Re: Newbie looking at buying a scope....

From: Charlie Hubbard (chubbard_at_owt.com)
Date: 01/18/05 

Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 01:59:42 GMT

On 17 Jan 2005 14:48:46 -0800, thedeepabyss@whoever.com wrote:

>Well, I went with the 6" Orion SkyQuest XT6 Dobsonian. Thanks to all of
>you for your help; in the end, I think that showing her some really
>cool stuff, with enough brightness to actually SEE it, will be the best
>way to keep her interested.
 [snip]

Congratulations on the purchase! I personally think you made the
right choice but I'm hardly an expert on these things. I've always
used an SCT and only know about Dobs from the occasional star party.

>
>Of course, I'm going to have to take a quick-n-dirty astrology course
>to help her get started. So, my last question for all of you for now.
>What do you recommend as a beginner's book?

I'm sure you mean "astronomy". Be careful using the word "astrology"
(horiscopes and so on) around astronomers. You'll get dirty looks :-)

My personal feeling is that before you do anything else you should
just familiarize yourself with the night sky in general. Learn some
constellations. With a good guide they're not hard to pick out and,
once you've learned a few, they'll transform the way you look at the
night sky. Never again will you look up and simply see a random
scattering of stars. You'll see the constellation patterns instantly
and they'll become old friends. I'm serious about that. The effect
is kind of startling.

Now, in order to learn the constellations many people recommend an all
sky chart (like those published monthly in popular astronomy
magazines) or something like a planisphere. Those are certainly
workable but the best aid to finding and learning the constellations
(for me at least) that I've ever found is a thin, magazine-sized
paperback book called "Star Maps for Beginners" by I.M. Levitt and Roy
K. Marshall. The book was first published in 1942 but has been
updated and re-released numerous times since then. It is available
from amazon.com for just under 9 bucks new and under 4 bucks used.
See the following link.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/002-0724773-4255213

I first got a copy of this book when I was about 11 and found it very
easy to use. My original copy is long since gone but a few years ago
I bought another one for nostalgia value if nothing else.

The first and last parts of the book present general astronomy
information that will be of interest to anyone new to the hobby but
the focus of the book, the center portion, is its 12 all-sky star
maps. There is one map for each month of the year and they're
presented in a unique "Maltese-cross" configuration that minimizes the
shape distortion you often get with circular all-sky maps. They are
incredibly easy to use and the shapes of the constellations in the
book match exactly their shapes in the sky which, as a kid, I found
really, really helpful.

So, in my opinion, learn the constellations as a first step to visual
observing. That will help you enormously when trying to locate
objects in the sky or describing where things in the sky are located.
You'll know that the Orion Nebula surrounds the center "star" in the
three stars below Orion's belt (Orion's sword) and that the Ring
Nebula lies right between the bottom two stars in the "parallelogram"
portion of Lyra or that the bright globular cluster, M-13, in Hercules
is located on a line between the two stars that make up the right side
of the Hercules trapazoid, not far below the top star.

As for a beginners book targetted at kids, I'm afraid I don't have any
recommendations. I'm sure there must be good ones out there. I just
don't know what they are. I'm sure someone else in the group will
know though.

As for yourself, you might want to get an issue or two (or a
subscription!) to one of the popular astronomy magazines. "Astronomy"
and "Sky and Telescope" are the two I'm familiar with. In my opinion
"Sky and Telescope" is targetted slightly more toward the advanced
amateur and "Astronomy" slightly more toward the novice but the
difference is slight. They are both excellent magazines and I read
them both. I should also point out that I read through a lot of back
issues of Sky and Telescope at the local library when I was around age
12 and up and got an awful lot of good out of them. Sure, there was
stuff in there I didn't grasp but I guess that sort of just increased
the wonder for me.

Once you know quite a few of the constellations well, I don't think
you'd be amiss investing in a high quality star atlas like Sky Atlas
2000.0 (available from Sky Publishing at the following link).

http://skyandtelescope.com/shopatsky/detail.asp?catalog%5Fname=SkyPub&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=SAUNLAMPARENT

The maps in this atlas give a very detailed view of the sky including
constellation boundries, the locations of deep sky objects to point
that new Dob at (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters) and they show more
stars than are visible to the naked eye (but not *too much* more if
you know what I mean). That last can help when trying to match up
what you see in the finder scope with what you see on the atlas. I
like the deluxe, unlaminated version myself because of its large size,
the color printing and the ability to write on it in pencil. But
there are other, smaller (and less expensive) versions as well. The
deluxe, unlaminated version runs about $50 US. I used to keep a copy
with me at the telescope on a card table I'd set up next to it. I
lived in an area where dew was the norm and my atlases have seen their
share of soggy nights but I kept them closed when not in use and
sometimes threw a towel over them. They're still going strong!

By the way, I was initially under the impression that you were an
amateur astronomer who was interested in getting your daughter
interested. But it seems now it's actually the other way around. I
really respect you for taking an interest because your daughter is
interested. I think that's great and my hat's off to you.

Relevant Pages

  • How to Get Started In Amateur Astronomy
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  • Re: How to Get Started In Amateur Astronomy
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    (sci.astro.amateur)
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