| Tonight (or any night in the next week or two) go out around 9 p.m. and look due south. About 2/3 of the way up the sky from the horizon to overhead, you will see two bright objects, side-by-side and quite close together (about 2 degrees apart); they will be by far the brightest objects in that part of the sky. The one on the right is Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. The one on the left is the planet Saturn. Start with a low magnification (large number on eyepiece, like 20 or 25 mm) and examine both objects. Regulus will be a brilliant point of light. Saturn will be a tiny disk with a line through it, the rings. Tonight its bright moon Titan will be a speck off to its right in the telescope, looking like a tiny star. Carefully switch to a higher magnification (smaller number on the eyepiece) and you will see more detail. Because of the angle we're currently viewing Saturn from, the ring is quite narrow.
If you're going to find other interesting objects in the sky, you're going to need to learn some landmarks, namely the constellations. A good book like NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly) will be a great help. But tonight, since you've got Saturn as a marker, learn the constellation Leo. It consists of two parts. The right-hand part looks like a large backwards question mark, with Regulus the dot at the bottom of the question mark. The star at the left side of the question mark is Algieba, one of the nicest double stars in the sky. Again look at it at low power and then switch to high power to see it double. The other half of Leo, to the left, looks like a large right angle triangle, with the star Denebola at its far left side.
If you're in downtown Chicago, you may have difficulty seeing these stars because of light pollution. Either travel to the outer suburbs, or use binoculars to see them.
Good luck!  | 
04-23-2008, 09:55 AM
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