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Spend several nights observing the Moon. Some nights, the Moon is so bright that it makes other objects in the sky difficult to see. These are nights that are excellent for lunar observation.
Observe the Solar System: After observing the Moon, you are ready to step up to the next level of observation, the planets. There are four planets that you can easily observe in your telescope: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Nine planets (maybe more!) travel in a fairly circular pattern around our Sun. Any system of planets orbiting one or more stars is called a solar system. Our Sun, by the way, is a single, yellow dwarf star. It is average as far as stars go and is a middle aged star.
Beyond the planets are clouds of comets, icy planetoids and other debris left over from the birth of our sun. Recently astronomers have found large objects in this area and they may increase the number of planets in our solar system.
The four planets closest to the Sun are rocky and are called the inner planets. Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars comprise the inner planets. Venus and Mars can be easily seen in your telescope.
Venus is seen before dawn or after sunset, because it is close to the Sun. You can observe Venus going through crescent phases. But you cannot see any surface detail on Venus because it has a very thick atmosphere of gas.
When Mars is close to the Earth, you can see some details on Mars, and sometimes even Mars’ polar caps. But quite often, Mars is further away and just appears as a red dot with some dark lines crisscrossing it.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto comprise the outer planets. These planets, except for Pluto, are made mostly of gases and are sometimes called gas giants. If they had grown much bigger, they may have become stars. Pluto is made mostly of ice.
Jupiter is quite interesting to observe. You can see bands across the face of Jupiter. The more time you spend observing these bands, the more detail you will be able to see.
One of the most fascinating sights of Jupiter are its moons. The four
largest moons are called the Galilean 7 moons, after the astronomer Galileo, who observed them for the first time.
If you’ve never watched the Galilean moons in your telescope before, you’re missing a real treat! Each night, the moons appear in different positions around the Jovian sky.
This is sometimes called the Galilean dance. On any given night, you might be able to see the shadow of a moon on the face of Jupiter, see one moon eclipse another or even see a moon emerge from behind Jupiter’s giant disk. Drawing the positions of the moons each night is an excellent exercise for novice astronomers.