I think videos like this are really valuable to amateur home astronomers. We see so many images that people have produced thrugh computer stacking software and it creates unrealistoc expectations on what you can expect to see through a telescope in your back garden in an urban/sub-urban environment.
I must commend you for your channel as well as your books. I recently purchased 110 Things to See With a Telescope and, returning to this hobby after 40 years (due to a retina issue that is finally repaired - advances in medicine!), I found this to be a wonderful guide! I've rebuilt my 10" Dob that was forty five years old and am slowly relearning the sky. I find that I am spending more time with binoculars as I aim to improve my ability at finding DSO's by sky hopping per your book. I really do appreciate all that you do for astronomy, particularly for this old beginner! Keep up the good work!
Me too! I finished the first draft years ago. I think Sourcebooks is waiting to finalize a contract with a cover artist, and it should be on the market sometime this year (probably late this year).
Some of my best stargazing was while was deployed to Iraq, located near the Syrian border there was zero light pollution, I could see so much with the naked eye, binos, and even night vision goggles. That part of being there was amazing! I am recently getting back into stargazing and your channel is a big help! Thanks!
This is great info for beginners. i was 45 yo before i had ever looked through a telescope. it was so amazing i was hooked instantly. after the fact seeing pictures on youtube (astrophotography) made me get aperture fever. i finally realized that jupiter looked the same in my 90mm mak or my 10'' dob. the pics online are deceiving and cause people to become discouraged.
Awesome information! I'm a beginning amateur astronomer but I've always had a passion for astronomy. This is a great explanation for what anyone should expect when they look through a telescope/binoculars. Thanks for the video, John!
Although it's not one of your books, "Turn Left at Orion" is one of the best books to help find objects and what they will look like in a small telescope. It's too bad it was written without red-dot finders as a finding tool. Another great video!
We are nearing alignment with Saturn's ring plane and we will cross it on march 23rd. I have been trying to photograph this event. Currently with my eye and a standard eyepiece, I can see Saturn clearly and notice that the rings already appear thinner than when I've looked at it previously. However, when using my camera if I capture the rings at all they just make Saturn look slightly football shaped. I suspect its due to vibrations in the scope, distortions in the atmosphere, movement of earth ect that's "smearing out' the image for the camera but my eye is able to compensate. I've tried very short exposures but then Saturn is too dim to see anything. What do you think? any recommendations?
Hey Cody, that's a really good point about the rings being edge on. I actually went into detail about that in the video but cut it out at the last minute to improve the pacing. Yes, the "footballing" is probably vibration. I've seen that if I set my telescope up on the deck. You need to employ some form of lucky-imaging to compensate. This is built into the ASIair if you have one. Alternatively, you can drop a video file into PIPP software to align each frame (it accepts every file type), and then registax (takes AVIs), which will choose the best frames and stack them. This is a very old method, but it's fairly reliable. On another note, will you be at the Astro-Awards next week in Austin?
@@LearnToStargaze Thank you, I will give that a try. Unfortunately, I will not be attending the Astro Awards this year, as I did not hear about it in time to make arrangments. However, I will be present at the Analog Astronaut Conference and Open Sauce again.
Great to hear your straight forward information on "looking up" at the stars. Some years ago I did some mountain climbing of MT Rainier. The stars seemed so huge and bright in the crystal clear higher atmosphere night sky. I was blow away by how many stars were visible with the naked eye.
Excellent! Twenty something years into the hobby and I learned some new things from the video. There were also some tips I can't wait try while coaching new astronomers! Thank you!
@@LearnToStargaze More people will learn how to observe if given some basics and coaching...if they can get it. I now know that some people can go on in the hobby for years without getting skilled and confident at locating things and observing. Most technology is grasped at like a crutch. However I'd recommend StarSense Explorer to anyone new or experienced. The fleet of SSE table top Dobsonians released in the last year are great. The larger Dobsonians as well. I would not recommend the original series of SSE scopes because the LT series mounts are too wobbly and only the 80mm refractor is optically good. The Dx series scopes may be acceptable, especially the C5 version. However I'd take the 150mm table top reflector over the C5 any day.
Love the vids, learning something new every time ! The genius of cataract surgery has allowed me to view the world and beyond in a way i'd forgotten was possible. I've bought some basic gear in order to understand the equipment and more importantly how to use it but most of all the increasing knowledge of what's out there makes me feel more connected to the splendiferous miracle that life, this planet and the universe is. Never spend a day without awe at being alive and bearing witness to Such majesty... Being a brit I'm going to plug Astrobiscuit....brew a cuppa, put your feet up and watch his shows too ! Heres to clear skies ! As you say ' the futures looking up !'
my main trouble is that 95% of nights in the last 3-4 weeks have been cloudy. Classic curse lol, when I finally have time to stay up late and it gets dark really early, the weather is just atrocious. I am totally expecting it to clear up right as I will need to wake up early to work next day.
Great video keeping exspectations real! I do astrophotography with my dslr and either a refractor telescope or a SCT on my beloved Star Adventurer GTi. But even with my 6'' SCT with a focal length of > 1000 mm the planets are tiny little spots! Only when I turn on the 10x focussing-zoom in the camera the "WHOW"-moment comes - and often also immediately the "Damn, bad seeing tonight"-moment when Saturn wobbles all around the place ... Thx!
Looking at a total solar eclipse with a telescope or binoculars allows a more detailed look at the corona which has stunning beauty. As soon as prominences start coming off to one side it is a signal to stop looking as totality is ending quickly.
Love your videos John , they are positive and informative! 🌞 Observed Jupiter and its moons recently through my telescope, it was mesmerising 🤩Greetings from Greece where the stargazing is awesome! 😍 Have a wonderful 2025 !!
generaly in some spots in the night sky you can only see things whith higher lower aparent magnitude than in other spots and that is generaly around milky way and near realy bright stars . . whith the exception of dark nebulae where you need a bright background to highlight the shadow of the nebula I'd say this is a pretty generous wiew of Messier 4 globular cluster as the individual stars in most globular clusters are at the very limit of visibility, . . overall stargazing is kinda like storytime in a way whitch is what makes is fun . . and besides it's realy cool to know what this "faint gray shape" was hiding all along :D
I tried my best to smudge the cluster to make it look like a binocular view. The picture was taken with a 40mm telescope. It’s super challenging to show what the eye sees.
I've spent the last two years learning everything possible about astrophotography. But that means I know nothing about visual observing. And frankly, the few times I've looked through an eyepiece, I was impressed that I was looking at the live object, but not impressed at all with what I saw. Fuzzy, wobbly, flat contrast targets don't compete at all with what appears on my imaging screen after a 4 minute exposure with my astro camera. What I do regret most though is that I can't navigate the night sky independently - I use go-to functionality for all my imaging. I don't understand the relationships between objects, nor how the individual targets I capture are actually part of larger more complex objects. All that said, the first time I saw the full Milky Way under a Bortle 1 sky, I was floored. I just wanted to take it all in - no scope, camera or binoculars, just naked eye. I won't ever be a visual observer, since I live under Bortle 5 skies, but who knows what might happen on the next dark sky camping trip.
My difficulty as a total beginner is: What do I buy? There are hundreds of different telescopes in all price categories, countless different tripods and even more eye pieces. Until this video I didn't even know that the telescope and eyepiece are separate things. I need to spend several days researching to even begin with the hobby. I just don't have that amount of time. I want someone to tell me: Buy this and you're good, preferably with links. Since I'm in Germany, my selection is limited to what's available here. Luckily at least with astrophotography, I can just get the seestar s50 and immediately start taking pictures. Easy. Now I need a good all in one set for stargazing, something to look at the sky while the S50 takes the pictures. But something that's relatively mobile, something that fits in a large backpack. Soo, maybe just good binoculars? I always wanted to have a telescope as a kid, but could never afford one. Now I can but I don't know what to buy.
Can you please tell me about some of the telescopes which are best for beginners. I have not that much budget but have 100 dollars. First time I am buying something for astronomy so please guide me with what would you prefer?
I think videos like this are really valuable to amateur home astronomers. We see so many images that people have produced thrugh computer stacking software and it creates unrealistoc expectations on what you can expect to see through a telescope in your back garden in an urban/sub-urban environment.
Thanks!
I must commend you for your channel as well as your books. I recently purchased 110 Things to See With a Telescope and, returning to this hobby after 40 years (due to a retina issue that is finally repaired - advances in medicine!), I found this to be a wonderful guide! I've rebuilt my 10" Dob that was forty five years old and am slowly relearning the sky. I find that I am spending more time with binoculars as I aim to improve my ability at finding DSO's by sky hopping per your book. I really do appreciate all that you do for astronomy, particularly for this old beginner! Keep up the good work!
I can't wait for his binoculars one to be published
that one im looking very forward to.
Me too! I finished the first draft years ago. I think Sourcebooks is waiting to finalize a contract with a cover artist, and it should be on the market sometime this year (probably late this year).
Thanks Michael!
Nice
I offer my compliments... a great video for newcomers to the hobby who don't really know much about telescopes and what they need from their devices.
Many thanks!
Some of my best stargazing was while was deployed to Iraq, located near the Syrian border there was zero light pollution, I could see so much with the naked eye, binos, and even night vision goggles. That part of being there was amazing! I am recently getting back into stargazing and your channel is a big help! Thanks!
Thank you John for a very informative video.
This is great info for beginners. i was 45 yo before i had ever looked through a telescope. it was so amazing i was hooked instantly. after the fact seeing pictures on youtube (astrophotography) made me get aperture fever. i finally realized that jupiter looked the same in my 90mm mak or my 10'' dob.
the pics online are deceiving and cause people to become discouraged.
Awesome information! I'm a beginning amateur astronomer but I've always had a passion for astronomy. This is a great explanation for what anyone should expect when they look through a telescope/binoculars. Thanks for the video, John!
Thanks for the kind words!
Although it's not one of your books, "Turn Left at Orion" is one of the best books to help find objects and what they will look like in a small telescope. It's too bad it was written without red-dot finders as a finding tool. Another great video!
We are nearing alignment with Saturn's ring plane and we will cross it on march 23rd. I have been trying to photograph this event. Currently with my eye and a standard eyepiece, I can see Saturn clearly and notice that the rings already appear thinner than when I've looked at it previously. However, when using my camera if I capture the rings at all they just make Saturn look slightly football shaped. I suspect its due to vibrations in the scope, distortions in the atmosphere, movement of earth ect that's "smearing out' the image for the camera but my eye is able to compensate. I've tried very short exposures but then Saturn is too dim to see anything. What do you think? any recommendations?
Hey Cody, that's a really good point about the rings being edge on. I actually went into detail about that in the video but cut it out at the last minute to improve the pacing. Yes, the "footballing" is probably vibration. I've seen that if I set my telescope up on the deck. You need to employ some form of lucky-imaging to compensate. This is built into the ASIair if you have one. Alternatively, you can drop a video file into PIPP software to align each frame (it accepts every file type), and then registax (takes AVIs), which will choose the best frames and stack them. This is a very old method, but it's fairly reliable. On another note, will you be at the Astro-Awards next week in Austin?
@@LearnToStargaze Thank you, I will give that a try. Unfortunately, I will not be attending the Astro Awards this year, as I did not hear about it in time to make arrangments. However, I will be present at the Analog Astronaut Conference and Open Sauce again.
Great to hear your straight forward information on "looking up" at the stars. Some years ago I did some mountain climbing of MT Rainier. The stars seemed so huge and bright in the crystal clear higher atmosphere night sky. I was blow away by how many stars were visible with the naked eye.
Great info...as usual!
Thanks, Tim!!!
Excellent! Twenty something years into the hobby and I learned some new things from the video. There were also some tips I can't wait try while coaching new astronomers! Thank you!
Wonderful!
@@LearnToStargaze More people will learn how to observe if given some basics and coaching...if they can get it. I now know that some people can go on in the hobby for years without getting skilled and confident at locating things and observing. Most technology is grasped at like a crutch. However I'd recommend StarSense Explorer to anyone new or experienced. The fleet of SSE table top Dobsonians released in the last year are great. The larger Dobsonians as well. I would not recommend the original series of SSE scopes because the LT series mounts are too wobbly and only the 80mm refractor is optically good. The Dx series scopes may be acceptable, especially the C5 version. However I'd take the 150mm table top reflector over the C5 any day.
Love the vids, learning something new every time ! The genius of cataract surgery has allowed me to view the world and beyond in a way i'd forgotten was possible. I've bought some basic gear in order to understand the equipment and more importantly how to use it but most of all the increasing knowledge of what's out there makes me feel more connected to the splendiferous miracle that life, this planet and the universe is. Never spend a day without awe at being alive and bearing witness to Such majesty...
Being a brit I'm going to plug Astrobiscuit....brew a cuppa, put your feet up and watch his shows too !
Heres to clear skies ! As you say ' the futures looking up !'
Thanks for the kind words, Kevin! Congrats on the cataract surgery!
i cried when i saw the saturn ring fo the first time.
I can relate.
my main trouble is that 95% of nights in the last 3-4 weeks have been cloudy. Classic curse lol, when I finally have time to stay up late and it gets dark really early, the weather is just atrocious. I am totally expecting it to clear up right as I will need to wake up early to work next day.
Great video keeping exspectations real! I do astrophotography with my dslr and either a refractor telescope or a SCT on my beloved Star Adventurer GTi. But even with my 6'' SCT with a focal length of > 1000 mm the planets are tiny little spots! Only when I turn on the 10x focussing-zoom in the camera the "WHOW"-moment comes - and often also immediately the "Damn, bad seeing tonight"-moment when Saturn wobbles all around the place ... Thx!
Great comment!
Looking at a total solar eclipse with a telescope or binoculars allows a more detailed look at the corona which has stunning beauty. As soon as prominences start coming off to one side it is a signal to stop looking as totality is ending quickly.
Love your videos John , they are positive and informative! 🌞 Observed Jupiter and its moons recently through my telescope, it was mesmerising 🤩Greetings from Greece where the stargazing is awesome! 😍 Have a wonderful 2025 !!
Thanks!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for your great video’s. Born teacher!
Thanks!
Do you know any cheap alt az mounts to put a c8 optical tube on?
At 2000mm of focal length, I think you really need go-to with a C8
@@LearnToStargazethank you
Stargazing is fun but Astro photography is hard and annoying even taking pictures of the moon is hard
Good job!
Great channel ps your probably aware but your name is mentioned in Nightwatch as go to books for observing pretty cool!
Yes! Terry and I did a very brief last minute roadtrip across Nebraska chasing the 2017 eclipse.
For Christmas
I got the James webb telescope
nice wow good for you ha ha ha
generaly in some spots in the night sky you can only see things whith higher lower aparent magnitude than in other spots and that is generaly around milky way and near realy bright stars . . whith the exception of dark nebulae where you need a bright background to highlight the shadow of the nebula
I'd say this is a pretty generous wiew of Messier 4 globular cluster as the individual stars in most globular clusters are at the very limit of visibility, . . overall stargazing is kinda like storytime in a way whitch is what makes is fun . . and besides it's realy cool to know what this "faint gray shape" was hiding all along :D
I tried my best to smudge the cluster to make it look like a binocular view. The picture was taken with a 40mm telescope. It’s super challenging to show what the eye sees.
Interesting video
Thanks I just got a 130 mm celestron tele scope I was wondering how to see more detail on Jupiter without a Barlow lense
Higher quality eyepieces. I’d use a 5mm on Jupiter with that telescope. Also, check your collimation.
@ thanks ill try that
I've spent the last two years learning everything possible about astrophotography. But that means I know nothing about visual observing. And frankly, the few times I've looked through an eyepiece, I was impressed that I was looking at the live object, but not impressed at all with what I saw. Fuzzy, wobbly, flat contrast targets don't compete at all with what appears on my imaging screen after a 4 minute exposure with my astro camera. What I do regret most though is that I can't navigate the night sky independently - I use go-to functionality for all my imaging. I don't understand the relationships between objects, nor how the individual targets I capture are actually part of larger more complex objects. All that said, the first time I saw the full Milky Way under a Bortle 1 sky, I was floored. I just wanted to take it all in - no scope, camera or binoculars, just naked eye. I won't ever be a visual observer, since I live under Bortle 5 skies, but who knows what might happen on the next dark sky camping trip.
What a great heartfelt comment! Thanks for sharing :-)
My difficulty as a total beginner is: What do I buy? There are hundreds of different telescopes in all price categories, countless different tripods and even more eye pieces. Until this video I didn't even know that the telescope and eyepiece are separate things. I need to spend several days researching to even begin with the hobby. I just don't have that amount of time.
I want someone to tell me: Buy this and you're good, preferably with links. Since I'm in Germany, my selection is limited to what's available here.
Luckily at least with astrophotography, I can just get the seestar s50 and immediately start taking pictures. Easy. Now I need a good all in one set for stargazing, something to look at the sky while the S50 takes the pictures. But something that's relatively mobile, something that fits in a large backpack. Soo, maybe just good binoculars?
I always wanted to have a telescope as a kid, but could never afford one. Now I can but I don't know what to buy.
See my video: “A Telescope for Every Budget.” There’s a link with a flowchart chart that helps you make these types of decisions.
Can you please tell me about some of the telescopes which are best for beginners. I have not that much budget but have 100 dollars. First time I am buying something for astronomy so please guide me with what would you prefer?
I recently make a video called “A Telescope for Every Budget”. Please check that out.
What would Mars appear like through a 4 inch refractor atm?
Like a bright red star.
@@LearnToStargaze Would I reveal any planetary detail with a 2X barlow with the highest magnification accepted?
@@hmuphilly9129you’ll have to test it. The telescope’s aperture determines the detail, at least mathematically.
I couldn’t see Mars, but I could see Jupiter with its moons with my 127. I could make out details of Jupiter.
hi