I bought a pair of 10x50mm binoculars for star gazing, what's easy to find in the

[C S]

sky for a beginner? Weather permitting, I'm going to take my new binoculars outside for a view of the sky. I'm just beginning star gazing with something other than the naked eye. I want to get used to the binoculars, looking thru them and focusing on objects. I went outside today in the day time to focus on a few things. So far so good!!! What are some easy things for me to find/look at tonight??

[lindajune]

Probably the easiest night-time target is the moon - its easy to find, bright, and you can get some good maps to compare to your observations.
Next would be Jupiter (the brightest planet at this time of the year) and also bright and easy to find (its in the south or southwest most of the night). If the night is very clear and dark, you should be able to see the 4 tiny moons of Jupiter around the brighter point of that planet.

Then try for the Andromeda Galaxy, in the Andromeda constellation - its in the northeastern sky around 10:00 pm right now.

[Prince]

binocluars is good for observating star clusters, before you go to look at the sky, you should learn some constellations from books so that you can find them first. if you don't know which star you are looking for, it is quite hard to find special objects.

[powerwindows1985]

Go for Jupiter and Andromeda first, they will be easier.

There are many star clusters to the right of the "Teapot" asterism in Sagitarius. The coathanger cluster (in Sagitta) is also nice. Cassiopea also has many star clusters, and the Double Cluster is close by. If you are up early in the morning the Orion Nebula is fantastic, and Pleides is also cool. And I almost forgot the Hercules Cluster.

[GrandPrixChris]

In addition to all these great suggestions don't forget to look at the moon around 8:30 PM and later getting ready to set in the West. It will have an orange-pink-red tint to it and to me looks like another world other than the moon. It will be a crescent. Very cool.