What is the best way to search for stars and planets at night?

Question

I love looking at the stars at night it is so beatuiful. I have seen jupiter and its 4 moons through my brothers telescope over 20 years ago and I know how to find the big dipper what are good ways for a beginner in astronomy to develop a passion for looking and discovering the stars? Is there any special film to take pictures of the moon and the stars?

Answer 1

I completely agree with you--I developed a passion for stargazing when I was about 10. The first thing I learned was that the main thing one will need to develope a passion for stargazing is patience. The next step is to develope the art of star hopping while utilizing a good star chart (there are many out there in bookstores and online--a good book is helpful too such as the National Audubon Society Guide to the Stars). When star hopping, choose a point in the sky that you recognize. Then, using the the star chart, "hop" to various other recognizable points in the sky until you find the object you are looking for (or at least the vicinity of the object). This may sound simple and logical, but is is some of the best advice I received when I was younger and used a point-and-shoot telescope. Be prepared to take time searching for objects with your telescope that are not visible to the naked eye (by the way, if you're looking for a telescope, one with about an 8 in. mirror is a great place to start for many people). Other than that, just spend a lot of time outside, familiarizing yourself with the sky and constellations. As for the photography aspect, I will not be very helpful. However, I have heard that when taking pictures of the moon, it is helpful to leave the flash of your camera on because it tricks your camera into taking a short exposure. To take good pictures of things through your telescope, you will need a tracking device on your telescope and a very long exposure times for your camera. I am not yet very experienced in this however. Some other helpful notes: when discussing the magnitude of objects, the lower the magnitude the more visible. i.e. an object with a magnitude of -4 will be visible to the naked eye while a magnitude of 15 is dim in many telescopes. Also, the orion nebula, also known as M42, (located in Orion's belt) is beautiful on clear nights, as is the globular cluster M13 in Hercules. Have fun, and I hope this will be some help to you!

Answer 2

There is no one "best" way as different people learn in different ways. If you learn well from books, I, too, would recommend Terence Dickinson's NightWatch (Firefly); the best book out there for beginners in astronomy. If you learn better by someone showing things to you, then a local astronomy club would be an excellent idea:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations

The best way to learn the constellations is to begin with what you know, and then use a star chart to relate other stars and constellations to that. There are inexpensive devices called planispheres which you can find in most good bookstores which let you set the current time and date, and then show you what stars are currently in the sky.

You can take pictures of the Moon and stars with just about any camera which allows time exposures: 15 seconds exposure will show all the stars you can see with your naked eye.

Answer 3

Find your cities local observatory if it has one, and visit sometime during one of their functions. Most of the time, there will be members there willing to showoff their telescopes, and I'm sure they'll let you see whatever you'd like. Another suggestion is to subscribe to a related magazine, like Astronomy, or Sky & Telescope. They both have sky maps in them each month showing the current constellations, moon phases, and planet locations for that time of year. You can also find them at the supermarket too, and they've got websites as well with beginners tips. A good pair of binoculars, dark sky, and a map is all that's required for a night full of wonder under the stars.

Answer 4

Go out and look at the moon. Watch it over a few hours and take note of where it is and the path it moves along across the sky. The rest of the planets will travel through nearly the same plane, within a few degrees of that path. Just target the brighter points of light along that imaginary line and you will begin to see the brighter planets. Venus will be the brightest, followed by Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn; Uranus and Neptune will be a bit dimmer, but resolve into wonderful blue orbs. Mercury will be hard to glimps since it is always so close to the sun; you would probably want a safe full apeture solar filter to view both at the same time. As for Pluto, it is nearly invisible to Earthbound astronomy, so you can skip that one for now.

Answer 5

Have some fun with a program called "Stellarium". Its freeware and is a fantastic guide to the heavens. Tell it where you live and it will show you the night sky. Everything in it. It would be fun to get it on a laptop and go out in the dark and use it to identify stuff. To get good photos, you usually need a camera mount that is motor driven and tracks the stars so you can use long time exposures. Get Stellarium and use it to find your way around. Planets are the best, after the moon. With good binoculars, you should be able to see some planet's moons and Saturn's rings. Go on the web and look at some of the stuff NASA has to see.

Answer 6

Check out this website for scanning the stars and moon and planets. As for using special film, there is none that I know of. There are special adaptors that you can hook up to the telescope that are used in astrophotography. Some telescopes can be plugged in so they can follow the path of the stars as they move to make it easier to photograph the stars. Some cameras come with a shutter release mechanism so that it will release once the light reaches the object. It's not uncommon for some of these to take over an hour to release.

Answer 7

Just about every town this side of Hoboken has an astronomy club. They got tons of info, tips and sources of resources. There just may be one in your local elementary or high school.

Years ago, I found a book entitled "The Larousse Guide to Astronomy" that really helped me.

You might Google Astronomy Clubs and see what's out there.

Answer 8

A book called "Nightwatch" by Terence Dickinson.

A GOOD quality pair of 50mm binoculars.

Attend a star party or other functions with a local amateur astronomy club.

Don't rush in. Let it develop, as you say.