I'm getting too old and well, old to hunch over a telescope on a cold winter night anymore, but I can still come up with the gumption to get in a sleeping bag with hot coffee in a lawn chair for meteor showers. Who's a stargazer?
I am. Hard core.
I am too. But I am too close to a major metropolitan area for good viewing. I have to go up the coast, into the mountains, or out to the desert for good viewing.
I keep my eyes skyward - and wow, this has been a heckuva year for it! :)
I'm fortunate to be in West Texas, which I recently read has the darkest skies in the CONUS (not sure how that was info was arrived at...).
I am, big time. I got a star party to go to next week and I am helping them set up. I get an extra night to observe from that. My club has a dark sky site 50 miles out of town that I go to from Sept. through May. I'm also a DSS committee member and a board member of my club. I also do some maintenance out there. I am an astro-imager and done so since 1984. I've been in astronomy since 1962 when John Glenn went into orbit. I've been confirming asteroids the past 10 years using my portable 18" Newtonian telescope. That scope and the smaller 10" scope have literally been in places from Key West to Fresno the past 10 years.
I've been in West Texas and observed on a guest ranch near Fort Davis a week or two per year during the years 1991- 2007. This year I imaged the solar annular eclipse in Page, AZ and the Venus Transit on Grand Mesa, CO with the 10" with a solar filter. Two major solar events within 16 days! There won't be another Venus transit until 2117.
Joelene
I love looking up at the stars but I rarely get a good view. There's something about seeing them that makes the universe "real".
Wow - Yeah, Joelene! I had forgot all about the eclipse. We were on our way to Taos, NM., for a little vacation - and were able to pull off the road outside Santa Fe to watch the eclipse (I had some welding lens')... that was great!
"Blue Moon" tonight
Stargazing/hobbyist astronomy is something I'd love to do.
Since I'd be starting out, could anyone suggest good beginner/intermediate telescopes? I'm not expecting to look into deep space, but I would like to see distant planets... maybe more than just the tiny-speck version of Andromeda :)
Binoculars is a great place to start. You can see a lot of stuff with binoculars. I started out with an expensive telescope and regretted it. I should have purchased a reasonable refractor or reflector. You get more bang for the buck with a reflector. The best value is usually a model called a "Dob" or a "Dobsonian." Don't buy a scope from a department store and especially don't buy one that advertises its magnification. Those are all garbage. telescope.com has some good articles on choosing a telescope. They are good articles. Look down on the left side of the page and you'll see their featured article. From there, you can navigate to the others.
Quote from: Cindi Jones on September 13, 2012, 01:48:14 AM
Binoculars is a great place to start. You can see a lot of stuff with binoculars. I started out with an expensive telescope and regretted it. I should have purchased a reasonable refractor or reflector. You get more bang for the buck with a reflector. The best value is usually a model called a "Dob" or a "Dobsonian." Don't buy a scope from a department store and especially don't buy one that advertises its magnification. Those are all garbage. telescope.com has some good articles on choosing a telescope. They are good articles. Look down on the left side of the page and you'll see their featured article. From there, you can navigate to the others.
I agree. Go to a public starparty or open house sponsored by a club. The ones sponsored by an observatory or nature center may only have a handful or less telescopes outside. The members bring their telescopes to these events and they will have a variety of the different types. Start small! Go to a telescope shop. They may have some good used starter scopes on consignment.
Remember, the deep sky objects you'll find up there are faint and are unlike the bright Hubble pictures. We call these objects "Faint Fuzzies". The planets are bright, but
DO NOT get sucked in by the claims of "power". We have ovserving lists for the smaller scopes and binoculars and if you complete the list, you can get a certificate and/or a pin. Remember, astronomy takes patience as well as the other observational natural sciences.
Joining a club will help you choose what type of scope and the terminology is easy to learn. Some clubs have a "beginner's corner" with ages from elementary school to the retirees. Some clubs such as mine do have a dark sky site out of town for better viewing. Some sites are owned by the club or on a lease from a farmer. Others are merely a turn on a country road. Get outta town! Light pollution is one of the causes for the low numbers of people getting interested in astronomy.
Joelene
Quote from: Slightly Interested on September 11, 2012, 10:03:16 PM
Stargazing/hobbyist astronomy is something I'd love to do.
Since I'd be starting out, could anyone suggest good beginner/intermediate telescopes? I'm not expecting to look into deep space, but I would like to see distant planets... maybe more than just the tiny-speck version of Andromeda :)
There are plenty of websites (spaceweather.com, astrobob.areavoices.com, etc) that talk about what's happening in the sky, a lot of which can be seen with the naked eye or just binoculars.
And we all have free access to the telescopes that we all own collectively.
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/ (http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/)
http://www.skyimagelab.com/chandraimages.html (http://www.skyimagelab.com/chandraimages.html)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/search_grid.php?mission=Chandra+X-ray+Observatory%2C+Spitzer+Space+Telescope (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/search_grid.php?mission=Chandra+X-ray+Observatory%2C+Spitzer+Space+Telescope)
I stare at the night sky and I can see Saturn with my naked eye. It's beautiful.
I have always loved looking at the sky even before I could spell the word "planets" I bought one of those cheap 300 power telescopes & couldn't see a thing. Finally I met a guy that had built a 8" reflector telescope, & after looking through it several times, I knew I had to build one for me. So in 1970, I got a mirror grinding kit from Edmund scientific & spent 70 hours grinding my own then sent it off to a company to put the silver coating on it , & making the rest from homemade. I lived in N mexico then, so I had the astronomy dept at their university check my mirror & they told me mine was better than their *8 " scope! Even with the power I have , My favorite eye piece is a wide angle with 50 power. I even saw Uranius by accident one night! My scope is too big to set up by myself, so I always have to finf friends to go dky watching with me. Esther
Pluto bump. You may have heard about the New Horizons space probe that flew by Pluto on July 14. The images and data are coming in and it will be 16 months to download all of the data and images from that encounter. Pluto was one of the objects that I have imaged over the years. It is not that hard to image with the technology we have available to amateurs today. This gif animation was taken with an old CCD camera with rectangular pixels and the chip was made for the security cams that were out around 1995. This is one of the cameras available for amateurs at that time. Most of us cut our teeth with this camera before the larger and better chips came out later.
Transitioning from film to CCD was easier than to transition from male to female! I got one of the better cameras a few months after I have taken that image.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/starphot/19765637525/sizes/o/
Link to the New Horizons page with updates coming almost daily
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html#.VOaqms-DsbM
For those of you scratching your heads watching the above referenced video, Pluto is the object moving in the lower right quadrant of the image frame.
Very cool, by the way. I haven't touched my camera gear for years. I've been looking up instead.
My daughter and I have gone out every night (weather permitting) since she was maybe a week old. Over the last decade we've accumulated enough simple (read: not terribly expensive, just capable) equipment to be able to comfortably watch solar eclipses & transits, turn DSO's into fuzzballs, look at planets and the like. We built a dob, modified or restored other equipment. It's more of a connecting to the universe & learning the map of the sky sort of experience, along with ISS & satellite sightings. And of course a nightly tradition, a time to talk about the day. Nothing computer controlled other than the occasional camera w/ adapter for special events. Oh, and my phone, to let us know when the orbiting stuff is expected.
Quote from: Joelene9 on July 17, 2015, 01:40:06 AM
Pluto bump.
My daughter was Pluto for Halloween one year when she was maybe 6. The NH flyby was a BIG event in our household. I left work early & we even baked a Pluto cake (and a smaller Charon, and 4 cupcakes for Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx)...
Quote from: frances_larina on August 16, 2015, 06:12:01 PM
My daughter and I have gone out every night (weather permitting) since she was maybe a week old. Over the last decade we've accumulated enough simple (read: not terribly expensive, just capable) equipment to be able to comfortably watch solar eclipses & transits, turn DSO's into fuzzballs, look at planets and the like. We built a dob, modified or restored other equipment. It's more of a connecting to the universe & learning the map of the sky sort of experience, along with ISS & satellite sightings. And of course a nightly tradition, a time to talk about the day. Nothing computer controlled other than the occasional camera w/ adapter for special events. Oh, and my phone, to let us know when the orbiting stuff is expected.
Astronomy can be one of the cheapest hobbies there is. I love to get together with close friends and we share views. I used to make big dobsonian reflectors and sell them. Unfortunately I sold even my last one which was mine because some rich guy offered me an insane amount of money for it. Now I use smaller scopes on an equatorial mount and share views with friends. I have a nice 130mm refractor and my friends have the big guns. Planets and some star clusters are much better through my smaller scope.
Cindi
Quote from: Cindi Jones on August 18, 2015, 02:53:48 PM
I have a nice 130mm refractor and my friends have the big guns. Planets and some star clusters are much better through my smaller scope.
Cindi
It's funny, we now have a simple but comfortable collection. But no combination of scope & eyepiece has recreated the feeling when our initial homebuilt dob had it's first light and we stumbled upon the double cluster.
I'm a professional astronomer, does that count?
However, I don't know anything much about stars, and have a hard time finding the Big Dipper sometimes.... but my telescopes are measured in meters, not millimeters. :-)
Like a cat my sense of curiosity often gets the better of me...
Jeni, how does a professional astronomer not know "anything much about stars" and not be able to find the Big Dipper (assuming your are No. Hemisphere)?
:)
I do radio astronomy, where stars are relatively irrelevant (except when they're forming, dying, or returning to life as pulsars).
I'm a Scorpio
Radio astronomy does count! Welcome, Jeni, to the Dark Site (no heavy breathing here) where we find and catalog far photon sources, no matter their wavelength! We have a few radio astronomy amateurs out there as well. Jeni, did you got bit during your college years? Or as an attachment of an engineering or physics degree? You are not alone. There are a lot of "optical bandwidth" professional astronomers out there are from the same type. They have a hard time visualizing the constellations as well.
Joelene
:)
I didn't get into astronomy until grad school. I came at it from the engineering side, though my undergrad was in physics also. That's part of why I'm such a lousy casual astronomer: I was only vaguely interested in astro stuff until I started looking for places to point an antenna. And once you've spent some time observing billion solar mass black holes, puny little stars start to seem sort of blase.... >:-)
I've actually done some optical observing as well, though never on anything much less than a few meters across. So I'm pretty spoiled in that band, too.
But yes, most of the astronomers I know are not particularly good at constellation-finding. Astrophysics is pretty far removed from the Zodiac.
I know most of the constellations in the northern hemisphere. I probably can point a scope manually to a hundred or so bright galaxies, globs, nebulae, and planetary nebulae. Oh... and then there are a few really nice star clusters. I've used some big scopes. I used to design and build scopes. And I've had my fair share of looking, sharing, photographing, variable star luminance measuring, discovering, and verifying discoveries.
My principle scope used to be an eighteen inch reflector. Now it's a five inch AP refractor. It doesn't matter what you look through as long as the scope has good optics. There are literally tens of thousands of things to see in scopes in these ranges.
But to see an image of what the constellation represents? I don't see them either except in one and that is Scorpius. It really does look like a scorpion.
Cindi
I have an 18" and 10" both F/4.5 Newtonian telescopes. I still manage to go out and do some imaging with the neuropathy problems with my feet the past 3 years. The type of neuropathy (CIDP) I have was found and I am getting the proper treatment for that. I will be out next month to a star party for 10 days camping out with my 18" in my homemade observatory dome. I have volunteered to help setup the field a day before the gates open for the past several years. A record number of registrants for that this year.
I have done minor planet confirmations since 2002 at my club's Dark Sky Site (DSS). I am a board member of my club and on the DSS committee. I have done more DSS maintenance than observing runs due to the neuropathy flare-ups which are quite painful with loss of motor in portions of both feet. A lot better now with the monthly treatments. A list of objects is being compiled for this.
I have been an amateur astronomer since 1962 when Glenn went into orbit. Opened my darkroom in 1967 while in Junior High. Started doing more serious imaging in 1983 when I got the 10". Got the 18" in 1991 and both telescopes have been modified since. Over 680 finished CCD camera images logged in my spreadsheet not counting the stuff I have still on negatives and slides and of the asteroid and comet chases. I have 2 photo albums of the film images I made and I took them to the public events in the past.
Joelene
I too have neuropathy in my extremities. I find it difficult to walk without falling down. I also have autonomic neuropathy. Cool huh? That with a broken neck has put me completely out of work by my medicos. I can't do anything that requires long periods of standing or sitting (that would be three minutes for standing and twenty for sitting up in a chair) Neither am I allowed to lift anything weighing more than five pounds. So I have sort of a NASA flight couch where I can lean back and pull the Ergotron mounted computer monitor over my lap and adjust it to the right height and I use a lap board with a bluetooth keyboard for my writing. I have to switch back and forth from left to right handed work and from a mouse to a trackpad or the pain becomes excruciating.
So, how do I do astronomy? I either use my observatory where I can sit or stand at my leisure or I visit with friends who help me set up the refractor. My observatory is fitted with a C14 at the moment and I can put a camera on it to do real work or mostly in the past few years, I just look through it. When using the camera with my refractor or Tak Mewlon, I do it from inside the house. It's much warmer there in the winter ;) I do have the appropriate equipment to do minor planet data catching and I was going to do that when my health issues got in the way.
It's really sad, but I've put my place up for sale. 40 acres near Yosemite in some really great dark skies. I just can't manage the place by myself anymore. Within 3 or 4 years I better be relocated. Life sucks sometimes. But the good news is I have had great A1C levels for the past 4 years. I got off all the drugs and lost some weight. Now I severely restrict my carbohydrate intake and I don't eat meat. I also walk every day for a half hour. That has put an end to high glucose levels. I wish doctors knew how to give that advice to diabetic patients instead of just prescribing pills and injections. I could have done it a long time ago. I had to figure it out by myself.
Now, how did we degenerate into health issues? Oh, yeah, you started it!
Astronomy rocks!
Cindi
It took over 35 years for the doctors to diagnose this. It hid behind a resistant athlete's foot infection that spanned that time. The athlete's foot was cured, but the pain remained. It took several attempts of pain relievers and getting on Medicaid to finally get the right neurologist with the right diagnoses. I did a lot of workarounds such as getting up after getting the imaging run started, walk back and forth 800' to the warming hut. Just to alleviate the pain. Walking did help some until the last phase of this happened. It became a 24-7 odyssey of severe pain and sleepiness. My observing runs became limited to less than 10 nights a year. I would get up whenever to get the house in order, some club business done and other things. CIDP is an autoimmune disorder. It would of been put down 35 years ago if I was prescribed Prednisone. This disorder was known in 1952 when the first human trials for Prednisone was used on them according to a white paper I found. This is treatable with 90% effectiveness. CIDP is a rare disorder that my Dr. did not know what it was.
I hope to get back to do more observing on a more regular basis.
Health issues on an astronomy thread? Another of my forum groups is astronomy based and most of us are over 60. A lot of geriatric health issues, surgeries, creaking and the like on their version of General Discussions!
Joelene
Well Jolene, I wish I could honestly say that it's nice to know someone else is in a similar situation but I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Believe me, I'd rather be working in my chosen profession rather than trying to get by on 4 percent of what I used to make a decade on. And worst of all it is invisible, so I can't discuss disability issues and finance with most people. Since they can't see the problem, they figure you're a leech.
Still, with all the hassles, it is a joy to get out under a dark sky with friends.
Cindi
Quote from: Cindi Jones on August 18, 2015, 02:53:48 PM
Astronomy can be one of the cheapest hobbies there is.
I am into astrophotography, which can be one of the most expensive hobbies there are. I have an 8" f/4 Newtonian and an 11" SCT.
Quote from: KathyLauren on September 02, 2015, 03:02:16 PM
I am into astrophotography, which can be one of the most expensive hobbies there are. I have an 8" f/4 Newtonian and an 11" SCT.
Yes, it can be one of the most expensive as well. But you can start out really cheap just by going to a star party and looking through the other scopes. Most groups sort of make it a rule to let others look. But when you get into liquid cooled cameras, high end refractors or RCT's, and a custom observatory, yeah, it gets up there. But even at that, you are still in it for less than buying a Harley or getting an RV or any number of the more expensive pastime.
Look up!
Cindi
It can be expensive. However in my case, I bought both of my telescopes long ago. Both telescopes are of the 1984 vintage, but my 10" was bought new. The 18" in 1991, used. Both telescopes were modified over the years to improve performance with most of those modifications done by myself. Both telescopes the mods amounted to half of what I originally paid for them. The 10" does not resemble the the Meade OEM version I got new. The original drive corrector was gutted and a new, stable circuit of my own design installed with an autoguider port installed as well.
My first CCD camera was also a stand-alone guider and this model I seen in the professional observatories. I used that to autoguide my film images in the latter 1990's with some images done with a Win 95 laptop. Crude images, this particular camera model was the one the amateurs cut their teeth on. My second CCD camera lasted 6 years until I bought a newer version with an external autoguider/ image stabilizer port and a much cleaner CCD chip inside. This camera I had for 7 years now. Both of those earlier cameras were sold. I foresee no new purchases here as my finances are month to month. But overall, if you spread out the cost over the years of use, you'll find the hobby quite cheap.
I do see the fellows whom buy a new system every 2 years with all of the bells and whistles attached. The Ritchey–Chrétien telescope (RCT) types with their huge mounts and large cameras that automatically slews to the objects you program in. These guys just setup the observing run then go to bed. These fellows also come to the sites with an RV with a Harley strapped to the back. I'll stick with my little camera, homemade portable dome and both of my push-to telescopes. 415 people to my next event coming up in 9 days have signed up. Types of telescopes at these events runs the whole gamut.
Joelene
Joelene, we'd get along just fine in the dark! ;)
Cindi
Quote from: Cindi Jones on September 02, 2015, 03:26:55 PM
But when you get into liquid cooled cameras, high end refractors or RCT's, and a custom observatory, yeah, it gets up there. But even at that, you are still in it for less than buying a Harley or getting an RV or any number of the more expensive pastime.
I have the cooled camera and observatory. But you are right: what I have spent in total on the hobby is less than the price of a tricked-out Harley.
I went to the event mentioned in a pick-up with a bicycle strapped to the back. I got a couple of images done and some much missed bike riding done. I need no stinking Harley! My neuropathy is responding to the treatment, but there is still the fatigue that comes with the neuropathy and the treatment, a double whammy. I get around that on most of the good nights we had. One of the images I took there of a polar ring galaxy.
A picture of NGC 660:
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5618/20938120394_fd60a84cfe.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/xUekHL) (https://flic.kr/p/xUekHL)
i don't know anything about astronomy really to be honest, but i love to look at stars. in the past month i've seen three shooting stars! i go out at night and sit in my back yard with some music and just look at the stars. it's nice
I am currently rebuilding my 10" f/5.6 Dobber. The main scope assembly is done but I need to make the box and fit the bearings and the whole thing has to be light enough for me to lift. A few years ago that was not an issue but now I have arms that look like transplanted chicken legs compared to the muscly, beefy ones of old. Picking up the old base box was simply out of the question and so a new, lighter one is needed.
One of these days .....
Quote from: jeni on August 26, 2015, 09:40:37 AM
:)
I do radio astronomy, where stars are relatively irrelevant (except when they're forming, dying, or returning to life as pulsars).
I live a few miles from this.... it is visible on the horizon and I used to know some of the staff who ran it. I have been "round the back" more than a few times. (BTW - for scale... the fence at the bottom right is 2m (6' 6") high. The whole dish is around 250ft diameter)
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jb.man.ac.uk%2Fnews%2F2003%2Froyalvisit%2FLovell.jpg&hash=24232a81b6b888b850d0d1752b6b32e4396c8148)
Quote from: bmapwv on November 15, 2015, 12:37:53 PM
I am currently rebuilding my 10" f/5.6 Dobber. The main scope assembly is done but I need to make the box and fit the bearings and the whole thing has to be light enough for me to lift. A few years ago that was not an issue but now I have arms that look like transplanted chicken legs compared to the muscly, beefy ones of old. Picking up the old base box was simply out of the question and so a new, lighter one is needed.
One of these days .....
Sooner better than later! My case, the very thin arms got more muscle mass as with the girly things happening on HRT than before. My Doctor said that this does occur in a few cases. My feet have 50% muscular atrophy from the neuropathy but I still try. I've done more maintenance runs at my club's DSS than observing runs the past 4 years. At the star party 2 months ago, I was still pull pressing the 200 lb telescope up the ramp despite of of the numbness in the feet. I have to keep my ankles and legs upright so my feet won't slip on the truck bed. I cannot put much "English" to the feet anymore.
Joelene
When I see a meteor shower,
I yell the end is coming!
its the end of the world!
Yes. I get my telescope out from time to time for some star gazing. Even if I don't have it out I look at the stars and wonder if anyone is looking back at me.
It became so much easier once I could orientate myself by using the constellations and stars to find other things.
I remember the days of the original 7 Mercury astronauts through the televised space shuttle flights until it was no longer shown on TV. Had space flight become that common?
Love,
Clare