. It's fascinating.
ALL good science requires a LOG. Get a nice notebook and write down what you do.
Before I go out, I take the planetsphere and make a copy of the sky that night (I have a scanner/printer) and put circles where the planet(s) and other targets will be. Write a date on the printout, the location, and label the targets with numbers.
Nothing like going through everything and then packing up and driving home THINKING you forgot something. Make a checklist of the telescope parts!
Also, take a pair of binoculars with you.
I hope your first nights go more smoothly than mine!
There’s a lot to see out there. In the daytime its wildlife and scenery, but the night skies are clear and dark away from towns and you’ll see more stars and planets than you can at home... so bring along a good pair of binoculars.
These, from Celestron look promising, but you should probably do some research and shop around. A star finder is also a good idea.
Provided your dad didn't grow up in a big city he is old enough to have more or less taken for granted seeing the milky way on good nights when he was a kid. If you get far enough from city lights he's likely to see it again.