Anyone into Astronomy?

[SAK Guy]

I had a good night yesterday, planetary but also deepsky from my light polluted balcony. Started with 6" Maksutov on Nexstar GOTO mount amd finished with 66 ED. How are you doing?

Our rain showers are persisting here, and when we do have clear skies the timing isn't right for me to set up and observe.  I will try to get some time in tomorrow night if the rain gods allow it!!  For the most part it has rained for a month solid here.

+1 and now with all the rain, swarms of mosquitoes rule the evening hours...that's the next prob I have to resolve.

[Mercury]

I had a good night yesterday, planetary but also deepsky from my light polluted balcony. Started with 6" Maksutov on Nexstar GOTO mount amd finished with 66 ED. How are you doing?

Our rain showers are persisting here, and when we do have clear skies the timing isn't right for me to set up and observe.  I will try to get some time in tomorrow night if the rain gods allow it!!  For the most part it has rained for a month solid here.

+1 and now with all the rain, swarms of mosquitoes rule the evening hours...that's the next prob I have to resolve.

That makes it real tough!

[AlephZero]

I still have my old soviet built 115mm newtonian i bought when i was like 17

and Uranometria 2000.0 star charts have to find em tho...

[kkokkolis]

Heavy clouds with occasional holes, and lack of time, so it is my binoculars and WO 66ED these days and nights. I'm going to look at the sailing ships now, they always give me a sense of hope.

[kkokkolis]

Here it is, the 66 in terrestrial form, with William Optics Amici prism for right field of view orientation, Explore Scientific 24mm for 16.67x at 4 degrees and Baader Hyperion Zoom for 20-50x at 1.44 degrees. Here on a Vixen Porta Mount but also on a Manfrotto tripod with Novoflex MagicBall mount. A very bright William Optics Multi Reticle Finder allocates easily targets under the brightest sun. A beautiful telescope/fieldscope.

[Mercury]

Very nice!! 


I'm looking at getting a terrestrial rig in the future, my weather here is just not cooperating.  Even if the skies were clear, it's so damn humid and the seeing has been so bad that hunting galaxies is a waste of time.  I am hoping that tomorrow night is clear so I can pull out my DOB and have a go at it.

[SAK Guy]

Agreed, very nice!!!!!!!

[AlephZero]

Uh, I should put the telescope together for a pic

115mm Newtonian Named "Sirius" in the Soviet Union, got her about 20 yrs ago from a fellow member of the local Astronomical Society  (which was also named Sirius btw)

[TazzieRob]

I'd like to get into a bit of astronomy.  I only have a set of binoculars, 8x40 I think, but my father in law has a Celestron AstroMaster 130 stashed in a cupboard I might be able to convince him to let me borrow.  It is on an EQ mount though.  I need to quiz him on it a bit more and see what he knows.  I asked him whether he'd had it out at all to look at Jupiter and Venus but he hadn't had it out for ages.

I'm really not steady enough hand holding my binoculars and should get a tripod, but what sort of binos are good for moon, planet, star cluster looking, and can you just buy a decent pair of anything and get a universal tripod mount?

[kkokkolis]

I'd like to get into a bit of astronomy.  I only have a set of binoculars, 8x40 I think, but my father in law has a Celestron AstroMaster 130 stashed in a cupboard I might be able to convince him to let me borrow.  It is on an EQ mount though.  I need to quiz him on it a bit more and see what he knows.  I asked him whether he'd had it out at all to look at Jupiter and Venus but he hadn't had it out for ages.

I'm really not steady enough hand holding my binoculars and should get a tripod, but what sort of binos are good for moon, planet, star cluster looking, and can you just buy a decent pair of anything and get a universal tripod mount?

For a beginner, 8x40 are fine. You need wide field of views to understand the relative positions of stars and objects, these should have 7-8 degrees. You get a planisphere, or a low scale starmap (Orion Deepmap 600 for example) or a smartphone map app and you focus on a constellation. Scorpio, Sagitarius, Aquila, Lyra and Cygnus are the highlights of the season.
You'll see Jupiter as a bright globe and up to 4 of its moons. Saturn will be starlike but a bit bloated, steady and yellow, so you'll know it isn't a star but you can't see the rings at this magnification (you need over 40x or so). Venus will be an iridescent globe, you won't see its phase, unless she is filtered by low clouds. Star clusters are the best objects to see with 8x40, it is late for Pleiades and Hyades, but there is Beehive cluster (it is low in sunset) and after midnight a lot of clusters around Sagitarius (the "teapot"). If you are in a dark site they are spectacular and surrounded by the Milkyway. Later you will see Andromeda and Perseus double cluster and during the winter the champion of the sky, Orion nebula.

What?!!! Now I saw you are upside down. Well, most of what I said is true for you too, just... upside down. In fact I think you'll be having a better view of the summer (for us) zodiac objects, since they will be higher in your sky because you have winter there. But you are lucky to have the Magellan nebulas, the Southern Cross (... it's the Siiign, the Sign of the Southern Cross, yeah!) and others I don't know because I've never had the luck to observe from the down under or see the Kiwi bird (yes, I know it is in New Zealand, I would like to see NZ first).

Anyway, 8x40 is a great way to start, I still use my 8x42s a lot, almost every day and night in fact, my telescopes are each used 1-10 times a year in contrast.

[TazzieRob]

Upside down, yeah. Thanks for the tips!
I need a mount for a tripod or some sort of extra support. Found some simple ideas here

http://stargazing.com/bino/index . him

My binos are a cheapish set of 8x40 8.0 degree field, 140m/1000m

[SAK Guy]

Upside down, yeah. Thanks for the tips!
I need a mount for a tripod or some sort of extra support. Found some simple ideas here

http://stargazing.com/bino/index . him

My binos are a cheapish set of 8x40 8.0 degree field, 140m/1000m

Fixed your link!
http://stargazing.com/bino/index.html

[SAK Guy]

Upside down, yeah. Thanks for the tips!
I need a mount for a tripod or some sort of extra support. Found some simple ideas here

http://stargazing.com/bino/index . him

My binos are a cheapish set of 8x40 8.0 degree field, 140m/1000m

Fixed your link!
http://stargazing.com/bino/index.html

That guy's got some good ideas! 

I use this technique on my big Nikon binos but I lower the whole thing some and then lean the tripod back into me so I can look higher into the sky comfortably No neck breaking angles.

[TazzieRob]

Upside down, yeah. Thanks for the tips!
I need a mount for a tripod or some sort of extra support. Found some simple ideas here

http://stargazing.com/bino/index . him

My binos are a cheapish set of 8x40 8.0 degree field, 140m/1000m

Fixed your link!
http://stargazing.com/bino/index.html

That guy's got some good ideas! 

I use this technique on my big Nikon binos but I lower the whole thing some and then lean the tripod back into me so I can look higher into the sky comfortably No neck breaking angles.
(Image removed from quote.)

Thanks for the fix. Trying to copy links on my mobile is a pain in the smurf hole. I need a better keyboard app.

Jupiter and Venus should align tonight. Been watching them get closer and closer

[Mercury]

I love the blinder idea!  I have stupid post lights that I can't dim or turn off in my parking area.  The last storm we had flooded my garage and destroyed the boxes I was using to cover them. 

[pfrsantos]

Did any of you see the Venus + Jupiter big shinny star yesterday? I tried to but it was too late when I finally got to look at the sky...

[Mercury]

I saw them when they were a couple degrees apart, that's all.  My neighbor made a huge deal about it though.  He's a pastor and he was all excited, saying we would see the Star of Bethlehem tonight and it hasn't happened in 2000 years and I really should take my scope out for it!  I didn't have the heart to tell him this conjunction is fairly common. 

[pfrsantos]

I saw them when they were a couple degrees apart, that's all.  My neighbor made a huge deal about it though.  He's a pastor and he was all excited, saying we would see the Star of Bethlehem tonight and it hasn't happened in 2000 years and I really should take my scope out for it!  I didn't have the heart to tell him this conjunction is fairly common.

Yup, read something about it. In the news they said this is very uncommon and can only be viewed every 2000 years or so... If it's not sensational, it's not news, right?

 

[Mercury]

I saw them when they were a couple degrees apart, that's all.  My neighbor made a huge deal about it though.  He's a pastor and he was all excited, saying we would see the Star of Bethlehem tonight and it hasn't happened in 2000 years and I really should take my scope out for it!  I didn't have the heart to tell him this conjunction is fairly common.

Yup, read something about it. In the news they said this is very uncommon and can only be viewed every 2000 years or so... If it's not sensational, it's not news, right?

 

I don't watch the news, for that reason right there.  I got sick of being "informed" about what they wanted to inform me about, which boils down to what crime happened today, who's going to jail for it, and what the sheriff said about it.  The news sucks. 

[kkokkolis]

We have rain, three days in a row. Do you know how uncommon is this for Athens in the summer? It is so since March.
Everything goes wrong on our  little bare rock lately. 

[SAK Guy]

Light overcast last night rendered the conjunction unmemorable.......

[Mercury]

It was real cloudy last night, wasn't worth setting up.  I did see the Venus/Jupiter convergence though.

[pfrsantos]

We have rain, three days in a row. Do you know how uncommon is this for Athens in the summer? It is so since March.
Everything goes wrong on our  little bare rock lately. 

We've been having well over 30º (from 32º to 36º). Today was a little less, near 30º and after lunch it started to rain, too.

 

Crazy weather!
 

[TazzieRob]

Saw them still apart on my drive home from work through a gap in the cloud, then the rain came

[kkokkolis]

I missed it for nights in a row, because of clouds, rain and late work. I've seen it tonight though, although not during their closest approach. Still they fit in all my binoculars and my WO 66ED with Ethos 13 and marginally with Delos 10 (30x & 40x). It was nice with binoculars but better at 40x where I could see clearly the phase of Venus and Jupiter with bands and 4 moons. 

Delos used with Fringe Killer and Neodymium, it really works. 

[AlephZero]

Finally got the picture of my trusty old telescope:



I admit, it's been years since I've put the whole thing together, but now, seeing it in all it's full glory... It's a magnificent thing, isn't it?

[kkokkolis]

Isn't that a mortar?
Very nice and classic. They rarely sell pylons nowadays.

[AlephZero]

Isn't that a mortar?
Very nice and classic. They rarely sell pylons nowadays.

Classic soviet design, I'd say

[kkokkolis]

Tonight the sky is going to be clear probably and we are close to the New Moon. I think I'll make an urban session with the 12".

[Edward Scissorhands]

One of these days I'll have to get a picture of my Meade 4500, a starter reflector I picked up around the turn of the millennium. I supplemented that with several eyepieces, color filters, and a Barlow.

Some of my favorite targets were Orion, Mars and the gas giants, and I would finish with the Moon.

It's been in storage for a while now. Years ago I moved to what must be the Tree Capital of my tree-intensive state. Don't even get me started on lake-effect cloud cover during every worthwhile celestial event!