Atheist Ireland Forum

Thought I start a resource trend just about Astronomy and astrophysics.
Where to start, recommended books, links to Irish sites... etc
Telescope recommendation

Planets
Basically if is bright and does not flicker/twinkle more than likely it's a planet, also when viewed through a telescope will appear bigger and consistent colour where as stars will be more pin-points of light. You will only see planets on the same path that the sun travels during the day.
Other things to see
Pleiades: (seven sisters) is an absolute delight, with the eyes looks like a fizzy patch in the sky, but through binoculars or scope is a must see.
Orion's belt: viewed towards the south mid-low in the sky, in the winter Sirius is visible very bright below Orion's belt, with a telescope should see M42
Equipment
A "Planisphere" is a must to have, and a red light to view it. It takes about half an hour for the eyes to fully adjust to the dark, so a bright light is counter productive, red is lower spectrum. The best equipment is your eyes, called naked-eye observation.
Telescope:
Let it cool down outside for a while, on big scopes temperature difference will effect the image.
Try not to breath on the lens as it will fog up.
On the telescope use the low power lenses first, on some scopes the high power with barlow-lens will just give a blurly image.
Shelter
Nothing worse than a cold breeze but also if the tripod is not heavy the scope can wobble so somewhere that breaks the wind but doesn't obstruct viewing.

Books
"Stars at a Glance" (a simple guide to the heavens)-George Philip ISBN 0-540-01109-6 A really good starter book to the night sky.
???? I have a book somewhere that gives a simple step to step guide of picking out constellations from the plough, might be a collins pocket-book.
"Astronomy" (A self teaching guide) -Dinah L. Moche from 'the Astronomy Ireland shop' (aka astronomy.ie) is excellent, I think the introduction course run is based on this book.
”Astronomy” (Step to step guide to the night sky) –Storm Dunlop ISBN 0-600-30557-0 I use it all the time, but can be a lot of reading.

Good Idea.

Never Never Ever look at the sun with your scope. You will be less one eye if you do!

Get used to the sky; it can be quite difficult to gauge size and distance on a flat map of the domed sky. Practise finding various constellations and note their relation to one another. I would recommend learning easily identifiable constellations like Cassiopeia, The Plough (technically not a constellation) and Orion, and then use these to build off and learn others.

Have a look at the Moon, easy to find and very interesting especially if you have a map and you can play “hunt the crater”. Worst time to view the Moon is a Full Moon as the brightness can hurt your eyes and it appears flat, if you look at a crescent Moon all the shadows pick out the detail on the surface.

Jupiter and the Galilean moons are another good target even with a pair of binoculars.

On sky maps it gives you the apparent magnitude of an object; objects that are just on the edge of naked-eye visibility are about a +6.00, the lower the number the brighter the object appears (full moon is about: -13.00). Use the apparent magnitude to prepare yourself for what to look out for – sometimes dim stars represented on a planisphere or the equivalent software may not be visible due to light pollution/atmospheric conditions etc.

Also watch this on 3-5 Jan :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/edinburghan ... 318193.stm

great idea this thread!!

Guys, thanks so much for this. I'll be back with many many stupid questions!

A nice little aid to Moon observing is this software.

NightCal

Tulip, it's an Atlas Explorer. It comes with a tripod and it looks a bit like the one in the photo. I got it for €85 but the chap knocked off €15 because the assistant mistakenly told me that it came with software.

Haven't used it yet because it has been cloudy thus far.

If it came with an eyepiece sun filter...throw it in the bin!

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... page=3&c=y

Could you let me know how it is and if you manage to find all the planets? I am a novice just like you but really want to do it with my boy (and daughter when she is a little bit older.) Really like to know how you get on and what your son thinks of it.

Will check that telescope on ebay straight away!

http://www.deiseastronomy.com/

Goto to the Read This - Beginning Astronomy

For great info on starting out inc. buying a scope

thanks for that ctr. will start reading straight away.

Ok. I tried it last night for the first time, just to see if I could find something and if I could get it to work. It was bedtime so we were only out for a few minutes. I found a collection of stars which are not visible to the naked eye which was great. I made sure that the little fella was seeing the same thing I was, which he was because he came inside and drew what he saw. It looks exactly like Cepheus in the sky chart:

http://www.heavens-above.com/skychart.aspx?SL=1&SN=1&Session=kebgfefipebhajkjmciffojc

It had five stars in the shape of a pentagon with the one on top being less bright than the other four.

Just so I have an idea of what I'm looking for next time, do I have that right? Could it have been Cepheus that we saw?

Also, my plan may have backfired a little. As he was looking in the scope, the little fella said that he could see the star which shined down on Jesus! It's the 1st time he's made any real reference to him so I asked him where he heard it and he rattled off his bloody Chrsitmas concert song in Irish which he clearly understands! Bugger! Still, no mention or question of God or Dia yet so at least that's something given that he's 6.

He was very excited about seeing the constellation and I told him I'd look up what it was when he was in bed. The 1st thing he asked this morning was if I found out the name. So that's great, I hope his enthusiasm lasts.

If you have an Android phone, get Google Sky Maps. Point it in the direction you're interested in and it will tell you what you should be seeing.

Stargazing Live will be on BBC 2 from 3-5 January at 8pm with Professor Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wnvpf

Jupiter and Uranus have been dancing around each other for months and will be in conjunction for the third and final time on the 2nd of January. Jupiter is quite easy to find. It's one of the brightest objects in the sky. If you live in Dublin, it may be the only "star" you can see. You're unlikely to be able to see Uranus with the naked eye but it should be easily visible with a small telescope or pair of binoculars.