The Official Astronomy Thread

mercurial said:
Got my other filter yesterday :)
Now I just need to learn those messiers!
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That could be a messy business ;)

With the Moon washing everything out you won't be able to find many of the Messier objects... at least not with loads of frustration and lots of luck. It might be a good idea to study up on their locations from star charts, software etc. so you are prepared when dark skies return.

Even in dark skies many of them are pretty hard to find, and easy to miss when you do stumble upon them. I searched for 2 days (a couple of hours on each day) to try to find the Helix Nebula. On the second day I finally got it after another hour or two of searching. It was pretty faint and I could have easily missed it. Of course that's without any filters, so it might be easier for you.

Let us know how the filters perform... so I can add them on my wish list for when I win the lotto! ;)
 
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Crusader said:
That could be a messy business ;)

With the Moon washing everything out you won't be able to find many of the Messier objects... at least not with loads of frustration and lots of luck. It might be a good idea to study up on their locations from star charts, software etc. so you are prepared when dark skies return.

Even in dark skies many of them are pretty hard to find, and easy to miss when you do stumble upon them. I searched for 2 days (a couple of hours on each day) to try to find the Helix Nebula. On the second day I finally got it after another hour or two of searching. It was pretty faint and I could have easily missed it. Of course that's without any filters, so it might be easier for you.

Let us know how the filters perform... so I can add them on my wish list for when I win the lotto! ;)
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Love the pun ;)
Indeed. I need to find myself a very accurate and reliable starchart of some sort. One would think that it would be easy to find these messiers, since there are so many, but it's definitely very hard to find them. I did stumble across a few things, but the one was too faint. Ooh, last night I saw a comet(at least I think I did or perhaps a shooting star?). I was observing through the telescope and saw this blue ball, but it didn't look like a shooting star at all. It really looked like a typical comet. As soon as I took my out of the telescope, it was gone :) It was quite big.
I usually see shooting stars at night and everyone can with a little patience.
It appeared blue but that was due to the filter which gave it a different colour. I also saw two remarkable star clusters. Unfortunately, I don't know their names cos I stumbled across them by chance. But wow, they were awesome to see.
I bought these filters after doing a lot of research, so if you win that lotto :p, I would advise that you get these ones. All over the net, people have praised these ones. I'll give you the names again, for convenience.
1 - Lumicon Oxygen III filter
2 - Lumicon Deep Sky filter
3 - DGM Optics NPB/UHC filter

I also have a single polarizer filter as well as a blue filter. Both are also Lumicon.
I'm just waiting for my 8-24mm zoom eyepiece to arrive. I figured it would be really helpful and useful. This obviously concludes my telescope shopping spree :p
 
I'll keep the filters in mind. Where did you order from? Most of the online astro related shops overseas don't seem willing to ship to SA.
 
guys, whats happening on the evening of the 27th a guy at work spoke about 2 moons (i think its the moon and venus), do any of you have more info.
 
Outlook For August 27-September 2

Space weather for the next week may reach minor levels. There is a slight chance of a category R1 radio blackout during the week. Toward the end of the week a coronal hole with its high speed solar winds may produce category G1 geomagnetic storming.

All I can find.
 
marine1 said:
Outlook For August 27-September 2

Space weather for the next week may reach minor levels. There is a slight chance of a category R1 radio blackout during the week. Toward the end of the week a coronal hole with its high speed solar winds may produce category G1 geomagnetic storming.

All I can find.
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:confused: i think i will watch tv that night ha ha thanks buddy.
 
waynegohl said:
guys, whats happening on the evening of the 27th a guy at work spoke about 2 moons (i think its the moon and venus), do any of you have more info.
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It's most likely that e-mail about "Mars being the size of the Moon" going around again. Had someone ask me about it last week - absolute baloney BTW.

Just checked, and the Moon won't even be visible on the 27th (at least not during the night).
 
mercurial said:
Ooh, last night I saw a comet(at least I think I did or perhaps a shooting star?). I was observing through the telescope and saw this blue ball, but it didn't look like a shooting star at all. It really looked like a typical comet. As soon as I took my out of the telescope, it was gone :) It was quite big.
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Did it move like a shooting star. Or was it something static you viewed through the telescope? If it was static, it's most likely that it was some type of planetary nebula. I think they would appear comet like.

I'm tempted to get one of the Meade series 4000 filters from Technopro. Can't afford a Lumicon filter... especially if you add shipping and duty fees. Wonder if it would be worth it...
 
Crusader said:
I'll keep the filters in mind. Where did you order from? Most of the online astro related shops overseas don't seem willing to ship to SA.
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B&H PhotoVideo ships as well as the other place I ordered from - www.omegafiltersebuyer.com :)

Crusader said:
It's most likely that e-mail about "Mars being the size of the Moon" going around again. Had someone ask me about it last week - absolute baloney BTW.

Just checked, and the Moon won't even be visible on the 27th (at least not during the night).
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Yeah, I got that same bogus email.

Crusader said:
Did it move like a shooting star. Or was it something static you viewed through the telescope? If it was static, it's most likely that it was some type of planetary nebula. I think they would appear comet like.

I'm tempted to get one of the Meade series 4000 filters from Technopro. Can't afford a Lumicon filter... especially if you add shipping and duty fees. Wonder if it would be worth it...
Click to expand...

It moved. I've seen comets on tv before and it definitely looked like one. I stand to be corrected of course, because this is a new area for me :o
If you're going to buy 1 filter, buy it locally. If you decide on a few, then you might as well get it from abroad cos it's cheaper and better. My goodies were expensive but I consider it an investment cos I am not likely to ever buy others again. My shipping costs were about $71 and the customs came to R400. It's a lot but had I bought it locally, I would've payed thousands more.
 
If it moved then it might indeed be a comet, although I don't think comets will have a great rate of movement when seen from afar. Any idea in which constellation/ nearby stars? I might be able to track it down in S Night.

I've put my filter plans on hold for a while. Need to do more research and compare costs with ordering online. Might wait to save up and get a premium ones...

I did order some other goodies though - a Orion shorty plus barlow and a Skywatcher RDF.
 
Crusader said:
If it moved then it might indeed be a comet, although I don't think comets will have a great rate of movement when seen from afar. Any idea in which constellation/ nearby stars? I might be able to track it down in S Night.

I've put my filter plans on hold for a while. Need to do more research and compare costs with ordering online. Might wait to save up and get a premium ones...

I did order some other goodies though - a Orion shorty plus barlow and a Skywatcher RDF.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't be able to say which nearby stars, but I can tell you this - I was observing straight up the sky and by that I mean I tilted my telescope 90 degrees and looked straight up. It was nearby two star clusters. I literally mean the "middle" of the sky. I saw it for like a split second.

Good on you for those goodies :D
 
Hi guys,

There is a very nice free star atlas for download available at http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm There is an Atlas for mag 6.5 and one for mag 8.5.

Specification
(1) Projection: Modified Transverse Mercator Projection
(2) Number of Charts: 12
(3) Scale: 3mm/degree
(4) Map Size: A3
(5) Magnitude of Faintest Star: 6.50
(6) Multiple Stars: Minimum separation 0.5 arcsec
(7) Variable Stars: Maximum magnitude 6.5, Minimum amplitude 0.4
(8) More than 500 Deep Sky Objects
- Galaxies: Magnitude up to 10.0
- Open Clusters: Magnitude up to 7.0
- Globular Clusters: Magnitude up to 10.0
- Planetary Nebulae: Magnitude up to 11.0
- Bright Nebulae
- Dark Nebulae
- Supernova Remnant
- Objects in Caldwell catalog are labeled.

Clear skies!
Charles
 
mercurial said:
Wouldn't be able to say which nearby stars, but I can tell you this - I was observing straight up the sky and by that I mean I tilted my telescope 90 degrees and looked straight up. It was nearby two star clusters. I literally mean the "middle" of the sky. I saw it for like a split second.

Good on you for those goodies :D
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Thanks, I hope they will be useful. The RDF isn't a Telrad, but hopefully it will make things a bit easier.

As for your "comet", how far was it from Jupiter? What time did you observe? Were the clusters in the same FOV in your viewfinder as the "comet"? If they were very close together, and it wasn't too close to Jupiter, my guess would be that you saw the Saturn Nebula... unless of course it moved at a great rate of speed.
 
Crusader said:
Thanks, I hope they will be useful. The RDF isn't a Telrad, but hopefully it will make things a bit easier.

As for your "comet", how far was it from Jupiter? What time did you observe? Were the clusters in the same FOV in your viewfinder as the "comet"? If they were very close together, and it wasn't too close to Jupiter, my guess would be that you saw the Saturn Nebula... unless of course it moved at a great rate of speed.
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I guess it depends on how you would define "far". If we talk in kiddy language, if I looked up the sky, it wasn't too far away from Jupiter, but maybe a 30cm ruler's length, if that makes any sense :p. The easiest way for me to explain is to say that Jupiter was approaching the "middle" of the sky and this "comet" was already at that point. It was around after 21:00-ish and yes it was in the same FOV. I seem to have a knack for accidentally finding things via the oh-so-lovely viewfinder :p
A viewfinder is truly a great tool to have. I have never truly valued its use until I learnt how to use it.
Oh, and yeah, it did move fast :D so I'm guessing it had to be some comet or something. I'm actually very interested now lol. I need to find out what I saw :o
BTW, I seem to see a lot of these DSO with my naked eye. I just assume they're comets cos the other alternative is alien spaceships :D
My dad actually sees a lot of it as well. Some we saw at night and then there were some mornings on the way to work in which I saw these very, very faint, distant objects that literally flies across the sky. Definitely not planes or anything.
 
The finderscope should have a FOV of around 5 degrees. The Saturn Nebula is around 32 degrees NE of Jupiter (since I don't know how far you are holding the "ruler"...). So that's an option. Although the moving part has me baffled. DSO's don't appear to be on the move (except on high mag, due to the Earth's rotation).

It is pretty darn difficult to describe the location of something, since it completely depends on the location of the viewer and their orientation. :P

There are some meteor showers that should be visible in that area, so you could have seen one streaking across the FOV, but they are very fast.

I'm baffled and intrigued...
 
Crusader said:
The finderscope should have a FOV of around 5 degrees. The Saturn Nebula is around 32 degrees NE of Jupiter (since I don't know how far you are holding the "ruler"...). So that's an option. Although the moving part has me baffled. DSO's don't appear to be on the move (except on high mag, due to the Earth's rotation).

It is pretty darn difficult to describe the location of something, since it completely depends on the location of the viewer and their orientation. :P

There are some meteor showers that should be visible in that area, so you could have seen one streaking across the FOV, but they are very fast.

I'm baffled and intrigued...
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Then maybe it was a meteor shower. I have no idea. But it was amazing, even though it only lasted for a split second.
 
Ah, that must be it then. I also caught one zipping through my EP FOV a week or so back and it's definitely an amazing sight!
 
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