Amateur Astronomy for Beginners: Tips and Resources

[blackprincess82]

I live in New Zealand. Does viewing the stars differ much from the Southern Hemisphere?

Thanks from down under.

[truemartian]

@blackprincess82 You do see a whole set of stars I can't see here in the northern hemisphere, including the Magellanic clouds. If you download the free desktop software from stellarium org you can change your position to anywhere on the globe and get an idea of what you're missing. :-)

[Fedorov567]

Thank you sooo much for posting your videos! Made my life MUCH easier!

[azikoss]

Man, this is amazing! Stellarium is just wow! Thank you very much, truemartian!

[MrKubha]

Excellent video. Thank you so much.

[isaikrishna]

Great piece of advice for beginners :) I'm an amateur astronomer and I'll write to you if I get stuck any where . I hope you'll answer them. Great thanks for the video :)

[truemartian]

@isaikrishna Thanks, I'm alway available for questions.

[AnaTipton]

I really liked Stellarium but it gave me bugs,shoot! Can I purchase something affordable without the bugs.

[truemartian]

@AnaTipton I personally have not experienced much in the way of bugs with Stellarium but dealers like Orion and optcorp com do sell software.

[AnaTipton]

I just downloaded stellarium, very very helpful.

[MrAstonomy123]

i have just started astronomy and i don't now what size lens i should get

[truemartian]

I have a video on "Buying a telescope" and "Eyepieces" that you can watch. If you have anymore questions write me back.

[MrAstonomy123]

hve u read my email

[GaseousAnomaly001]

Hey, can you do a video on galaxies? Maybe you could tell us what to expect to see with certain grades of telescopes. Maybe show some pictures that you have taken or something.

[truemartian]

In small telescopes, say a 4.5", galaxies tend to look like faint smudges of light on the sky. At 10 inches its possible to begin making out a HINT of detail in the spiral structure of the Whirlpool galaxy. This is based on my own experience.

[modelmisstease]

thanks i find your videos really useful! :)

[broons316]

hi thank you for your video

[UnemployedEmployer]

I've never used Stellarium it seems great Ill try it

I personally recommend to all stargazers Starry Night Enthusiast or Galaxy Explorer

[JhudsonHNY]

Hey there Truemartian,good to see your still posting...TY for all these videos,helped me a lot. I live & die by Stellarium :) Also 3 more books to add that r bibles for us They are Night Watch,Turn left at Orion & The Backyard Astronomer's Guide. Anyone & everyone Ive spoke to in this field has these books & I have since gone out & brought them with very happy results. I would say to start with The Backyard Astronomer's Guide. then go on from there. u'll thank me if u do :) Rock On ! & Thanks

[UnemployedEmployer]

Nightwatch is one of the best amateur astronomy references

[lair333]

I have some advice I learned from experience. I bought a 4.6" reflector made by Galileo for $100.00 from ebay. Although the optics were borderline retarded, I learned alot from it. It has an equitorial mount which was a huge learning experience. But I will say, my neighbor has a peice of crap 60mm refractor and we could see just as good through it as the 4.6 inch reflector. But also, I learned exactly what I wanted, an 8 inch reflector with equ. mt. and both motor drives and elec. focuser.

[lair333]

btw, that will cost around $900.00. But it will have good optics and I wont get bored with that. I wish I could afford it NOW!!!!

[truemartian]

Hey thanks for sharing your experience with the viewers! I wish more people would do this.

[lair333]

You Rule Truemartian

[mistermuffin420]

I found the book: "Turn Left At Orion" to be the most helpful resource for me as a beginner. it is literally all you need with your telescope or binoculars

[mistermuffin420]

other than your videos, truemartion, of course ; )

[skyscraperjim]

Excellent, informative video. Well done, Jay. Those O'Meara books are great. I have the Deep Sky Companions set and just picked up the Herschel 400 Observers Guide at NEAF this year.

I also noticed on your profile you're reading Extreme Stars, another good read, though I haven't read 100 Greatest Stars yet. Reading this stuff makes me even more fascinated while I'm looking at it.

Also another thumbs up for Celestia. Once you learn the few key commands its very intuitive.

[FerociousBoo]

greetings! welcome back. I can confirm - Stelarium runs both on Windows and Linux, I personally like it a lot. It benefits from OpenGL accelerator cards, so it runs pretty smooth. How about discussing starhopping in a future?

[whiteboyjimmy20]

Yay! Welcome back true!

[truemartian]

Thanks! :)

[BoardwalkAstronomer]

I use an interactive planetarium at sky view cafe {dot} .....com

It's pretty usefull because you don't have to download software, it just uses java. It doen't look as impressive as stellarium though. Also, have you had a chance to check out the Celestia software? It's incredible. I've wasted hours playing with it and it's free. Check me out if you get a chance bud, I'm a big fan of yours. You're one of the first channels I ever subbed to on YouTube. : )

[Chrisjr2007]

Celestia,Stellarium and Starry night ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

[truemartian]

I havnt had a chance to see Celestia. I will have to do that sometime. Thanks for the kind words.

[Nick28th]

Celestia is better than stelarium i think

[dannypantsgm]

Hey!!!!! You're back! How've you been?

[truemartian]

As you can see I'm alive and kickin!

[dannypantsgm]

Rock on!

[itwizpro]

Thanks for the info

Just got my first scope based on your recommendations and further research, the

Orion SkyQuest XT6 Dobsonian Telescope.

Got it home put it together and did a Collimation

Had a really fun first night stayed out till near dawn to catch Jupiter, what a show could make out the cloud bands even with the 25mm eyepiece under poor seeing conditions

[IScarebabies]

First view.

Thanks for the vids really informative.