What to View With a Telescope

Video Transcript

"So, what do you view with your telescope? Big warning, never look at the sun. There are configurations and filters you can put on your telescope. I don't recommend any amateur starting out, putting a solar filter on their telescope. It can blind you instantly. You can take a magnifying glass, and set leaves on fire, and I'm sure we all did that as kids. Do the same thing with your eye, so stay away from the sun. Don't use your telescope in the daytime, unless you really, really know what you're doing, and you're not looking anywhere near the sun, but what object should you look at?If you want to look at planets, even the smallest telescope, will give you some great views of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus. There again, Venus, be careful, because it's very close to the sun, but there's another class of object called The Messier Objects. Online, there are several different websites, that have all the Messier Objects listed. They were discovered mostly by Charles Messier, and he was looking for comets. Instead of comets, he found these things that look like comets ,and they are some of the most brilliant, and wonderful things to see in the sky. Clusters, galaxies, a wide variety of really interesting objects. Most astronomers, amateur astronomers, try to do a Messier Object Hunt, once a year. There's one night or two nights in the year, that you can see all hundred and ten Messier Objects, so that's a good target to start with. Planets, are like I said, they're not fixed in position to the stars, so with planets, you'll want to look along the ecliptic. The ecliptic is that place in the sky, where the sun rises, and it sets. If you could draw a line, and the path on the ecliptic, that's where the planets will be, and you'll find Mars, Jupiter. All the planets there, and they're absolutely spectacular to look for. Jupiter, you'll be able to see the moons of Jupiter. At least four of them, the galley and moons. Saturn, you'll be able to see the rings and the moons of Saturn, so have fun, enjoy. It's going to be a wonderful experience. There are very few things you can do, where you just spend a few hundred dollars, and have a lifetime worth of pleasure."