Beginner friendly targets

[Johnny9s]

I thought this might be a good place to post the best targets for a beginner to shoot. Looking through the star atlas and books can be a bit overwhelming.

If you could post the object and approximate total exposure time needed that would be really helpful.

John

[Celestron]

John this is why i suggested you slow down and spend more time on one image and also to be sure and do some plain-o star gazing . You need to learn the sky manually cause if you lean on the go-to system all the time then you will be lost if it ever goes down on you :( . Besides it's a very thrilling learning experience to learn about DSOs' and planets and where they are located . Like Steve said they will be there next year also if you miss one this yr . :D ! One of your best ways also is to check out astronomy favorite links and look at the photographers image and usually most list all info needed below their image for equip used and exposer times and how they proccessed it . Check out the links on my webpage , i have alot of good links to follow .

[Johnny9s]

I agree that I should slow down and concentrate on 1 image. It is just hard as a beginner to the night skies to know what image to concentrate on. When you look through books and on the web all the images look fantastic but when they put what type of equipment they used I have no idea what most of it is. I don't know how it compares to what I am shooting with. When I shot the Cocoon nebula I had no idea of how big it was and how long I would need to expose it. If I had known how small it was I probably would have waited to get my technique more solid.

I just think that we could save a lot of frustration for a beginner by pointing out easier/larger objects to image in the beginning such as Andromeda. I just picked my objects by looking in the star atlas and thought they looked neat not knowing how big they were or how much time was involved to get decent images.

As far as learning the night sky goes, that is what I am doing while my camera is busy getting the images. I have the Canon self timer remote so I have a lot of free time while waiting for the images to finish. I have a pair of binoculars and my star atlas and I try to find my way around the constellations. Just last night I finally recognized Taurus. This is the first real constellation I have been able to pick out (besides Orion)

John

[Celestron]

Do you have the book " NightWatch (http://www.amazon.com/NightWatch-Practical-Guide-Viewing-Universe/dp/155407147X/ref=pd_sim_b_4) " by Terence Dickins ? If not this is a jewel of a book and the one i used to get to know the night sky with all constellatiions for each season ( summer , fall , winter , spring ) . The indiviual maps are great help find out the night sky for the season your in .

[txduggan]

Do you have the book " NightWatch (http://www.amazon.com/NightWatch-Practical-Guide-Viewing-Universe/dp/155407147X/ref=pd_sim_b_4) " by Terence Dickins ? If not this is a jewel of a book and the one i used to get to know the night sky with all constellatiions for each season ( summer , fall , winter , spring ) . The indiviual maps are great help find out the night sky for the season your in .

That's the first book I received......awesome tome.....

Turn Left At Orion (http://www.amazon.com/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundred-Telescope/dp/0521781906) is another great beginner's book.

Newbie astronomy pangs are hard enough, never mind astro-imaging.....

But, there's a ton of great resources to be found on the web.

I don't remember the rules for posting non-POTN groups, so pardon the faux pas....but
Cloudy Nights (http://www.cloudynights.com) has an excellent set of forums for the
amateur/beginner astronomer as well as the novice astro-imager.

Learning "astronomy" in general will also help you with your astro-imaging......you'll understand better as you grow in both hobbies ;)

Tom D

[Jeff]

I'd say after the moon, bright globular clusters and open clusters. You'll get good practice focusing. M13 - Hercules Cluster & M11 - Wild Duck cluster are good ones. M45 - Pleades is a very popular open cluster. M27 - Ring Nebula is a pretty easy target too.

It is neat though to expose for something you can't see through the viewfinder and then see it on the camera.