An Introduction to Star Gazing
As a child, I dreamed of traveling to planets in distant galaxies, as I pretended to be Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin. I would lay on my back on the roof of my village house and gaze up at galaxies 2.5 million light years away. Well, what I was really looking up at was the light that had left those galaxies 2.5 million years ago. I’m willing to bet that many of you reading this didn’t know that you could see stars 1.46 X 1019 or 14,600,000,000,000,000,000 miles from earth with just the naked eye. Believe it or not, you are looking at light emitted by stars 1.58 X 1024 or 1,240,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times further from us than our start, the sun. My whole point in pointing out that awe inspiring fact is the fact that you need no special equipment to start out in the hobby of star gazing. When it comes to looking at the stars the knowledge you have about them is far more important than the equipment you possess.
The best way to begin is by learning the skies with the naked eye.
Learn to recognize the stars and star constellations with the naked eye first. A constellation is simply a group of stars forming distinctive pattern and have been given a name i.e. “The Big Dipper”. There are 88 constellations and their groupings are more historical than they are scientific. There actual position in the starry night sky depends on whether you live in the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere. To help you locate them Sky & Telescope, the amateur astronomer’s quintessential monthly magazine, prepared two getting started guides, one for the northern hemisphere sky and one for the southern hemisphere skies. They are both free to download as pdf files and I have included the links here. If you live in the northern hemisphere, download this guide. If you live in the southern hemisphere, download this guide. Both of these guides provide excellent guidance for the new star gazer.
Spend time, as much as you can, at your local branch of the public library.
The internet is a great place to do research once you have a solid knowledge base on which to base your online research. For the beginner, books are the best way to start out because they offer you a well organized, sequential approach to gaining the basic knowledge that you will need. There are many good introductory books on astronomy. Astronomy is a hobby based on knowledge as well as on observations. It’s the knowledge you have about the heavenly bodies you observe that makes what you see meaningful to you. Besides spending time at the library, now is a good time to start building up your own library and a good place to start is with a subscription to Sky & Telescope magazine.
Binoculars or telescope as first optics
Alright, you’re hooked. You’re certain that you have found the right hobby for you and you’re starting to wonder about getting a telescope. For the time being forget about buying a telescope and invest in a really pair of binoculars as a stepping stone to the telescope. Here are a few reasons why binoculars are you best bet at this point.
· Binoculars, unlike telescopes, have a much wider field of view and because of this you will be able to focus on great expanses of the night sky easily. The wide field of view makes it easier to find the particular constellation that you want to observe i.e. the Orion constellation. Another reason for starting with binoculars is that they don’t invert the image whereas must telescopes do turn the image upside down.
· Good astronomy binoculars cost less than a telescope of equal quality. Astronomy binoculars run the gamut when it comes to cost, from well under $100 to $500 or more. The trick is to buy the highest quality astronomy binoculars that your budget will allow. Celestron 20 X 80 Sky Master binoculars are really good ones to start off with. These binoculars sell for around $350 but with a little shopping around online you can find them for around $180 to $190. Check out OpticPlanet.Com as a starting place. Good astronomy binoculars will all you’ll ever need if you limit you hobby to star gazing and don’t get into studying the planets and other astro bodies.
· Along with your binoculars you will want to invest in a good star atlas. The Cambridge Star Atlas by Will Tirion is a good one to start your library with and it’s reasonably priced at under $40. Barnes & Noble’s carries the Cambridge Star Atlas in stock.
Do your observing in the country or out in a place where the sky is CLEAR..
If at all possible, get away from the city lights and smog. Ok, that all your need to get started so lose yourself in the night skies. Enjoy.