Stupid question once you think about it, but how do you? I'm 14 I live in an apartment, and I'm an astronomy FREAK. My username on club penguin is Vycanismajor? x] Anyway, I found one horrible way: I got a camera from my aunt from CVS, she found out she didn't need it, so she gave it to me. I flipped it over to the lens side and looked through. It was pretty good to look at stars, but not very good at all for other objects. I can't afford a telescope, and I really want to look at the stars with my own eyes.
Help me please!!
By the way, if you can't help me DO NOT post a smart butt question. I JUST NEED HELP, NOT A SASSMASTER!!!
Help me please!!
By the way, if you can't help me DO NOT post a smart butt question. I JUST NEED HELP, NOT A SASSMASTER!!!
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Cameras aren't useful. But you can get a good pair of binoculars pretty cheaply. That's a good place to start. Also try joining a local astronomy club; those guys (and some girls) have telescopes they'll let you look through. And there's always just looking up. You can see Saturn tonight. It's the bright one.
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You will be surprised by how many more stars you can see through an inexpensive pair of 10x50 binoculars, even in heavily light polluted areas. I use binoculars all the time and they are way easier, and cheaper than a telescope.
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It would be great if you could find a local astronomy club. Ask a science teacher at your school, or the reference librarian at your local public library.
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Telescopes are good for seeing the structure of planets, but as far as seeing stars and figuring out their relationship to one another, nothing beats binoculars and young eyes.
They're really just bright points of light, anyway. Some are not so bright, but you can learn the layout of all the important stars with binoculars and young eyesight.
7x15's, even used at a thrift store, are fine as long as they've got good lenses and the atmospherics are good.
Let the expensive tracking telescopes come later.
And look for a safe, established, local astronomy club to join. They'll help you out with all the basics.
And study hard. It takes a bit of work to get into, but astrophysics is amazing, and at your age, it's worth the investment of time.
Someday you might have such tools at your disposal that you find something really, really cool. All my best to you and your efforts...
They're really just bright points of light, anyway. Some are not so bright, but you can learn the layout of all the important stars with binoculars and young eyesight.
7x15's, even used at a thrift store, are fine as long as they've got good lenses and the atmospherics are good.
Let the expensive tracking telescopes come later.
And look for a safe, established, local astronomy club to join. They'll help you out with all the basics.
And study hard. It takes a bit of work to get into, but astrophysics is amazing, and at your age, it's worth the investment of time.
Someday you might have such tools at your disposal that you find something really, really cool. All my best to you and your efforts...