General Discussion

@Reltseo

No problem! And yeah, brothers can be great for tech support XD

I don't think I've ever read "The Elegant Universe", but I have heard of Brian Greene! I saw that PBS special series based on his book "The Fabric of the Cosmos", and it was really interesting.

There are some great astronomy documentaries out there! One of my favorite movies of all time (you read that right, movies, not just documentaries) is called "The City Dark" by Ian Cheney. I cannot recommend it enough! It's on Netflix, so if you have Netflix you might check it out :)

As for building your own telescope: Check with the local astronomy club or society to see if they have any telescope building experts to give you advice! My local astronomy club has a whole sub-group for telescope builders. My telescope was bought pre-made though, and it couldn't be any better for me. It was 400$, but should last me at least 10 years. It's an 8" Dobsonian, which is about the largest telescope an amateur should have unless you're going to keep it in one location forever. It's large enough to see galaxies and nebulae from my heavily-light polluted backyard, and the only real limit to magnification is the stability of the atmosphere. Basically, if you want to buy a good quality, large aperture telescope, it's the one I recommend. A link: Orion XT8 Dobsonian

Of course, that's only if you're interested in deep-sky observation. If you're more into planets, you may want a refractor instead.

Yeah, math is a killer! Basically my advice to you is this: Don't be disgusted with yourself! Something I've learned is that people only really learn when they are interested. Chances are if you weren't interested in math in school you didn't retain it, like probably 90% of the population. If you want to learn math, then you can learn math. If you don't want to, that's ok too! You really don't have to know math to be an amateur! The only exception I can think of is that it would be good to know math to build your own telescope, but you can probably get by without it, it would just be more difficult.

I hope that you get the chance to go to a dark sky site soon!

A starparty is an event, usually held by the local astronomy club. They schedule a date, and on that date at sundown several astronomers show up with telescopes, and anyone who's interested shows up to look through the telescopes and learn about the sky. Honestly I don't know where they find out, because it's not like we advertise it, but at least 20 members of the public will show up to even the smallest starparties our club has (3-4 telescopes). There are also starparties held at observatories that tend to be far larger. While usually starparties are in the city, the ones at observatories will be in darker locations, with 20-50 astronomers or more showing up in my (very limited) experience and 100+ members of the public.

Clear Skies!

@Linoone

That's great! My largest binoculars are 10x50s, probably not in the best shape (they've been knocked around and dropped in the family for years) but still provide some great views!

You might also want to check out a binocular chair, if for nothing but how cool they are :)
http://www.mpas.asn.au/astroinfo/binochair/binochair.htm

Clear Skies!

@souphands

Ceramics is pretty cool too! My mom is a ceramics artist, and while not quite the same thing, I did lot of sculpting with polymer clay a while back.

A dark sky site? Boy, you're in for a treat! :) You're right, a dark sky site is a place very far from light pollution. Technically any place with dark skies is a dark sky site, but the term is also used to refer to specific locations for astronomy, like observatories and properties owned by astronomy clubs. For an example, the Texas Astronomical Society has a property in a dark area with concrete pads with power for telescopes, a few small observatory buildings, and a bunkhouse. Not all astronomy clubs have them, however. National and State parks can be good dark sites, and a good resource for finding dark sky sites or checking the light pollution level of an area is this light pollution map:

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

It's basically Google Maps with a light pollution overlay.

Clear Skies!

@souphands

No problem! It's not quite as bad as it looks, really anything bright green or below is a pretty dark sky. Black is absolutely pristine. I forgot to give you the key, sorry about that! Scroll down on this page, and that's what you can see in the various zones of color:

http://www.cleardarksky.com/lp/Stellafanelp.html?Mn=apochromatic

As an example, you can already begin to see the milky way in dark red areas when you are dark adapted.

Clear Skies!

1- I'm not sure... I've just always been interested in space and astronomy!

2- I have binoculars, and I can borrow telescopes from my school.

3- Serious, but not too serious. I might study astronomy in college, but I'm not sure yet.

4- Yes. I've been on road trips at night through Montana (literally no one lives there) and camping trips in the mountains, and more recently to an observatory in Wisconsin. The sky there was dark enough to see way more stars than in the city, but I could only barely see the Milky Way. (Not sure if these are considered dark sky sites, but the sky was very dark!)

5- No, but I want to go! The next time the Astronomy club has one, I'm going.

@ZannaDragon

@NightFire102

That's cool that you can borrow telescopes from your school! Our astronomy club has a loaner program, but I'd never head of a school having that. That's great! :)

Yeah, it's a pretty good chance driving through Montana that you were under pristine skies XD There's a good light pollution map that I use a lot here:

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

The key is here:

http://www.cleardarksky.com/lp/Stellafanelp.html?Mn=apochromatic

When you are at a dark sky area, you'll know it. The milky way will be very bright, with detail visible, and the sky extremely black, even at an area that is light green on the charts. That is, as long as the moon is not up. I was at a FANTASTIC dark sky site on Christmas, dark blue on the chart, but because of the full moon it looked no better than the suburb where I live! You could not even start to make out the milky way, and this was on top of a mountain no less! Having the moon up is like having a giant streetlight in the sky. :\

I've been to an observatory where the light pollution levels were only a little better than the suburbs, and even after the moon set, you could only barely see the milky way. There's quite a few observatories plauged by light pollution.

Great to hear! Starparties may not be for everyone, but I sure love them :)

Clear Skies!

[center][size=5][b](Putting this here for archival purposes)[/b][/size] [quote][center][size=7][b]Featured Image[/b][/size] [size=4][b]Click on image for hi-res version[/b][/size][/center] [url=http://s1382.photobucket.com/user/AryaDragonmaster/media/Astrophotography/NoCalibrationMaxStylePhotoshopped_zpsluz3oogy.jpg.html][img]http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah248/AryaDragonmaster/Astrophotography/NoCalibrationMaxStylePhotoshopped_zpsluz3oogy.jpg[/img][/url] Carina Nebula. Taken by @ZannaDragon using the robotic FSQ-106 telescope at Sliding Spring Observatory, Australia. [size=1](I forgot the exact exposure of this one because this was my first imaging run and I have SO. MANY. FILES. I think it's 4x1 minute exposures?)[/size][/quote][/center]