Jay, I just found this http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/basics Good beginners guide to the basics. David Jay Eads wrote:
I am wanting to do some stuff with beginners, not just my students and I have a list of sites that I would give out and would love to see if anyone would add anything to it:
Here is my starting list:
Utah-Astronomy
Cloudy Nights: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0
Carol's Picks in the Equipment Thread: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1572221/pag...
AstronomyLogs.com http://www.astronomylogs.com/index.html Log Books and Finder charts for Free (while you have to print them).
Tonightssky.com http://www.tonightssky.com/
Messier45.com http://www.messier45.com/
The Ultimate Messier Object Log (TUMOL) http://www.davidpaulgreen.com/tumol.html
RASC Messier List by Season: http://seds.org/messier/xtra/similar/dataRASC.html
Dark Sky Finder: http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/ Find dark location (old map though) and observing locations outside of the backyard locally
Clear Sky Chart: http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/WstJrdnUTkey.html?1 (West Jordan to find others look to the green box on the right/ also hit the 3. Display color Image under the Image Control on the left)
Tom T's Small Wonders http://cloudynights.com/category.php?category_id=170 Monthly observing guide by constellation (some harder items also).
Link to SLAS, OAS, or any of the other observing clubs in the area.
There's lots others, I'd be interested in seeing what others would recommend (or perhaps something up above should be removed and that's okay, just provide the reasoning).
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