Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, December 28th.  The sun will rise at 8:18.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:09.   The moon, at full today, will rise at 5:48 this evening.

If you gotten a new telescope for Christmas, I’ve got a few tips.  Always start out using your lowest power eyepiece.  It has the largest field of view to help you find what you want.  Once found you may use a higher power eyepiece.  Higher powers may make the image larger, but will not make it sharper.  The wider the telescope the sharper the image, and the higher powers that can be used.  But note that amateur astronomers use their lowest power 90 percent of the time.  The images are sharper and brighter.  And besides most things in the sky don’t need that much magnification.  We mostly need to make them brighter.  That’s why telescopes are sometimes called light buckets.  Good telescope companions are computer programs that show the sky and books on observing.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum – Links for more information on telescopes and observing

Advice for First Time Telescope Buyers  by Joe Roberts.  It’s part of his Amateur Astronomers Notebook, whose link is at the top of the page.

Stargazing Basics from Sky and Telescope magazine.

Equipment How To from Astronomy magazine.

Your local astronomy club:  In the Grand Traverse Area gtastro.org (Grand Traverse Astronomical Society) which meets at 8 p.m. on the first Friday of the month.
Also check out both Sky and Telescope and Astronomy web sites above for links to other astronomy clubs.  They are all welcoming of beginners and a great source of telescope expertise.