How do I find out 'What's Up?'?

Well, as promised, we go to the old mail bag for a letter -- or in this case, the computer in-box.

A question from a reader asks, "How do you know all this stuff about astronomy?"

OK, very good question. I got started in astronomy when I was about 12 years old.

My parents gave me a small telescope for Christmas. It wasn't very big, just about three-inches (80 mm), a Newtonian reflector.

It had a clunky, stiff, metal-legged tripod that was at times difficult to use and no finder scope. To locate an object you had to sight down the tube like you would a rifle. It was good that I was still young and limber because I ended up sometimes almost standing on my head to locate an object.

It had two eyepieces that gave magnification -- if I remember correctly -- of 25x and 80x, not real super, but enough to get a look at what you wanted to see.

Now, comes the big question. What do I want to look at?

At first I had no clue. I didn't know what was up there, nor where anything was located. Oh, I had the basic sky-knowledge I had learned in the Boy Scouts, but anything further such as specific objects, I had no clue.

So, I just started looking. Out in our backyard -- where it was very dark because of several very large Black Walnut trees -- I would set up the scope and pick out something from all the stars that were up there.

My first discovery? Stars are boring. In the telescope they were just bright pin-points of light, nothing special. Oh, Sirius was super. It was blazing away with all kinds of bright colors, almost enough to blind you, but generally there was nothing interesting about stars.

That is when I "discovered" the Orion Nebula.

I knew that there was something there in the second star down in Orion's sword, but not sure what.

It was in the spring, and Orion was setting in the west. I set up the scope, stood on my head to sight it in, and began looking in the eyepiece. It took a bit because the alignment was never perfect, and then I saw it.

To say that my socks were blown off would be an understatement. Overwhelmed still does not cover the feeling, throw in amazed, astounded, astonished, stunned, dumbfounded, and thunderstruck and it may come close to what I was feeling.

There was this beautiful, amazing thing hanging out there in space, and I could see it with my tiny, little, clunky telescope. I was hooked, and that is why I still do what I do to this day.

But, that still hasn't answered the question, how do I know all this stuff I write about.

I subscribe to an astronomical magazine, I have have a couple zillion web pages I frequent, numerous astronomical podcasts I listen to, I have many, many astronomical books on my bookshelf, and I have a computer program that will show me the night sky at any given time or place so I can see what is where and when it will be there. Anything else I just Google the dickens out of it.

That is how I can tell you "What's Up."

SKYWATCH: First quarter moon yesterday, Jan. 7. Now is a good time to start following the moon for the rest of the month. Check its location each evening as it moves eastward across the sky. On Friday, Jan. 10, it will be near the Pleiades star cluster, the next night it is near Aldebaran, in Taurus, the Bull, then above the head of Orion, on Tuesday near Jupiter and on Wednesday, Jan. 15 it will be full.

NEXT WEEK: Follow the moon some more, and more astronomical blathering.