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Nekron
Yes absolutely I'll add you!!! I'm so glad to have another person with a telescope in the club :)
The aperture was 106mm, or 4.2 inches. I don't own the telescope, it's a robotic telescope at Sliding Spring Observatory in Australia. It's one of three accessible to students and researchers online through the Tzec Maun Foundation. It's a Takahashi FSQ-106 with a SBIG STL-11000 C One-Shot Color CCD.
I do own for myself an Orion XT8 Classic Dobsonian, and love to use that for visual observing! It's very calming to be out under the sky, although sometimes I get rather discouraged by the light pollution where I live. Friday nights can be especially bad, because we live close to the local stadium where they have Friday night football. Still, I saw M51
and NGC 5195 (the companion galaxy) one night! With how bright the companion is, I guess it makes sense, but it was absolutely thrilling when I glimpsed them both through the eyepiece! They were just barely there, as though they were ghosts, but still definitely present. I observed them for a long time that night, and have never been able to find them since.
I just looked up Joshua Tree on
Dark Site Finder, and it is very dark, depending on which side you're on! The darkest place I've ever been was a dark blue on the map, but the moon was full, so I couldn't even see the Milky Way :| Besides that, I've been to a light green area (without my telescope), when the moon was new, and that was AMAZING, so I'm look forward to getting to see a truly dark sky one day!
Clear Skies!
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Nekron
Yes absolutely I'll add you!!! I'm so glad to have another person with a telescope in the club :)
The aperture was 106mm, or 4.2 inches. I don't own the telescope, it's a robotic telescope at Sliding Spring Observatory in Australia. It's one of three accessible to students and researchers online through the Tzec Maun Foundation. It's a Takahashi FSQ-106 with a SBIG STL-11000 C One-Shot Color CCD.
I do own for myself an Orion XT8 Classic Dobsonian, and love to use that for visual observing! It's very calming to be out under the sky, although sometimes I get rather discouraged by the light pollution where I live. Friday nights can be especially bad, because we live close to the local stadium where they have Friday night football. Still, I saw M51
and NGC 5195 (the companion galaxy) one night! With how bright the companion is, I guess it makes sense, but it was absolutely thrilling when I glimpsed them both through the eyepiece! They were just barely there, as though they were ghosts, but still definitely present. I observed them for a long time that night, and have never been able to find them since.
I just looked up Joshua Tree on
Dark Site Finder, and it is very dark, depending on which side you're on! The darkest place I've ever been was a dark blue on the map, but the moon was full, so I couldn't even see the Milky Way :| Besides that, I've been to a light green area (without my telescope), when the moon was new, and that was AMAZING, so I'm look forward to getting to see a truly dark sky one day!
Clear Skies!
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Linoone
I'm so glad you like it! :) I'm lucky in that I have access to great telescopes under dark skies, and I hope you get the opportunity to take images like that (and better!) someday!
Clear Skies!
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Linoone
I'm so glad you like it! :) I'm lucky in that I have access to great telescopes under dark skies, and I hope you get the opportunity to take images like that (and better!) someday!
Clear Skies!
Wow, these are seriously awesome. Btw, does anyone know if any celestial occurrences (famous comets passing by earth, meteor showers, planters visible, etc) will be taking place soon?
Wow, these are seriously awesome. Btw, does anyone know if any celestial occurrences (famous comets passing by earth, meteor showers, planters visible, etc) will be taking place soon?
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Kristy/Kris
she/her
Adult
+1 FR time
Please ping me! I may miss your reply/message if you don't.
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ZannaDragon , you must have a great time observing with your Dob. Do you find that it requires a lot of maintenance, e.g. collimation? I was tempted to order mirrors for a 8" or 10" but I decided that it would be better to start small and get used to the process of building something that works. I simply don't have the time right now since I'm graduating from college in May, but I'm excited to get started.
M51 must have been absolutely beautiful. Next time I go to Joshua Tree I'll try and make an effort to look for it. If you can, I
highly recommend planning a trip to a dark sky site, it'll be far worth it! It goes without saying that you should plan for a new moon, haha. My very first trip to Joshua Tree was fraught with misfortune, first there was a thunderstorm (In the desert. But of course) and after the clouds cleared the full moon had come out. My friends were kind enough to wait with me until the moon had set, but by then it was nearly 4 am and I only got a tiny bit of observing done before we had to head home. Planning is key!
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SteampunkDragon , I am going to go ahead and plug
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/ as a great resource. Even if you don't subscribe to the magazine (which is an excellent publication, it is very accessible but less dumbed-down than you'll find in many other popular astronomy magazines), the website posts astronomy-relevant news and has a section (This Week's Sky at a Glance) where it talks exactly about the things you are looking for - which planets are visible, what phenomena are occurring, etc.
The only catch is that it only works for the Northern hemisphere. So if you're in Australia or elsewhere you'll probably have to look for another source. There is another tool on that website however, the Interactive sky chart, which does include the Southern Hemisphere.
@
ZannaDragon , you must have a great time observing with your Dob. Do you find that it requires a lot of maintenance, e.g. collimation? I was tempted to order mirrors for a 8" or 10" but I decided that it would be better to start small and get used to the process of building something that works. I simply don't have the time right now since I'm graduating from college in May, but I'm excited to get started.
M51 must have been absolutely beautiful. Next time I go to Joshua Tree I'll try and make an effort to look for it. If you can, I
highly recommend planning a trip to a dark sky site, it'll be far worth it! It goes without saying that you should plan for a new moon, haha. My very first trip to Joshua Tree was fraught with misfortune, first there was a thunderstorm (In the desert. But of course) and after the clouds cleared the full moon had come out. My friends were kind enough to wait with me until the moon had set, but by then it was nearly 4 am and I only got a tiny bit of observing done before we had to head home. Planning is key!
@
SteampunkDragon , I am going to go ahead and plug
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/ as a great resource. Even if you don't subscribe to the magazine (which is an excellent publication, it is very accessible but less dumbed-down than you'll find in many other popular astronomy magazines), the website posts astronomy-relevant news and has a section (This Week's Sky at a Glance) where it talks exactly about the things you are looking for - which planets are visible, what phenomena are occurring, etc.
The only catch is that it only works for the Northern hemisphere. So if you're in Australia or elsewhere you'll probably have to look for another source. There is another tool on that website however, the Interactive sky chart, which does include the Southern Hemisphere.
THE ILLNESS WILL BRING YOU PEACE.
SERENITY IS BORN FROM CERTAINTY AND YOUR SUFFERING IS CERTAIN.
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Nekron
Yeah, it's an awesome telescope :) Perfect for deep-sky observing!
My telescope does not require a lot of collimation. It needed to be collimated every couple weeks there for a while, but that was when I was doing two long (4+ hours) drives with the telescope in the back ever week! Under normal use conditions you'll probably only need to collimate it every few months to keep it in good shape. What's more, for the Orion XT8 it's extremely easy. It comes with a collimation cap that you put in the focuser barrel. You look through the collimation cap and you can see a set of circles, and then all you have to do is tweak thumbscrews on the base of the telescope until the circles are centered perfectly.
I do not recommend a 10", as I find that an 8" is about as large as I can handle. You have to be able to carry it outside every night (bulk is as much of a factor here as weight), and it needs to be able to fit in your vehicle for taking to dark sky sites.
Yeah, currently life stuff has made it so that I can't do any traveling, but probably within a year I'll be making regular trips to dark sky sites! The RL astronomy club I'm in has a property in a dark location for members to use, and there is a dark-ish place more nearby with observatories I'll also probably make trips to.
(I have a subscription to Sky and Telescope magazine and it's great!)
Clear Skies!
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Nekron
Yeah, it's an awesome telescope :) Perfect for deep-sky observing!
My telescope does not require a lot of collimation. It needed to be collimated every couple weeks there for a while, but that was when I was doing two long (4+ hours) drives with the telescope in the back ever week! Under normal use conditions you'll probably only need to collimate it every few months to keep it in good shape. What's more, for the Orion XT8 it's extremely easy. It comes with a collimation cap that you put in the focuser barrel. You look through the collimation cap and you can see a set of circles, and then all you have to do is tweak thumbscrews on the base of the telescope until the circles are centered perfectly.
I do not recommend a 10", as I find that an 8" is about as large as I can handle. You have to be able to carry it outside every night (bulk is as much of a factor here as weight), and it needs to be able to fit in your vehicle for taking to dark sky sites.
Yeah, currently life stuff has made it so that I can't do any traveling, but probably within a year I'll be making regular trips to dark sky sites! The RL astronomy club I'm in has a property in a dark location for members to use, and there is a dark-ish place more nearby with observatories I'll also probably make trips to.
(I have a subscription to Sky and Telescope magazine and it's great!)
Clear Skies!
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SteampunkDragon
There's been a planetary alignment going on, where all 5 naked eye planets have been visible in the sky at the same time! Unfortunately I think by now Mercury has disappeared into the glare of dawn, but the others should still be visible if you get up ~90 minutes before sunrise! (I got up to see it a couple weeks ago, woke up all my family, then went outside- it was completely clouded over! Check the forecast before you get up early!)
Clear Skies!
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SteampunkDragon
There's been a planetary alignment going on, where all 5 naked eye planets have been visible in the sky at the same time! Unfortunately I think by now Mercury has disappeared into the glare of dawn, but the others should still be visible if you get up ~90 minutes before sunrise! (I got up to see it a couple weeks ago, woke up all my family, then went outside- it was completely clouded over! Check the forecast before you get up early!)
Clear Skies!
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Nekron
I've just heard some exciting, potentially game-changing news! I want to make it very clear right now:
I have no idea if this is a valid idea. I do not know enough physics/engineering to judge this. The concept is very exciting, but we can't know this early if it's a feasible technology.
Photonics Propulsion
Essentially, using lasers pointed at spacecraft with mirrors mounted on them, we could accelerate our spacecraft to relativistic speeds. We could make it to Mars in 3 days. A month for a shuttle class spacecraft. The spacecraft would however be moving at galactic escape velocity when it got there, I wonder how they're planning to decelerate?
Anyhow, I think everyone should take a look at this, but don't get your hopes up. We'll have to wait a while to see if this is too good to be true or not. It could wind up false like the "life on comet" announcement last year.
http://www.space.com/31958-mars-in-3-days-photonic-propulsion-technology-could-bridge-the-gap-video.html
Clear Skies!
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ZannaDragon Oooh, neat! I remember reading about solar sails in a physics textbook a few years back - essentially using radiation pressure to push ultra-thin mirrors on a space vessel - and this seems very similar? Very cool idea. Not so sure on getting to Mars in three days, though, that's the part that strikes me as hard to achieve.
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ZannaDragon Oooh, neat! I remember reading about solar sails in a physics textbook a few years back - essentially using radiation pressure to push ultra-thin mirrors on a space vessel - and this seems very similar? Very cool idea. Not so sure on getting to Mars in three days, though, that's the part that strikes me as hard to achieve.
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ZannaDragon
Wow, this is a pretty cool concept! It would certainly make exploring the universe much easier and faster :D
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ZannaDragon
Wow, this is a pretty cool concept! It would certainly make exploring the universe much easier and faster :D
