Honestly even if you point it in the right direction it will take a bit of careful referencing of the charts to make sure you have found it and not just a star. A 6 yr old does not have a long attention span and seeing a faint dot may not prove worth the wait for him. Some of my kids favorites are globular clusters like the Beehive and Pleades (getting late in the year for Pleades now), galaxies like Bodes and Cigar (M81 and M82), and of course the Orion Nebula (also getting a bit late in the year). If your an early riser you should really get Saturn also. My kids were fascinated by how even after the sky got light and we lost naked eye visual, we could still see it through the scope. Morning joggers also found it interesting that we were looking up when no stars were visible. Of course the moon is also very popular as it is a great example of something they have looked at all their life and probably never seen the detail. My kids love looking at it. Also if you have a few eye pieces double stars can be a lot of fun, showing how what looks like a single star is often 2 (or even 6) stars under different magnifications. See our recent thread on Mizar. On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 11:06 AM, Michael Crane <michaelcrane17@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey everyone, I am still very new to the use of telescopes and finding my way through the night sky. I have a general understanding of the navigation. I can spot the big stuff easily like Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Pluto etc. and a handful of the constellations. I will be in Washington this weekend and my nephew is obsessed with space and the planets and especially dwarf planets. He got a shirt the other day that has the solar system on it and the first thing he said was, "Why aren't the dwarf planets on here?" He is 6. Proud of him. So I will be taking my 8" Dob up with me, I have a 25mm and 9mm eyepiece. I have been looking around online trying to find a way to see if you can see Ceres this time of year, or at all, but I haven't figured it out yet. Anyone able to shed some light on if you can see it through the scope and where to/ how to find it? He would love to be able to see it! Thanks!!! Michael Crane _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".