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One super-simple setup trick for telescopes

The easiest way to find night sky objects

Hunting down your first deep sky object

Video 2:  Easiest Way to Find Objects

To download Stellarium (free) and follow along with this video, click here (link opens a new tab)

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What is stopping you from using your telescope?

19 Comments
Gabriel pernros haitin January 13, 2022
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Hi Adam, I’ve just recently gotten more into stargazing and gotten a skywatcher 707 Mercury telescope on an az2 mount  which came along with a star map and some books which was helpful to a degree, but your videos so far have been helping out in ways they didn’t quite include so thanks for that, so far I’ve been able to view the moon , and a few stars including Orion’s rigel and the North Star and seen a few meteor showers with my naked eye, I really want to try and get a look at a nebula though and Orion happening to be up in the evenings here in Sweden now and quite bright been focusing on the Orion Nebula , furthest I’ve gotten is observing the belt and then possibly Orion’s sword in my finderscope then as I try to find it with my main one I tend to lose it , not knowing what size to expect it to be in the Main telescope or if I even had the right spot in the finder or found something else I couldn’t see with my naked eye, i have a 700/70mm refractor with a 25mm, 10mm and a 2x Barlow lens so it should be able to handle around 140x magnification and if my calculation was correct my 10mm+2x Barlow should achieve that , my current plan is to fix some kind of chair to make it more comfortable using the finderscope which is quite far down if I’m pointing my telescope up at the sky which doesn’t let me be all that steady upon moving it which hopefully should make it a bit easier , but do you have any suggestions? 

Vicki Timms November 12, 2021
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Hi Adam, just got (& put together!) my first telescope – a Skywatcher Starquest 130p. Ever since I’ve had full cloud cover – but that’s given me a chance to find your website, which is fabulous for a complete beginner like me! Have downloaded Stellarium & watched this tutorial, really helpful thanks. Looking forward to learning more – I was getting a biy worried as to just how I was going to know where to point my ‘scope, apart from at the moon!

Charles Strader November 12, 2021
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Thanks from a newbie, still looking for a scope. Great vids, great help. Kansas City, i grew up there although im in Greensboro, NC now lol. Clear skies

Tony Stuckless October 9, 2021
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Thanks Adam. I am using my Samsung phone and tablet as aids so I have Stellarium Mobile free version. I made the adjustments based on the app. I see this program will be useful. I like that it will take my phone to where what I want to see is. For me I have struggled with my finder scopes magnification in that what it shows me is not the same as the night sky give the finder magnifies the sky. It leaves me unsure if the star in the finder is the one I see without the finder. Also the finder uses a 90 degree eyepiece adding to the issue. I just got a red dot finder and tried to use it once but it kept fogging up. I hear that Dawn detergent can help with that so I plan to try that too. At the same time I received a finder cell phone holder from Star-Pal on Ali Express and I tried that with the SkEye free app but that app is eratic at times. Hopefully Stellarium will work better. I am using an Orion 8″ dobsinian for viewing so that should be good once I get the finder issue out of the way.
 

Terry October 7, 2021
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Thank you for a very well-paced, interactive tutorial on Stellarium.  I found it to be of immense value in helping me navigate my way through this piece of software. 
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James Reese October 7, 2021
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Hi Adam!  I just retired last year and I decided to finally get serious about astronomy. I received a large medical settlement and bought a big-ass Celestron 11″ Edge on a GEM. It’s intimidating (alignment) and complicated (I don’t know Stellarium yet).
Jim

Rashmi Shanker October 7, 2021
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Hello Adam, I am struggling with moving the sky up and down on my Mac. Using the up and down arrows is not helping. I have no problem moving it horizontally all 360 degrees along the latitude using the arrows. But am having trouble with the vertical movement. Any suggestions?  Am using the Stellarium software. 

Doug Huie October 6, 2021
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Adam, that was a pretty cool video. I have had Stellarium on my desktop for a few years now and did not know how to adjust the settings like you explained in this video. Just bought a new telescope, the  Celestron NexStar 102, and looking forward to a little more stargazing  with help from Stellarium. Really enjoyed this video and was very informative.

Adam Kirk September 28, 2021
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Let me know what probelms you’re having with astronomy and I’ll do my best to help!

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