What Your Telescope Can Do

The reason you bought a telescope is to view the night sky in all its glory. Telescopes can bring those objects closer and give you an idea of what is out there in the universe. Some of the objects you may see are the moon, planets, and the sun. With a little practice, you may be able to spot some comets, stars, nebulae, and maybe even other galaxies.

The Moon is the best object to view at first because of its prominence and brightness in the night sky. You can follow its phases and get a different view ever night. You might see its mountains, craters, or its terminator line. This is the line between light and dark where you can see a big contrast everywhere.

The Sun is one of the few objects in the sky that you can actually observe in the daytime. A word of warning here – NEVER look directly at the sun through a telescope lens. The light can cook your retinas in seconds. ALWAYS make sure you have the proper solar filter on the telescope before you gaze at the sun.

Beginning astronomers like to count the sunspots. If you start sketching the spots and where they are each day, you will begin to see the pattern of the sun's rotation. Another fun thing to do is watch during a solar eclipse when the moon passes between the earth and sun. This is the only time you will get to see the sun's corona.

Viewing planets requires a dry atmosphere and good seeing conditions. Jupiter is the largest planet in the system, so you should be able to find it easily. Mars is difficult to focus on because of its small size. Venus is the brightest planet and also easy to spot. Saturn is always a neat planet because of the rings that change their angle as the planet orbits the sun. Unfortunately, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto are very hard to locate and may only appear as tiny discs.