The Official Astronomy Thread

[Crusader]

Thought it might be a good idea for us Astronomy nuts to have a dedicated thread to discuss astronomy, telescopes, EP and accessories and share heads ups of forthcoming celestial attractions and perhaps even some viewing logs/experiences.

So here it is... come join in if space is your thing!

 

[mercurial]

Nice

 

[Crusader]

By an amazing stroke of luck, most of the clouds disappeared just after it got dark, so I got to take my 10" Orion XT10 out for the first time after about a month and a half. I'm pretty rusty in tracking down stuff, but I did manage to find quite a few things.

Sagittarius Cluster (M22)
M25
Lagoon Nebula(M8)
Trifid Nebula (M20)
Butterfly Cluster (M6)

And had a reasonbly good view of Jupiter and 4 moons. With Io and Europa close to Jupiter and Callisto and Ganymede further out (at around 19:55). Then sat and watched as Europa disappeared behind Jupiter itself.

Now, I'm trying to track down the Helix Nebula, but seems it's still a bit low in the sky to see it from my location. That's if it is even visible without a filter...

 

[|tera|]

How does a star really look? I've tried googling for photo's, but I don't find anything that really shows me, or it looks "generated"?

I'd like to have a telescope, but I don't have money

 

[mercurial]

Nice. I'm not at that level of expertise yet
I am in the process of acquiring probably the best nebulae filters on the market. I've done the research and apparently it's a no brainer that Lumicon sell the best telescope filters. Here are the filters that I'm gonna get, the first three being for viewing nebulae and the last one basically to remove glare for lunar and planetary observations:

Lumicon Deep Sky Filter 1.25"

Lumicon Oxygen III Filter 1.25"

Lumicon Ultra High Contrast 1.25"

Single Polarizer 1.25"

 

[mercurial]

How does a star really look? I've tried googling for photo's, but I don't find anything that really shows me, or it looks "generated"?

I'd like to have a telescope, but I don't have money

The sun is the closest star. The next closest star is way too far away to see. We will only be able to see it as we typically see stars, which is a bright, twinkling dot.

 

[|tera|]

The sun is the closest star. The next closest star is way too far away to see. We will only be able to see it as we typically see stars, which is a bright, twinkling dot.

I thought so Thanks.

I always thought stars looked the same always

 

[waynegohl]

nice thread people.

 

[mercurial]

The universe is a big, beautiful place. I am fascinated by it. I'm always learning, as there is so much to learn, but it's so damn interesting and fascinating. I'd advise anyone to pick it up as a hobby. Nothing better than seeing Saturn

 

[zamicro]

Nice idea. Now some of us (astro-noobs) can learn a bit more...

By an amazing stroke of luck, most of the clouds disappeared just after it got dark, so I got to take my 10" Orion XT10 out for the first time after about a month and a half.

I looked at telescopes a while ago, but after seeing the prices decided that it must wait a while. A few years ago while working in dark africa, I worked with a friend who owned a Meade 8". So if you are talking about a 10" then I guess it must be pretty pricey? Also, where do you live to be able to take it out? Probably not in a city? Is it usable in a city, or will I be wasting my money?

 

[mercurial]

Nice idea. Now some of us (astro-noobs) can learn a bit more...


I looked at telescopes a while ago, but after seeing the prices decided that it must wait a while. A few years ago while working in dark africa, I worked with a friend who owned a Meade 8". So if you are talking about a 10" then I guess it must be pretty pricey? Also, where do you live to be able to take it out? Probably not in a city? Is it usable in a city, or will I be wasting my money?

Check out shop.technopro.co.za. Check the SkyWatcher range of Dobsonian telescopes. You get the newer Flex models which are cheaper, and they save vertical space. A 10" Flex is round about R5000. If you want an 8" Flex, you can get one for about R2900-ish.

City is fine, but obviously there's light pollution. But this is not that much of a problem. The important thing is to be under nice viewing conditions, ie: no wind, no backyard lights and also by leaving the telescope for about 30-60 minutes in the yard, to give it time to adjust to the atmospheric conditions(I hardly ever do this ).
You can also counter the light pollution by getting light pollution filters.

It's all about aperture - the amount of light that your telescope can gather. The more it gathers, the more you can see. There 3 different types of telescopes:
Reflectors - Uses mirrors to reflect the incoming light onto an eyepiece. Probably among the cheaper of the telescopes, but the most widely used ones.
Refractors - Uses powerful lenses to refract the light onto an eyepiece. Very expensive telescopes.
Catadioptric - Mostly known as Cassegrains(various versions of this as well). Uses both reflectors and refractors to focus the incoming light onto an eyepiece. These offer the sharpest images but are extremely expensive.

 

[bwana]

Nice thread.

I'd love to get stuck into astronomy (and especially astrophotography) but considering the costs involved I wouldn't have enough left over to pay the divorce attorney - so until circumstances change I'll resign myself to being the jealous bystander.

 

[|tera|]

Nice thread.

I'd love to get stuck into astronomy (and especially astrophotography) but considering the costs involved I wouldn't have enough left over to pay the divorce attorney - so until circumstances change I'll resign myself to being the jealous bystander.

Oh shame We're both broke, that has to count for something

Let's buy a scope together, we can courier it to each other every 6 months

 

[Crusader]

As Mercurial said, the stars basically look exactly the same as you see them with your eyes - twinkling dots. There's just a WHOLE lot more of them, depending on the aperture size of the scope and it's light gathering ability. The larger the aperture, to more light is gathered making it possible to see fainter stars.

What you are able to do is to separate (split) multiple and binary stars. Through the telescope you can see two (or more) stars where you would only see one star with your naked eye. Both the stars in the tail (pointer) of the Southern Cross are multiple stars.

Some other amazing things to see are star clusters. Globular clusters are circular clusters of stars with hundreds to millions of stars within the cluster. My favourite is Omega Centauri with around 10 million stars!

Then you get Open clusters which are basically close groupings of less than a few thousand stars. The Seven Sisters (Pleiades) are one of the most famous open clusters.

You can also see nebulae, but don't expect Hubble type views. You won't see any colour and most of them require a very large telescope as well as various filters to see properly. Normally they appear as "misty cloud like forms" around stars.

The same goes for galaxies. Most of them are extremely faint, and you will only make them out as "smudges" with brighter cores.

Finally, and the things most people look at easily is the planets. Saturn and Jupiter are the ones you can see the best, even with smaller telescopes. You can very easily make out Saturn's rings and see the reddish bands around Jupiter. Their moons also show up very nicely around the planets (they look like stars).

Most amateur astronomers have their favourite type of object. Some love to track down the "faint fuzzies" - galaxies, nebulae and other Deep Sky objects, others prefer to focus only on nebulae and yet others only stick to the planets. Astronomy isn't just about looking at stars. There's a whole new world of objects to explore... there's so much out there that you'll never get bored.

 

[mercurial]

Nice thread.

I'd love to get stuck into astronomy (and especially astrophotography) but considering the costs involved I wouldn't have enough left over to pay the divorce attorney - so until circumstances change I'll resign myself to being the jealous bystander.

Yeah it is extremely expensive. I myself sometimes have doubts, as the equipment list will keep growing.
I don't know if that divorce statement was a joke, but if it isn't, I'm sorry to hear that.

Crusader has it spot on. I've seen most of the observable planets, so now I wanna move on to nebulae and galaxies, which is why I want to get those filters.

 

[|tera|]

Thank you Crusader. I think I understood everything, thanks

 

[bwana]

Yeah it is extremely expensive. I myself sometimes have doubts, as the equipment list will keep growing.
I don't know if that divorce statement was a joke, but if it isn't, I'm sorry to hear that.

Don't worry - I was merely pointing out the dissatisfaction my missus would express should I sink so much more money into another optically focused hobby.

 

[mercurial]

Don't worry - I was merely pointing out the dissatisfaction my missus would express should I sink so much more money into another optically focused hobby.

Lol oh ok!

 

[Crusader]

Astronomy is indeed an expensive hobby... especially since everything is almost double the price over here. However if you can keep "aperture" fever at bay, you can get a smaller dobsonian for less than a mid range cell phone - which should keep you busy for quite some time.

If you don't think you'll be happy with just the basics... then stay far away, since you'll definitely go broke quickly. Once you start buying accessories you won't be able to stop (filters, new EP, Telrad, etc.). Some premium eyepieces even cost more than some telescopes!

 

[waynegohl]

if we are able to see the moon's craters from earth with a telescope and lets say its nice and clear and everything, then i guess it would be possible to see some astronauts walking around there or the landing craft or would that be impossible. where would the astronauts land on the moon, would they land on the dark side or the side that we see.

just curious.