Backyard Astronomers?

[Danny]

Any on here?

[KathyLauren]

Heck, yeah!



Om mani padme hum
Kathy

[Danny]

Heck, yeah!



Om mani padme hum
Kathy

Awesome! Kathy you got dark skies?

[KathyLauren]

Awesome! Kathy you got dark skies?

Pretty dark. Bortle 2 on a good night. More often Bortle 3.

Om mani padme hum
Kathy

[Danny]

Awesome! Kathy you got dark skies?

Pretty dark. Bortle 2 on a good night. More often Bortle 3.

Om mani padme hum
Kathy

I got to travel to get dark skies, I can photograph the usual M’s and planetary stuff, Wide field constellation stuff, but those deep NGC’s and Milky Way, I have to jump in car and drive 5 hours.
Btw, I was doing some fun research on the SDSS website, all their survey data is available to the public, you can spend hours on there digging through spectrums and deep redshift galaxies, you can even flag the objects of interest and submit them. I have an out of date Norton’s 2000, but it’s still good for the RA and Dec to input on that site for objects of interest.

[Queequeg]

Someone just gave us a telescope, and I've been meaning to get it out. My son has been falling into astronomy youtube holes lately and is asking a lot of questions - mostly about the sun eventually exploding - but a lot of more immediate questions, too. I'd like to get him looking through the telescope to fill out his experience and make the connection between what he is learning and the world around him.

Any suggestions for newbies on getting started?

[Caoimhghín]

Someone just gave us a telescope, and I've been meaning to get it out. My son has been falling into astronomy youtube holes lately and is asking a lot of questions - mostly about the sun eventually exploding - but a lot of more immediate questions, too. I'd like to get him looking through the telescope to fill out his experience and make the connection between what he is learning and the world around him.

Any suggestions for newbies on getting started?

Teach him how, as the universe expands, eventually the rate of the universe's expansion will outpace the speed of light, and light from other nearby stars will cease to reach us and there will only be inky black in the night sky. I can't imagine that possibly going wrong.

[Queequeg]

Someone just gave us a telescope, and I've been meaning to get it out. My son has been falling into astronomy youtube holes lately and is asking a lot of questions - mostly about the sun eventually exploding - but a lot of more immediate questions, too. I'd like to get him looking through the telescope to fill out his experience and make the connection between what he is learning and the world around him.

Any suggestions for newbies on getting started?

Teach him how, as the universe expands, eventually the rate of the universe's expansion will outpace the speed of light, and light from other nearby stars will cease to reach us and there will only be inky black in the night sky. I can't imagine that possibly going wrong.

LOL.

Yeah, this freaked ME out.

[Danny]

I would start small, the planets and the moon,
Leave the sun out, under no circumstances,
NEVER EVER, not even messing around, look directly or through optical equipment, observe ,look at, or entertain the Idea of looking at the sun, will absolutely cause permanent life long eye damage or blindness.
Get a general understanding of the big constellations, where’s Orion what time of year is it visible? What’s the ecliptic? Why the planets and moon follow that path from east to west etc. Then build from there. Most of those colorful images of nebulas and so on, like what you see in this thread, those objects look nothing like those through telescopes or binoculars. Those are images taken with long exposures with filters and enhanced in software. The thrill of finding a faint greenish smoke ring M57 ring nebula in the constellation of Lyra in the summer, will leave a lasting impression, then you’ll want to bag all the Messier catalogue deep sky objects, all 100+ of them. Then it becomes like a treasure hunt.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_object

Most people don’t realize you can see the 4 major moons of Jupiter with just a pair of binoculars,
and over a few hours see the orbits change.

Sky & telescope is a monthly online magazine that provides monthly star charts, positions of the planets and other interesting sky highlights and latest news etc.

[Queequeg]

Thanks!

[tingdzin]

We just had a series of amazing astronomical spectacles visible with the naked eye and probably fantastic with a telescope, including a new comet and a (semi-regular) meteor shower. If you start looking on the Net, there are sites that will notify you when this stuff is coming, and IMO it's great for kids to be interested in it.

[Danny]

We just had a series of amazing astronomical spectacles visible with the naked eye and probably fantastic with a telescope, including a new comet and a (semi-regular) meteor shower. If you start looking on the Net, there are sites that will notify you when this stuff is coming, and IMO it's great for kids to be interested in it.

Yes, people think you need big telescopes to sky watch, but honestly there’s so much naked eye observing one can do, planet conjunctions are fantastic to observe. Really can give you a sense of perspective of the solar system etc.

[tingdzin]

There's another meteor shower going on this week.

[Danny]

Yeah the Draconid meteor shower, a medium or moderate shower, best seen early hours of the night/morning. Draco is a constellation near Polaris (North Star), in Ursa Minor, in the northern hemisphere. So very easy to find.
Check for last quarter moon setting times, so shower doesn’t get washed out by moon light.

[DharmaN00b]

Most people don’t realize you can see the 4 major moons of Jupiter with just a pair of binoculars,
and over a few hours see the orbits change.

Sky & telescope is a monthly online magazine that provides monthly star charts, positions of the planets and other interesting sky highlights and latest news etc.

New enthusiast here/ ready t0 start scanning!

[Danny]

A nice pair of 10x50 magnification,
BAK 4 prisim, multi coated surface optics, with a tripod adapter, binoculars is the way to start, is a great jump off point to begin with. Use a tripod for steady viewing. It keeps the cost down, without shelling out for expensive gear. Light weight, portable and can go anywhere, and you’ll spend more time looking than setting up.
Enjoy.

[Danny]

Planet Mars is in opposition for the next few days, that means it’s at its best that it’s been in past 2 years. Look towards the east, can’t miss it.
Or won’t be this close to earth again until 2035.
Mars is notorious for observation. I’ve seen the large surface mare’s and polar ice caps with a 4.5” newtonian under pretty poor seeing, it’s a stretch, but doable. Larger scopes, no problems.

[tobes]

A nice pair of 10x50 magnification,
BAK 4 prisim, multi coated surface optics, with a tripod adapter, binoculars is the way to start, is a great jump off point to begin with. Use a tripod for steady viewing. It keeps the cost down, without shelling out for expensive gear. Light weight, portable and can go anywhere, and you’ll spend more time looking than setting up.
Enjoy.

Yep, plus a map!

[Danny]

A nice pair of 10x50 magnification,
BAK 4 prisim, multi coated surface optics, with a tripod adapter, binoculars is the way to start, is a great jump off point to begin with. Use a tripod for steady viewing. It keeps the cost down, without shelling out for expensive gear. Light weight, portable and can go anywhere, and you’ll spend more time looking than setting up.
Enjoy.

Yep, plus a map!

Yeah lots of easy apps for phones these days. I learnt my way around the old fashioned way.
A Norton’s 2000 and a red bulb flashlight.
Of course there’s the “go to” computer stuff on telescopes as well.

[KathyLauren]

This is my best Mars for this year. Seeing was poor, so the focus is off.

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