What non star, moon or planetary objects can I see with my Meade Model 395?

[Ping Everything]

I would love to get the forum opinion on what I can point my scope at. I am a total beginner and I've gotten fairly comfortable with finding stars, planets and moons...but I am yet to have any luck finding a cluster, galaxy, nebula etc.

Any advice/suggestions? I live in Charleston, SC for what it's worth.

Thanks!

[grapes]

Double stars are pretty cool. The head of Cygnus, Albireo, is a famous double, very noticeably blue and gold. The double double Epsilon Lyrae is a famous set of four stars in Lyra. Mizar, in the Big Dipper, has a naked eye companion, but together they are actually a six star system!

[RickJ]

Don't try to go this alone. Get in touch with your astronomy club. They can show you how to get the most out of that telescope for your skies.
http://lowcountrystargazers.org/default.aspx

Rick

[jfribrg]

The Orion Nebula is always nice. You can see it without any optics, but it just looks like a star. With any telescope it looks like a fuzzy ball. Very cool. The Plaeides are also cool.

[redshifter]

The Orion Nebula is always nice. You can see it without any optics, but it just looks like a star. With any telescope it looks like a fuzzy ball. Very cool. The Plaeides are also cool.

Through the 3.5" lens of the Meade 395, the Orion nebula might look like a fuzzy ball, but it's a lot more than that in my 10".

With a 3.5" aperature, most DSO's (Deep Sky Objects) will look pretty fuzzy, though that should be enough aperature to pull most of the Messier objects in. Still, seek help with your local club and definitely get out to a star party!

Also, books like Turn Left at Orion will be of immense help.

[Ping Everything]

Through the 3.5" lens of the Meade 395, the Orion nebula might look like a fuzzy ball, but it's a lot more than that in my 10".

With a 3.5" aperature, most DSO's (Deep Sky Objects) will look pretty fuzzy, though that should be enough aperature to pull most of the Messier objects in. Still, seek help with your local club and definitely get out to a star party!

Also, books like Turn Left at Orion will be of immense help.

Thank you for the advice and I'm definitely going to check out the book suggestion.

Also, RICKJ, thank you for the lowcountry-stargazer suggestion. You actually suggested I get in touch with that club a few months ago and I am now a member. It's a great group of folks who are very knowledgeable. We haven't had very much luck with the weather cooperating with our star parties and the one party that did actually have decent weather was one I could not make.

But again...THANK YOU for your advice to link up with my local astronomy club.