Beginner Help? Anyone?

I'm a beginner,my name is Ciaran,I'm from County Leitrim.I got a telescope and last night I got a pretty good view of the moon and I was impressed, where to from here ?

Hey Ciaran - welcome aboard!

Where to now - the answer to that question is "it depends"

How's about you start off with letting us know what telescope you have, what experiance you have of looking at the night sky (can you find your way around?) and what interests you - planets, the moon, galaxies etc.

Ask away - no such thing as a stupid question - only a stupid answer

All the best
Dave

Okay thanks.Here it goes it a Atlas Explorer D60mm/F700mm. I can see the moon,its breathtaking, surreal,I could see Craters and make out the various Seas, basically I want to get as much as I can out of it,I plan to invest some money in better equipment in the future. I want to get to know what time at night is best to look, et.c and gradually find my way are the night sky.

Ciaran, I guess the best thing you can do is have a look at the IFAS home page and figure out which club is nearest to you. You'll find contact details there too. Give your local club secretary a shout and try and get to their next observing session.

If there is no-one near enough to you then there may be others on these boards prepared to meet up with you and help you along. Its quite hard to give you advice over the internet - the personal touch works best

However, I would suggest you grab an astronomy mag from your local Eason's - try Sky and Telescope, Astronomy Now, Astronomy or Sky at Night. They all give you a good idea of what's up this month and they have great tips for beginners. I'm sure others here will jump in and give you further advice.

The moon will be getting bigger and higher up over the coming days so that's always a good target - and real easy to find And you'll see more craters and seas each night as it progresses toward full moon.

I hope that helps you a little more.

Also, have a trawl through the boards here for old messages on all sorts of things like how to keep warm, equipment, what to see this month etc. It really is a great resource - but you need to keep checking every few days for all the new stuff - it gets busy around here!

Good luck and keep the questions coming

Dave

Thank you...........over and out.........!

You're very welcome!