Advice on starting basic astronomy?

[Robin T]

Any advice on what to buy (reasonable prices), how to go about exploring the night sky, easy finds etc. Any help would be fantastic!

[suitti]

First, you need a star chart. That's essentially free these days. The first link points you to star charts that you can download each month that show what's up in the evening. One page has a list of objects to look for, including those that are naked eye visible.

Binoculars can be had in the $50 to $100 range. Most people suggest 10x50 binoculars. Anything more than 10x (magnification) will be difficult or impossible to hold by hand, and you'll need a tripod. My tripod was $250. It's a good one, and worth every penny. But for that kind of money, you can start to think about getting a reasonably good telescope.

Much cheaper than that is visiting a local astronomy club. And you should do that before buying anything. In addition to giving you hands on experience with whatever it is you want, they can give you advice on how to proceed. Also, they'll have events where you can observe with others.

You might check your local library for astronomy books. My library also carries Sky & Telescope magazine. Yours might have Astronomy magazine.

My club's dues are $30 per year. But they have loaner telescopes. I borrowed various telescopes for five years before buying one of my own. I could have belonged to the club for 26 years before spending as much as my $800 telescope.

[powerwindows1985]

A planisphere is very helpfull.
As far as telescopes and binoculars are concerned I have had good luck with Orion. I have an XT6 Scope and a pair of 10x50 binoculars.
You may also want to check out a web site called Astro-Tom. It has a lot of usefull information.

[Michael Steen]

Great advice from both suitti and powerwindows. I'd suggest everything they said, plus add that a good star chart and your own two eyes are the best way to start out.
Go out under dark skies and start identifying the stars and constellations in the early autumn sky. Do you see Lyra and Cygnus passing the meridian now? Can you still make out the summer triangle? Look in the northeast and check out Cassiopeia, and note that the long point of its "W" points to Andromeda rising in the east. From the tip of Andromeda you should be able to see the Great Square of Pegasus in the east; it truly is enormous.
The moon is in 1st quarter now, and Jupiter is still a fine sight in the south.
The reason I mention all this is simply to point out that these are things I've learned in the past 2 months without any equipment at all.
Yes, it's great to have binoculars, and you'll want to get a pair very soon. And it's great to have a telescope, and you'll want to get one a little later (but not too much ).
But what you really need to do at first is start learning the night sky. Until you do, you'll just be pointing your equipment around pretty much aimlessly and hoping that you see something. Mostly, you won't see anything except more stars, and that gets old pretty fast UNLESS YOU HAVE TARGETS THAT YOU'RE SEARCHING FOR. Then it's fun and exciting, and you can be thrilled when you "bag" one you'd been searchig for.
Good luck, and clear skies!

[powerwindows1985]

Michael is right. I wish I would have learned the sky before I bought my scope. I was learning the scope and the sky at the same time. Binoculars are great, especially when there isn't enough time to set up the scope (i.e. before work).

[Vinnie]

Stellarium is a great free download that will really help with navigating the night sky

[Registered users can see links. ]

These days the Dob (Dobsonian mounted Newtonian reflector) has become a very popular first scope, as they offer excellent value for dollar. Do avoid department store, camera shop etc cheap scopes, they tend to be pretty much only toys, and poor toys at that.


Do try to get to a club, or any star parties that you can, and look through as many different scopes as possible.

Set yourself a budget, but don't spend the lot on your first scope package, as packages rarely ship with all the accessories that you will need

HTH

Vin