[Buttons840]

I was camping under a clear sky with friends and asked, "has anyone seen another planet with their own eyes?" and explained I meant seen any detail through a telescope. Nobody had. I resolved start some amature astronomy then.

Any suggestions on how to start?

[ceejayoz]

The sidebar of https://www.reddit.com/r/astronomy has a bunch of useful articles on getting started. Just be warned that it's one of those hobbies that can get really expensive if you lack impulse control - "I need a new eyepiece! And a few more inches of aperture! And a better mount!" starts to pile up if you really enjoy it. :-D

[david-given]

It's also not something you can really save money on, as I have discovered, alas --- the bottom end telescopes are terrible: wobbly mounts and feeble optics. Frequently you get shoddy magnification eyepieces that are far too powerful for the light collection ability of the telescope and as a result you get this tiny, smeary image that won't stay in focus and every time you try to adjust anything you lose your target.

However, you can do great things with a good pair of binoculars (and a steady hand). You can resolve planetary discs, pick out the moons of Jupiter, spot Neptune and Uranus if you're good (although I never have) and exploring the surface of the moon is endlessly fascinating. And if you're really desperate, you can look at birds through them.

[lmm]

See whether there's an observatory near you that has public viewing nights. I've seen Jupiter and a couple of its moons at the Hampstead Observatory. It's a much less frustrating experience than a backyard telescope when you're just getting started, IME, and you can meet some cool people too.