Where to start studying the starry sky: 5 tips from an astronomer

If you freeze in admiration at the sight of the starry sky and dream of a non-banal hobby, perhaps astronomy is a hobby for you. Astronomer Stanislav Korotkiy tells how a beginner should start exploring space

How to choose a telescope

A beginner should definitely not immediately buy an expensive one. It is better to start with telescopes with a diameter of about 90–150 mm. If you plan to observe the night sky in a city, only the planets and the Moon will be available to you, and faint objects will not be visible due to glare. So a 90-120 mm refractor is enough here – an optical telescope in which a system of lenses, that is, a lens, is used to collect light.

To observe nebulae and galaxies, you need a reflector – a telescope with a diameter of about 150 mm or more. Unlike a refractor, it does not have chromatic aberrations – image distortions that look like multi-colored halos around bright objects. I recommend telescopes with alt-azimuth Dobsonian mounts. It is unpretentious and does not require special skills or settings. Just point and look!

I don’t like electronically controlled telescopes, because in winter they run out of batteries quickly, the remote control or rotation mechanism can freeze, because the grease hardens in the cold. And in any case, in order for the electronics to work, you must first configure it. For a beginner, this can be a daunting task.

To begin with, I recommend looking at the sky through someone else’s telescope, and then making a decision about buying your own. Each region has its own astronomical clubs, which hold open free mass observations several times a year. Lists of clubs in our country can be found on the AstroAlert page in VK.

Where to look at the starry sky

It is best to look at the stars, or rather galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and the Milky Way, at least 50 km from a medium-sized city. For Moscow, this distance is at least 100 km, and preferably 150 km. The phase of the moon should also be taken into account. On a full moon, the entire sky is very brightly illuminated. And it is desirable to choose the time of observation when the Moon went beyond the horizon – unless, of course, it is the main purpose of observation.

To select the observation site, you can use the Light pollution map. The best places are in the areas marked in dark gray. Better yet, mountains! The fact is that up to a height of 2 thousand meters, the atmosphere contains the largest part of dust and moisture, which greatly degrade the brightness and image quality.

It is also worth considering the latitude of the area. The further south and closer to the equator, the better for the astronomer. There are two explanations for this:

• in the north, there are white nights or a polar day in general, which means that no stars are visible in summer;
• all the planets, the brightest and most interesting parts of the Milky Way are located in the southern part of the sky, which means that they can be seen better in the south.

That is why both amateurs and professional astronomers travel to the south for observations, to the mountains, and preferably on a new moon, when there is no Earth satellite in the sky at night. Such criteria are met, for example, by the country’s largest Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Arkhyz at an altitude of 2070 meters. There are both telescopes for professionals – the six-meter BTA telescope, which only scientists work with, and the Astroverty astrofarm for astronomy lovers. The latter have many telescopes for night and day observations with lectures, excursions and astrophotography lessons.

What to look for in the sky to be interesting

Stanislav Korotkiy advises to start by observing the brightest objects.

• Moon: many craters, crevices, valleys, mountains.
• Jupiter: cloud stripes, the Great Red Spot, its four largest satellites and their shadows.
• Saturn, its rings and several satellites.
• Mars, its polar caps, red valleys, mountains, rarely clouds or sandstorms.
• Eclipses: lunar and solar.
• Bright comets, their tails, nucleus and coma (a cloud of dust and gas around the comet).
• Meteor showers and bright meteors are fireballs.
• Occultations of stars and planets by the Moon.
• Connections of the Moon and planets, as well as planets among themselves.
• Bright galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. All of them in the amount of 110 objects are collected in the Messier catalog.
• With a special filter, you can look at sunspots and flares, prominences and filaments.
• Without a telescope – northern (polar) lights.

Useful apps and devices

To navigate the sky, there are many applications for smartphones and PCs. The most popular and high-quality among them are: Star Walk 2, Stellarium and SkySafari. The green laser pointer helps a lot in learning. It costs 1-4 thousand rubles.

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