E N S S F Stargazing! Let’s Go › static › resources › s_t_letsgo.pdf · 1 h 9 h 4 h 6 h 3 h 7 h 10h 22 h +60 ° +80 ° +80 ° +60 ° +20° 0° –20° –40° h E Q U A T

1h19

h

4h16 h

13h 7h

10h

22h

+60°

+80°

+80°

+60°

+20°

0°

–20°

–40°

Zenith

E Q U A T O R

C R A T E R

C OR V U S

VI R

GO

H Y D R A

A N T L I A

SEX TANS

P Y X I S

V E L A

P U P P I S

L E O

LEO

MIN

OR

CO

MA

BE

RE

NIC

ES

BO

ÖT

ES

UR

SA

MA

JO

R

CA

NE

SV

EN

AT

ICI

URSA

MINOR

DR

AC

O

LE

PU

S

CA

NI S

MA

J OR

MO

NO

CE

RO

S

C A N C E R OR

IO

N

ER

ID

AN

US

AU

RIG

AG

EM

IN

I

C ANIS

MINOR

LY

NX

TA

UR

US

CAMELOPARDALIS

PE

RS

EU

S

CASSIOPEIA

AN

DRO

MED

ACEPHEUS

CORO

NA

BO

REALIS

HE

RC

UL

ES

SE

RP

EN

S

S i c k l e

M3

Arctu

rus

Mizar

& Alcor

Big

Dip

pe

rM51

Polaris

Thuban

M81

M82

Sirius

M41M46 M47

M93

M50

M48

Proc

yon

Vega

M44

M67

Rige

l

Bella

trix

Bete

lgeu

se

M42

M35

M37

M38

M36

Cas

tor

Pollu

x

Ald

ebar

an

Plei

ades

Hya

de

s

Capella

Algol

M34

DoubleCluster

M52

Alphard

Little

Dipper

M92

M13

M5

Spica

Facing SE

Facing

East

Facing NE

Facing North

Facin

g NW

Faci

ng

Wes

t

Facin

g SW

Facing South

Venus

Saturn

MoonApr 21

MoonApr 27

MoonMay 1

How often have you gazed

skyward and wished you knew

which constellation was which,

or how to spot a planet, or

even how to find the North

Star? You don’t have to be a

whiz at science to be a suc-

cessful stargazer. You do

need three things: curiosity,

a clear view of the night sky,

and a simple guide to lead you

across the heavens. If you’ve

got the first two, there are

plenty of ways to get the third.

To learn how to start right,

turn the page.

From the Editors of

Your Guide to GettingStarted in Astronomy andExploring the Universe

Let’s GoStargazing!

© 2009 Sky Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

It takes practice . . . but pretty quickly you can trace out star patterns overhead with a good constellation chart in hand.akira Fujii

A sailor of the seas needs top-notch charts, and so does a sailor of the skies. Fine maps bring the fascination of hunt-ing out faint secrets in hidden sky realms. Many guidebooks describe what’s to be hunted and the nature of the objects that you find. Moreover, the skills you’ll develop using binoculars to locate these things are exactly the skills you’ll need to put a telescope to good use.

Plan indoors. Spread out your charts and guides on a table, find things that ought to be in range of your equipment, and figure out how you’ll get there. Plan your expeditions before heading out into the nightly wilderness.

Seek out other amateurs.There’s nothing like sharing an interest. Hundreds of astronomy clubs exist worldwide; see the directory at SkyandTelescope .com/clubs. Call or e-mail a club near you and see what it has to offer. Astronomy clubs range from tiny to huge, from moribund to vitally energetic; you have to check them out for yourself. You may get opportunities to go to star parties, try different people’s telescopes, learn what these will and will not do, pick up advice and skills, and make new friends.

When it’s time for a telescope, plunge in deep.Know what matters when you choose. Eventually you’ll know you’re ready. You’ll have spent hours poring over the ads and reviews. You’ll know the different kinds of telescopes, what you can expect of them, and what you’ll do with the one you pick.

This is no time to skimp on quality; shun the flimsy, semi-toy “shopping mall scopes” that may have caught your eye. The telescope you want has two essentials. The first is a very solid, steady, smoothly working mount. The second is high-quality, “diffraction-limited” optics.

Naturally you’ll also want large aperture (size), but don’t lose sight of portability and convenience. Remember, the best-choice telescope for you is the one you will use the most.

Some telescopes have computers and motors that can, in theory, point the scope to any celestial object at the push of a few buttons (after you do setup and alignment). But don’t expect to depend on this. You still need to know the sky and how to point a telescope yourself.

Lose your ego.Astronomy teaches patience and humility — and you had better be prepared to learn them.

You’ll hunt for some wonder in the depths and miss it, and hunt again, and miss it again. This is normal. There’s noth-ing you can do about the extreme distance and faintness of the objects of your desire, or the clouds that move in, or the special event that you missed because you got all set up one minute late. The universe will not bend to your wishes; you must take it on its own terms.

Most objects within reach of any telescope, no matter what its size, are barely within its reach. Accept this. If flashy visuals are what you’re after, go watch TV.

Relax and have fun.Part of losing your ego is not getting upset if things aren’t perfect. If you find yourself getting wound up over Pluto’s invisibility or the aberrations of your eyepiece, take a deep breath and remember why you’re doing this. Amateur astronomy should be calming and fun. Enjoy! It’s a big universe out there.

Ga

ry

Ser

on

ik

© 2009 Sky Publishing Media, LLC. All rights reserved. © 2009 Sky Publishing Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Even in a city, the planets and Moon shine bright. A

lA

n

Dy

er

ak

ira

Fu

jii

Antares

S C O r P I U S

M6

M7 Shaula

The constellations are rich in mythological lore — and are also your framework for finding faint, far, hidden sights.

Mizar & Alcor

α

βγ

δε

ζη

URSA MAjoR

The public library is the beginner’s most important astro-nomical tool. Comb the astronomy shelf for books about the basic knowledge you need to know, and for guidebooks to what you can see out there in the wide universe. And check the magazine racks for Sky & Telescope.

Of course the Web is a tremendous resource. But the Web is a hodgepodge. There’s lots of excellent stuff, but what you need right now is a coherent, well-organized framework into which to put the knowledge that you will pick up as you go along. In other words, you need books. Go to the library.

Thinking telescope? Start with binoculars.Binoculars make a fine “first telescope” — for several rea-sons. They show you a wide field of view, making it easy to find your way around — whereas a higher-power telescope magnifies only a tiny, hard-to-locate bit of sky. Binoculars show a view that’s right-side up and in front of you, making it easy to see where you’re pointing. Binoculars are also rela-tively cheap, widely available, and easy to carry and store.

And their performance is surprisingly respectable. Or-dinary 7- to 10-power binoculars improve on the naked-eye view about as much as a good amateur telescope improves on the binoculars — for much less than half the price.

For astronomy, the larger the binoculars’ front lenses are the better. High optical quality is also important, more so than for daytime use. Modern image-stabilized binoculars are a tremendous boon for astronomy. But any binoculars that are already knocking around the back of your closet are enough to launch an amateur-astronomy career.

Dive into maps and guidebooks.Invest in paper. Because once you have the binoculars, what will you do with them? You can have fun examining the Moon and sweeping the Milky Way, but that will wear thin pretty fast. If, however, you’ve obtained detailed maps and guidebooks, binoculars can keep you happily busy for years.

Granted, they’ll only show planets as dots. But they’ll reveal dozens of star clusters, galaxies, and dim, ghostly nebulae. They’ll show the cratered landscapes of the Moon, the ever-changing positions of Jupiter’s four big moons, and the cres-cent phases of Venus. You can split scores of double stars and follow the fadings and brightenings of many types of variable stars. If you know what to look for!

Did you know you can see a galaxy 21⁄2 million light-years away with just your eyes? The moons of Jupiter with binocu-lars? Countless wonders await you overhead any clear night.

But how, exactly, do you start? Too many newcomers to astronomy get stuck in dead ends and quit in frustration.

A while ago, the Sky & Telescope editors got together to brainstorm what advice would help beginners most. Pooling more than 100 years of collective experience answering the phones and mail, we came up with the following pointers to help newcomers past the pitfalls and toward success.

Learn the sky with the naked eye.Astronomy is an outdoor nature hobby. Go out into the night and learn the starry names and patterns overhead. Use the big, monthly evening-sky charts in Sky & Telescope, the hobby’s essential magazine. Or download our free Getting Started in Astronomy flyer (which only has bimonthly maps), from SkyandTelescope.com/gettingstarted. If you live in a densely populated, light-polluted area, there’s still more to see up there than you might imagine.

Even if you go no further, being able to look up and say, “There’s Polaris” or “That’s Saturn” will provide pleasure, and perhaps a sense of place in the cosmos, for life.

Ransack your public library.Astronomy is a learning hobby. Its joys come from intellectual discovery and knowledge of the cryptic night sky. But you have to make these discoveries, and gain this knowledge, yourself.

AstronomyStart Right inHow to

W

W

E

E

N S

Toward Polaris Star rises

North Celestial

Pole

Star sets

© 2009 Sky Publishing Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

GET ORIENTEDCelestial north is markedby Polaris, the North Star.

The whole sky seemsto rotate around

it once a day.

S&T: Bruce SanderS

Some folks do it alone, others like their astronomy in groups. Here, amateurs prepare for dark at the annual Stellafane convention.

S&T: denniS dicicco

■ Let’s Go Stargazing!

The most rewarding celestial object for a small telescope, by far, is the Moon. Even a very small scope will reveal its bleak, blasted landscape of mountain ranges, plains, hills, valleys, and craters. Even binoculars can show many features, and there are enough in-teresting sites on the Moon to keep a telescopic explorer busy forever.

Whenever the Moon isn’t full, it’s divided by the terminator, the line separating lunar day and night. That’s where detail shows best. When the Moon is a crescent in the evening, you’ll see the parts near the right edge of this map. At first-quarter phase you’ll see the entire right half, and so on as the terminator moves day by day.

Explore the

Moon■ Let’s Go online!Has this orientation whetted your appetite to get going? Visit SkyandTelescope.com/LetsGo to begin your astronomy journey with projects for the whole family.

Find the constellations. See why the Moon has phases. Follow our calendar of daily sky events. Learn about binoculars. Get tips on choosing a telescope. Read a hand-holding guide to using a map at your telescope, and what maps to get. Shoot constellations with your little point-and-shoot. Learn about real deep-sky photography. Welcome in, and click away.

Keep up with astro research news at SkyandTelescope.com/news.

Cyrillus

Catharina

Ptolemaeus

Alphonsus

Purbach

Arzachel Straight Wall

Maginus

Tycho Maurolycus

Gassendi

M A R EN U b I U MM A R E

H U M o R U M

Aristarchus

CopernicusKepler

Archimedes

M A R ES E R E N I T A T I S

M A R Ev A P o R U M M A R E

T R A N q U I L L I T A T I S

P R o C E L L A R U M

o C E A N U S

M A R EC R I S I U M

Plato

S I N U SI R I D U M

Langrenus

M A R E

M A R E I M b R I U M

AristotelesAtlas

Hercules

Clavius

Schröter’s valley

Schickard

Petavius

Proclus

Posidonius

Longomontanus

Walter

f R I G o R I Sf R I G o R I S

Theophilus

Albategnius

M A R Ef E C U N D I T A T I S

M A R EN E C T A R I S

Eratosthenes

MooN © 2004 PAbLo LoNNIE

PACHECo RAILEY (SoURCE:

CoNSoLIDATED LUNAR ATLAS,

DIGITIzED bY E. DoUGLASS

AND M. S. o’DELL, LUNAR &

PLANETARY INSTITUTE)

C A R P A T H I A N M T S

A P E NN

I NE M

T S

CA

UC

AS

US

MT

S

AL TA

I SC

AR

P

ALTA

I SC

AR

P

CA

UC

AS

US

MT

S

A P E NN

I NE M

T S

C A R P A T H I A N M T S

SkyandTelescope.com

The essenTial Magazine of asTronoMy!

The Great Planet Debate Heats Up p. 34

SPECIAL

REPORT

TitanEarth’s Frozen Sibling p.26

2009’s Eclipse of the Century p. 74

The World’s First Super-Scope p. 36

New Celestron Telescope: The Best 5-inch Yet? p. 43

Make Discoveries in Your Astrophotos p. 96

SkyandTelescope.com

The essenTial Magazine of asTronoMy

how Galileo revolutionized astronomy

Einstein’s “biggest blunder” makes a comeback. p. 22

if galileo had Digital eyes p. 30

PLUS

find Jewels in orion’s Belt

Ways you Can outwit light Pollution p. 6212

Testing orion’s new astrocam: Biggest Bang for your Buck? p. 34

What’sInflatingourUniverse?

p. 51

© 2009 Sky Publishing Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

j U

R A M T S .

jU

R A M T S .