How to get started in Astronomy (Beginner’s Guide)
Astronomy is a great way to spend time for several reasons. It is a relaxing way to spend a night, a chance to take your time, slow down, and enjoy finding cool things in the night sky. It is also a great way to meet interesting people.
Astronomy is becoming more popular. A lot of people are very interested in astrophotography. During the pandemic interest in Astronomy really increased and it was very hard to find a telescope as many stores sold out.
This is my own personal list of what I have found useful to get started. There are many great resources worth exploring. If you are knowledgeable about astronomy, feel free to post what you are interested in or what worked best for you.
I would start by learning the constellations.
A good app is Stellarium. This works with the GPS in your phone and when you point your phone in the sky it will tell you what you are looking at. The free version is sufficient but I would consider supporting them if you use it frequently. I like this app because it is simple to use and very easy to see the constellations. The drawings of the constellations are clear. You can also search for specific objects in the night sky such as the Andromeda galaxy or the star Arcturus. A natural step as you learn the constellations is to buy a pair of binoculars.
I would recommend these three books in the following order.
1) NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe (Terrance Dickinson) – A really well written book that teaches you exactly how to begin.
2) Turn Left at Orion (Guy Consolmagno and Dan M. Davis) – This book gives you a good overview, some objects to find by time of year. What is very helpful is that they have drawings to help you know what you are looking at.
3) The Backyard Astronomer´s Guide (Terrance Dickinson and Alan Dyer) – Lot´s of good information in this book. What is probably most valuable is a breakdown of what binoculars, telescopes, eyepieces to consider. Remember you don´t have to spend a great deal of money to get started.
Find a local Astronomy Club
There is definitely something appealing about starting off on your own. Being more introverted I can understand this. However, you are missing a lot if you ignore your local Astronomy club. First of all you will miss meeting interesting people. Second of all, if your beginning, you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. Clearly someone who has been an amateur astronomer for 15 or 30 years knows a great deal more than you and can point you in the right direction. I think a lot of people start off on their own, buy a great deal of expensive gear and then miss a lot because they don´t know what they aren´t aware of. It is also very interesting to go to Star Parties or Astronomy meetups, you will meet a lot of people and see several things you probably couldn´t find on your own.
Light pollution
Light pollution is going to greatly affect what you can see. Ideally you want to find a darker area to observe. If you can´t, that is OK too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_scale
The light around you will also affect what you can see. You want to avoid any white light and only use faint red light if needed to preserve your night vision.
Clear skies
You want to go out and observe when conditions are right. It is rare that you will have excellent conditions. Even if it´s not perfect just go outside. Unless you want to observe the moon, I would avoid a full moon as it washes out the sky.
There are multiple apps that give an indication of what seeing conditions will be like. I like Astrospheric but I haven´t explored them all. They aren´t perfect and you often just have to look outside to get an idea.
What telescope to get?:
A portable, basic one that is easy to set up and travel with. There is a perception that telescopes are very expensive. That was true in the past. You can get a decent one without spending a lot. The Backyard Astronomer´s Guide mentioned before is a good place to start. It might be easier and more practical to start with binoculars depending on your level of light pollution.
Some gear and useful tools
I like using a Telrad Finder Sight. It is a laser sight that attaches to your telescope. It is useful for centering you telescope on objects.
If you are observing the moon I would buy a moon filter. It is reflecting a lot of sunlight so it is bright.
GOTO Telescope. This works great but is expensive. A GPS system built into the telescope finds objects for you.
A free way to get a similar functionality to a GOTO system is the open source project AstroHopper. You just need a smartphone and some tape. You put your phone on your telescope. The AstroHopper website uses your phones GPS to point to objects.
The AstroHopper Website
https://artyom-beilis.github.io/astrohopper.html
A youtube video by John Dreese (Reflactor) that explains it pretty well.
Also a good amateur astronomy website with several forums. People also trade gear.
1. Orion image taken from IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orion_IAU.svg
