Finding your way around binocular basics

No 2. in a series created and compiled by Dave Armeson

The NEXT step – going further than naked eye observing…

If you’ve had a few nights out under the stars and learnt a few constellations, then you might wonder what is there to see just below naked-eye limit. Well, rather than plunging in the “deep end” and buying a telescope that might/might not be suitable for you, a prudent step is binoculars. Binoculars bring into view star clusters, glorious Milky Way star fields, Jupiter’s four largest, Galilean moons and of course some craters on the Moon and some of the brighter “Deep Sky” objects like the Andromeda Galaxy.

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Finding your way around the night sky

No 1. in a series created and compiled by Dave Armeson

First steps…

It’s not as difficult as you first think!

Starting out in astronomy at first seems a very daunting prospect. When I first got into stargazing nearly 40 years ago  I thought this is going to be difficult – but I was pleasantly surprised. When you learn just a few constellations it is surprising how everything else tends to start to fall into place – and a few months of perseverance you will start to gain a very satisfying working knowledge of the night sky. You should be able to identify nearly all the northern sky star patterns within a year of dedicated looking.

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