Help make new telescope a great experience for youngster
June 8, 2018 4:26 PM Subscribe
Need advice as a non-astronomer parent who's about to unbox a telescope for kids birthday?
Kiddo is getting a Celestron PowerSeeker 127 as a birthday gift. I want to make the most of the first day and set us on the right path of excitement and exploration. Would love to have some tips about set-up, what to look for, supplemental education and the like that will help encourage our curiosity of the cosmos and minimize beginner frustration. TIA!
Kiddo is getting a Celestron PowerSeeker 127 as a birthday gift. I want to make the most of the first day and set us on the right path of excitement and exploration. Would love to have some tips about set-up, what to look for, supplemental education and the like that will help encourage our curiosity of the cosmos and minimize beginner frustration. TIA!
The most important thing is finding a good spot with little or no light pollution.
posted by Fukiyama at 4:53 PM on June 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Fukiyama at 4:53 PM on June 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks! My profile and history is certainly Texas heavy, but we're in the Denver area. Recommendations on quickest ways to less light pollution in the north Denver area appreciated!
posted by GPF at 5:07 PM on June 8, 2018
posted by GPF at 5:07 PM on June 8, 2018
The Best Places to Go Stargazing in Denver
Best Stargazing Spot (Low Light Pollution) within a 2 hour drive of Denver?
posted by BadgerDoctor at 6:10 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best Stargazing Spot (Low Light Pollution) within a 2 hour drive of Denver?
posted by BadgerDoctor at 6:10 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Just find the moon. That'll blow his mind enough for one day.
posted by sanka at 6:45 PM on June 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by sanka at 6:45 PM on June 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Be sure to research the specs on your telescope before you set out, because there could be some disappointment in setting out to view say, a specific planet, and only then realizing that your equipment isn't capable of it.
This website is great for keeping updates with sky events: earthsky.org
I would suggest also a good astronomy app that works with gps if they have access to a device as well. Makes things a lot easier to find once you're out of the city, driving around in the dark :)
(Oh and be sure to bring along some powerful mosquito repellant...)
posted by OnefortheLast at 6:47 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
This website is great for keeping updates with sky events: earthsky.org
I would suggest also a good astronomy app that works with gps if they have access to a device as well. Makes things a lot easier to find once you're out of the city, driving around in the dark :)
(Oh and be sure to bring along some powerful mosquito repellant...)
posted by OnefortheLast at 6:47 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Second the moon. It's stunning through a scope, like nothing he's seen.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:04 PM on June 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:04 PM on June 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
You can get apps for your phone which will show you where the planets, constellations, and other stuff is. That way you can know what’s out and what isn’t, and where to look.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:18 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:18 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Getting to a real dark site is good eventually, but is certainly not necessary for your first time out. If it's something you want to do, then go do it, but for the things that you are likely to look at on the first time out, it's pretty unnecessary. Bright objects like the Moon and planets don't really benefit from a dark sky like star clusters and galaxies do. Just getting somewhere where you can get away from having lights right in your face will be fine; a moderately dark back yard or a nearby (unlit) soccer field will be fine.
For your first time out, I would look at:
1. The Moon - it will be great, particularly if it's not full; the full Moon is generally way too bright to really appreciate the features. Look at it when it's a crescent to ~first quarter is perfect. The Moon will be new in the middle of next week, so is only visible late night/early morning right now. It will be great for viewing in the evening over next weekend (May 16/17) and into early the following week.
2. Venus - sort of boring, but very bright and, depending on when you look at it, it goes through phases so sort of looks like a mini-moon. It's the bright thing in the western sky right after sunset.
3. Jupiter - While you probably can't see the great red spot, you can see atmospheric bands across the surface if the sky is clear enough. You should also be able to see the four biggest ("Galilean") moons. They'll just appear as dots, but a fun thing to do is to note where they are, then come back an hour later (or a night later) and notice that one (or more) has moved a bit. Jupiter is the bright thing in the south-eastern sky right after sunset, then rising higher into the southern sky as the night goes on.
4. Saturn - amazing; will blow you away; you can totally see the rings. It's not up right now until 10 or 11, but really great. Another bright thing in the eastern/southeastern sky.
5. After the Moon and the planets, the next thing I'd move onto this time of year is Alberio, a blue/red double star that's the head of Cygnus the Swan.
This will keep you busy for a while, but when you're ready to move on (and in a dark site), start looking for some of the Messier objects: M13 (a star cluster) and M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) would be good "intermediate" targets to take a shot at this time of year.
Nthing the advice to get some sort of planetarium app for your phone. I have one called "Star Chart", but only because it was cheap/free at the time I got it. There are others that are excellent; just choose which ever one has the best reviews. I'd also get Stellarium (free, multi-platform planetarium software: http://stellarium.org/) to plan your night before you go out. I'd also eventually get a star wheel (a.k.a. planisphere): this one is great, but kind of comically big; this one is a little more reasonable.
posted by Betelgeuse at 7:56 PM on June 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
For your first time out, I would look at:
1. The Moon - it will be great, particularly if it's not full; the full Moon is generally way too bright to really appreciate the features. Look at it when it's a crescent to ~first quarter is perfect. The Moon will be new in the middle of next week, so is only visible late night/early morning right now. It will be great for viewing in the evening over next weekend (May 16/17) and into early the following week.
2. Venus - sort of boring, but very bright and, depending on when you look at it, it goes through phases so sort of looks like a mini-moon. It's the bright thing in the western sky right after sunset.
3. Jupiter - While you probably can't see the great red spot, you can see atmospheric bands across the surface if the sky is clear enough. You should also be able to see the four biggest ("Galilean") moons. They'll just appear as dots, but a fun thing to do is to note where they are, then come back an hour later (or a night later) and notice that one (or more) has moved a bit. Jupiter is the bright thing in the south-eastern sky right after sunset, then rising higher into the southern sky as the night goes on.
4. Saturn - amazing; will blow you away; you can totally see the rings. It's not up right now until 10 or 11, but really great. Another bright thing in the eastern/southeastern sky.
5. After the Moon and the planets, the next thing I'd move onto this time of year is Alberio, a blue/red double star that's the head of Cygnus the Swan.
This will keep you busy for a while, but when you're ready to move on (and in a dark site), start looking for some of the Messier objects: M13 (a star cluster) and M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) would be good "intermediate" targets to take a shot at this time of year.
Nthing the advice to get some sort of planetarium app for your phone. I have one called "Star Chart", but only because it was cheap/free at the time I got it. There are others that are excellent; just choose which ever one has the best reviews. I'd also get Stellarium (free, multi-platform planetarium software: http://stellarium.org/) to plan your night before you go out. I'd also eventually get a star wheel (a.k.a. planisphere): this one is great, but kind of comically big; this one is a little more reasonable.
posted by Betelgeuse at 7:56 PM on June 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
I went to LL Bean last winter; a rep from a telescope company had telescopes set up. The Moon is stunning, and seeing Saturn's rings was spectacular. Colorado is dry, so haze is probably less of an issue; in Maine, summer humidity blurs things. www.space.com and many other sites will have highlights of what's going on in the sky.
posted by theora55 at 8:32 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 8:32 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
If the kid is interested in pirates and by extension, ships and exploration, those moons of Jupiter were at one point critical to ships being able to know where they were as they explored the world, with empires in the balance. But the difficulty of seeing anything in a telescope on a swaying ship deck... or when you're lost and it's cloudy... it worked better when the ship pulled ashore. (Timekeeping, celestial motion, and navigation are different facets of the same thing; if you need to figure out one of those things, you can do so from the other two). That might be an irrelevant tangent, but I thought I'd bring it up in case you think that connecting the sights in the telescope to things here on Earth might be fun and interesting.
posted by Cusp at 10:42 PM on June 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Cusp at 10:42 PM on June 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks all. Betelgeuse's thorough advice worked out great - and generally in the order proposed. The moon is fascinating and has been the target to really get a sense of how to spot - magnification is enough that the motion is noticeable. Venus is bright enough, early enough that its a great treat to line up. And when we first found Jupiter? "No way!!"
Hooked! Thanks!
posted by GPF at 12:21 PM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hooked! Thanks!
posted by GPF at 12:21 PM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
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