Hi guys;
That was a good find. That scope cost over $200. There's lots to see in a 4.5" telescope. Get a book with all 88 constillations. I recomend Skywatching by Davi Levy. Start looking for the Messier items. They're the ones that start with an "M" like the Andromeda Galaxy M31, the Ring Nebula in Lyra M57, the Hercules Globular Cluster M13 and so on. There are 110 Messier items (if you count M101 twice) and they are all visible with the 4.5" telescope. Thbere are lots of NGC items also like NGC884/885 the Double Cluster in Perseus and NGC253 a Galaxy in Fornax. There's also a real good small book called Cambridge Guide to Stars and Planets by Patrick Moore and Wil Tirion. The biggest problem beginners have is over-anticipation. Nothing will look like the pictures you see. Most pictures in magzines are taken with huge telescopes and very long exposures. The person who took the picture didn't see that in the telescope. You will not see any color except for very subtel color in close double stars. Albeiro in Cygnes is the best example of a double star with good color differences. Your not going to see anything like the Hubble pictures. Galaxies look like fuzzy spots or dim patches. Globulars will look like cotten balls with maybe some star resolution around the edges. Open clusters will be great. The Nubulars look kind of smokey or misty. Try open cluster M11 in Scutum, beautiful. The Moon will be outstanding, the Planets to. You can use High magnification on them, but use low magnification on the deep sky stuff. Good luck.
Clear Skies.
That's it;
BOB SAL
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