It is always exciting to hear the stories of those who marvel at the sight of a celestial body for the first time. In fact, to a greater or lesser extent, all observers continue to marvel as we discover new things... often in "old" and well-gazed objects, other times in objects that we manage to locate or detect for the first time... In this sense, the Moon or Jupiter are "inexhaustible" sources of surprises: no matter how much you observe them, they always keep some little secret to reveal to you.
You are in luck because now you have, in the early evening sky, some of the best and easiest to locate celestial objects. To start with, the planets: as you have seen, Saturn, in the west, with its rings almost edge-on, shortly after sunset, and Venus, a little higher, shows its waning phase. Just 4º west of Venus is Neptune, a very distinguishable deep blue dot with the telescope, although to be able to distinguish its disk requires quite a bit of magnification. Higher up, but falling towards the geographic northwest horizon, is the great square of Pegasus and Andromeda, with its famous galaxy M31. If your sky is a little dark, you will not have any trouble identifying its two main satellite galaxies very close: M32 and M110. Further north and at the moment over Cassiopeia, is the famous Double Cluster, two small twin open clusters very close to each other against a rich background of stars, which are a favourite of many observers.
Above the southern horizon, Jupiter shines high, reigning in the skies. Not far from it, towards the SE of Jupiter, you have the Pleiades (M45), a fantastic swarm of young stars, and about 5º to the south from them, you can locate Uranus as a prominent turquoise point in the telescope, which at about 150x already begins to reveal its disk. To the SW of Jupiter is the great constellation of Orion, the hunter, with his dogs, identified by their main stars, the brilliant Sirius (the brightest star in the night sky) and Procyon, higher up. In Orion's sword you will enjoy the sight of the wonderful great nebula M42. Stop at the core of it and try to count how many stars you can see: it is what is known as Trapezium. Approximately 30º to the W of Procyon (that is approximately a palm and a half of your hand with your arm extended in front of your face) is the constellation of Cancer, which contains another spectacular cluster of stars: the Manger, or the Beehive (M44). And above them you will easily locate Mars, with its unmistakable orange glow, very close to Pollux (Gemini), and a few days after its opposition, which indicates that it is the best time to observe it.
This is just a brief description of some of the highlights you can find with relative ease in the early evening sky these days.
Some tips that will help you a lot in your searches are to align your finderscope with the main tube and to download a planetarium app like Stellarium on your smartphone or tablet (most have very complete free versions). They are very useful to learn how to navigate the sky in real time, and they also offer you a perspective adapted to your location. If you manage to align your C6 mount as well, it will be a great achievement, since that will allow you to have access to the large GoTo database and follow the objects without them disappearing from the field of view so quickly. Good collimation of your C6 will also help you get good views of everything you observe. Do you know this guide?: https://www.celestro...llimation-guide
To plan your observations you can use apps like The Sky Live or Tonight's Sky. These apps show you the highlights of "your sky", according to your preferences.
Good luck and clear skies!
Edited by Japetus Eye, 30 January 2025 - 06:49 PM.
