After Christmas, what next?

The piles of torn wrapping paper and other debris has been cleared away and everyone is busy examining their new gifts and you are staring at the box with brightly printed planets, nebula, galaxies, and other astronomical objects as well as the brand new telescope inside.

Okay, now what do you do?

What do you look at first, how do you put the thing together, what is there to look at now and a million other questions are circling through your head.

Well, not to worry. You are no different than any other budding astronomer with their first telescope--and that includes me.

When I received my first telescope at age 12, I had no idea what to look at, where to look, or even what was out there.

Oh, I knew the moon, the planets, and a couple of nebulae--including the Orion Nebula -- but had no idea where anything else was.

As I recall, there were no planets in the sky at that time and the moon didn't rise until 5 a.m., but there was the Orion Nebula, so guess what was the first thing I looked at? Yep.

And it was glorious, even in a small 2.5-inch department store telescope. I was hooked.

Alright space cadet, where do we start? The first thing you want to do is learn how to assemble the telescope and tripod. The best way is to follow the instructions and do it inside the house.

There are several reasons for that. First it is warm inside, second there is enough light, and thirdly handling small pieces is much easier if your fingers are not numb from the cold.

Leave it assembled, or as much of it as possible. Find a quiet place, out of the way of household traffic to store it and cover it with a cover designed for that purpose. If you don't have one, a garbage bag will work.

Next be a good general and plan your observing campaign.

You need to do research to find out what will be available for viewing, when it will be available -- nothing toasted me more to want to look at something only to find out it was not up until 4 in the morning.

There are numerous online sources. Among my favorite are the two popular astronomy magazines www.astronomy.com or www.skyandtelescope.com. You do not need to be a subscriber to access them, but if you are, there is a lot more information available.

For sunrise and sunset time for your location go to www.sunrisesunset.com, you will need to enter your location (you can do that by finding your city and state).

There is also a weekly television program produced by the good folks at WPBT, the public television station in south Florida. Log on to: http://www.stargazersonline.org/episodes.html. Of course, I share that at risk of giving away some of my sources.

SKYWATCH: Full moon, Sunday, Jan. 4. There will be a lot of exciting events in January for anyone with a new telescope (or an old one for that matter). On Jan. 7, a just-passed full moon will be very close to the bright planet Jupiter. There are two nice objects for your scope. Best visible beginning after 8:00 pm MST. January has a lot of moon/planet and planet/planet conjunctions, stay tuned. After all, I am one of your best sources.

NEXT WEEK: Exciting, and busy January and more astronomical blathering.