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The Astronomy Thread.

The Atheist

The Grammar Tyrant
The Atheist
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Jul 3, 2006
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There must be a few people here who get out their 5 inch at night to play with? Some of you may even be lucky enough to have 6, 8 or even 10 inches!

February looks to be another astronomy special, with our solar system putting on some great displays - a penumbral eclipse of the moon, several occultations, a close gathering of Mars, Mercury & Jupiter, and maybe a comet for those with a larger calibre. At +5, it should be easiest to find in late Feb as it nears Saturn. (Comet Lulin)

Here's a link to this month's sky map.
 
10" Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount. Half the neighborhood turns out on clear nights.

The other half won't turn their porch lights off, the bas****s.
 
Frinkiak7 said:
10" Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount. Half the neighborhood turns out on clear nights.

The other half won't turn their porch lights off, the bas****s.
Click to expand...

Nice - the scope, not so nice with the neighbours.

Light pollution sucks.

Now, if we can stop the earth's rotation when we need to...
 
(Prepares to sound ridiculously stupid....) What are stars supposed to look like through a telescope? I got a very low-end telescope for free from a friend of mine, and I have tried looking at some of the stars I see from my balcony (I live in the downtown core of a metropolitan city so you can imagine how few stars are visible). Well so far I've managed to look at orion's belt, and through the telescope, they look like tiny balls of dancing electric sparks...is that because there's too much refraction by the atmosphere? I live right next to lake ontario so is the air too moist?
 
theneedtoknow said:
(Prepares to sound ridiculously stupid....) What are stars supposed to look like through a telescope? I got a very low-end telescope for free from a friend of mine, and I have tried looking at some of the stars I see from my balcony (I live in the downtown core of a metropolitan city so you can imagine how few stars are visible). Well so far I've managed to look at orion's belt, and through the telescope, they look like tiny balls of dancing electric sparks...is that because there's too much refraction by the atmosphere? I live right next to lake ontario so is the air too moist?
Click to expand...

Focused right, at high magnification, a star ought to be a little point of light with a diffraction ring around it.

In a city, looking over buildings in cold weather, yeah, the stars will shimmer and move around. Very much like images seen at a distance on a hot day over hot roads or flatlands do and for the same reason; Moving cells of hot air that refract the light.
 
@theneedtoknow,

With a smaller telescope, if you want more "Ohh! AHH!" factor, try looking for galaxies, nebulae, and planets. Although with the light pollution you have to deal with, that may be a bit disappointing too.
 
theneedtoknow said:
(Prepares to sound ridiculously stupid....) What are stars supposed to look like through a telescope?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you do need a little bit of grunt to get much use out of a telescope - with a small one the stars still look like stars and the planets look like big, round stars.

You may need to a bigger telescope, although, as already said - you may be able to get some mileage out of looking at galaxies, binary systems, nebulae and the like. If that doesn't work, you're stuck with the moon and bathrooms until you get a bigger one.

;)

BenBurch said:
After my 6" Newtonian was STOLEN, I have a 4.25 Newtonian and a Meade ETX-90 with the computer drive.

I like the Meade, but its finder is useless, and I need to get a "red dot" finder for it some day.
Click to expand...

Yep, learning to find the damned things is half the battle.
 
I used to have a very good 10.1" Dob. Had to give it up about 20 years ago.

Now I've got a piece of crap 8" on an equatorial mount. It's got so many problems, it's been largely unusable--even after buying a lot of new stuff for it (telrad finder to replace the flimsy finder scope, a new focuser to replace the terribly sloppy one it came with, etc.).
 
I have two telescopes, both of which sit unused. I plan to correct this problem this year.

One is a teenyweeny Celestron refractor which is pretty useless for anything but looking at the moon. Even Mars is still a red dot through it. The other is about a 6" reflector on an equatorial mount. Last time I checked, it had a family of very large huntsman spiders living in it.
 
8" reflector on dobsonian mount here. Skywatcher. Never had any problems with it. Perfectly calibrated when delivered. :)
 
I own a 6" Newtonian, but it's currently at my dad's house, about 5,500 miles away from where I live.
 
I have a three in. inch reflector I haven't used since the early eighties. Although it did me good service in the seventies.

Now I use binocs 10x50 or the Mark One eyeballs.
 
I own a 12" reflector and an EQ6 Pro equatorial as well as a Maksutov 90mm which I use as a guide scope. I use a Hutech modded Canon40d for astrophotography.
I have not used the equipment for about 8 months due to having built extensions to my home, hence scope location now gone.
I am busy building a permanent observing platform and hope to be "back at school" shortly.
Looking at the cosmos with a good telescope of any aperture, is a truly humbling experience and can only confirm what insignificant creatures we actually are.:boxedin:
 
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