I’m starting a new a “Star Hopper” education program for anyone who wants to learn about telescopes and how to find their way around the night sky with or without a computer. It will be run out of “Driftway Observatory” – my backyard in Westport, MA, so obviously you need to be in driving distance and participation on any given night will be limited. The way this works is invitations are sent out to the email list of participants on the morning of a night when the forecast is favorable. Participants can then respond and space is reserved on a first come, first served basis.
You can use your own telescope, or use one of the telescopes here.
I see this also as an excellent parent/child shared learning opportunity, however, each child must be accompanied by an adult – one child/one adult, two children/two adults.
Other requirements for participants are:
1. That you purchase a copy of the excellent guidebook, “Turn Left at Orion, ” which we will use for every observing session.
2. That before you attend any night observing session you complete a day-time workshop on telescope use in general, but particularly on the new line-up of telescopes at Driftway Observatory.
3. That you have – or purchase – a pair of handheld binoculars suitable for exploring the night sky.
The learning goals of this program are simple:
1. Learn your way around the night sky using the unaided eye and binoculars. (My “Prime Time” web site will be a major resource for this.)
2. Learn your way around the universe by finding examples of the major classes of astronomical objects (double stars, open clusters, globular clusters, nebulae, galaxies, etc.) with one of the telescopes at Driftway, or your own telescope if you have one and wish to use it instead.
3. Apply the classic advice of Sherlock Holmes – learn to “observe,” not simply to “see.”
My role will be to suggest appropriate targets (from “Turn Left at Orion”), have telescopes and large binoculars available for you to use, and coach you in their use. Your role will be to read about your targets and how to find them before coming out to observe. You will find yourself involved in setting up instruments, using them, and putting them away when done. Most importantly, though, you will find objects on your own with some direction from me.
I hope you will find this approach very satisfying, but I’m not sure this style of learning is appropriate for everyone. You’ll have to decide if this is what and how you want to learn. If this interests you, please respond by sending me email ASAP and ask to be added to the Star Hoppers list. If you know someone else who might be interested, please have him/her contact me.
I will schedule appropriate times for one or more persons to come here to learn about the telescopes in daylight. We will be using the three most popular types of astronomical telescopes – all relatively inexpensive models, by the way: A 12-inch Dobsonian (simple manual control), a 4-inch refractor on an Equatorial mount (mostly manual), and a 6-inch computerized, “go-to” catadioptric. If you master those, I’ll be happy to show you how to do astronomical video as well.
You can find a copy of “Turn Left at Orion” at a local bookstore – Barnes and Noble has had it in stock – or at an online store, such as Amazon.com. One caution. There are still several editions of this book available. If you have an older one, that’s fine, otherwise get the most recent one (fourth edition 2011), and I suggest the spiral bound one because it folds flat and is easier to use in the field. Here’s the complete title of the book and a link to Amazon.
Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope – and How to Find Them [Spiral-Bound]
Guy Consolmagno (Author), Dan M. Davis (Author)
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