Astronomy for the EarthBound

[EarthBound]

Time and again we catch brief beautiful glimpses of the heavens and for a moment we are in wonder and awe. So incredible and fantastic…our world one of the many finite bodies in the majesticus-galaticus (oh look, new words new words!). SEE, I do read…in fact I’m very well read [sets down Aeon Flux comic to continue].

I bought a tele-O-scopitor…errrrr, a telescope for you less imaginative. A Meade black glossy device that helps the moon look soooo close and tempting. But I quickly have decided I need an upgrade...and how!

But I know many of you have built your own (you brave souls) and share enthusiasm for gazing outwards (as apposed to upwards…since, what is up? )

I’d love to hear everyone’s experiences with their Astronomy, Telescopes, and Such…so I can learn from your mistakes, of course.

[Rían]

A great general field guide is "What's Out Tonight" by Ken Graun. I got mine at the store where I got my Meade Very informative and easy to use.

Basically, I got a doubler, and I can see Saturn's rings quite nicely.

Saturn makes me crack up!

[EarthBound]

Saturn...Lord of the Rings (ugh! )

How powerful is your tele? I can't see the rings with mine (kicks the box it came in)...

[Earniel]

I'd love to put up my sis' telescope on a cloudless night soon, unfortunately living near a big city is great for mobility but it wreaks havoc with its light pollution if you want to look at stars.

Saturn! Wow, that sounds like quite a powerful telescope. I'm happy if I can get the moon a little bigger than it is currently visible with the naked eye.

[brownjenkins]

Seeing the rings of saturn has a lot to do with how clear of a night it is and how they are oriented towards the earth at any particular time. You should be able to make out the rings with the telescope you have if you keep trying. Sometimes it's a matter of focus too. The adjustments can be very fine and you have to mess with it back and forth for a while to get a truly sharp focus.

This is a pretty good basic site on tele-O-scoptics for some general info in a fairly readable format.

findascope

[Rían]

I need my doubler to see the rings ...

We should be able to see Saturn's rings for quite a few years before they turn side-on to us.

*checks book*

OK, they turn edge-on every 14 years - we're good until 2009. And they're effectively gone for a year during that time.

I don't even remember what power mine is - I got it quite a few years ago - I just told the guy I wanted to see Saturn's rings! As I look at the literature on it, it looks like the regular lens is 48X and with my Barlow doubler, it's 96X. The doubler makes it very jumpy and it's hard to find things (we usually do the finding with the main eyepiece), but you just hold very still and don't touch the eyepiece and it's great!

[EarthBound]

Mine is a refractor and has the bumpy knobs for focal adjustment...completely horrible...I'm gonna check out large aperture reflector types with cable focul....and maybe a computer-mount 'point and look' system....could be cool...wish I had $10,000 to sink into a system...

I really want to be able to take pictures...any ideas for a cool setup?

[EarthBound]

OH OH OH!!!! I saw Saturn's Rings Sunday night for my first time...it was an accident...buy WAY-COOL!!!!

[Rían]

Isn't it?!?! Did it make you smile?

BTW, my system cost about $1,000 - you don't need 10K!

[EarthBound]

$1000 is expensive for me, RÃ*an , wish it wasn't. Government job ya know...

I'm jazzed about upgrading to at least a $350 system, though. Then I need to ebay myself an astrophotography camera...(oh, look, I just used ebay as a verb...)

I think I want a reflector type with a really low f/x and an auto/computer/pointer system to help me find the good stuff (it's all good!)

[Khamûl]

I have a telescope and I love it. Unfortunately, it's too big to keep in my dorm room, so I really only get to use it during the summer and over the winter break.

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get a good setup. I found a company that was discontinuing their reflector telescopes, so I managed to get a 6" one for around $150 with shipping and handling. It's portable enough for me and has no trouble seeing the major planets, and some deep-sky objects (nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, etc.). Since I've got a moment, I'll list some of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of telescopes.

Refractor -- this is what everyone thinks about when they think 'telescope'. They generally deliver the sharpest images, but a good reflector can deliver razor-sharp images too. Per inch of aperture (how big the light-gathering end is -- the more aperture, the more telescope there is gathering light, hence the more stuff you can see), these are probably the most expensive.

Reflectors -- per inch of aperture, these are the least expensive. A sub-category of reflectors are called Dobsonians (or Dobs, for short). This is the kind I have. It's a telescope on a rotating base. It's pretty easy to use. The thing about reflectors is that the mirrors have to be lined up by a process called 'collimation' in order for them to work the best they can. It takes a bit of handiness to make sure your scope is in top form, but nothing overly major. The bigger the scope's mirror, the more it'll need to be collimated. I have had a 6" reflector for a year and have only collimated it once.

Compound telescopes -- these are things like Maksutov-Cassegrain and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. I'm not very familiar with these types of scopes, although they combine elements of refractors and reflectors.


If you're interested in astrophotography, one thing that will really help is an equatorial mount for your telescope. Once you align the mount so that it's pointing north, you can set it to track an object automatically if you have a motor. This is essential for long exposures for things like nebulas and such. If you want to take pictures of the moon and planets, you can get by with just holding the camera to the eyepiece and messing around (I've tried this with mixed results). A quick warning: astrophotography can get very expensive, very quickly, so I've heard.

You mentioned point-and-go telescopes. Mine doesn't do that, because part of the fun to me is figuring out where I should look. So I don't have personal experience with those things.

As far as books, I have Star Watch by Philip S. Harrington. I like it because it tells you where to find the interesting stuff, and it gives you a realistic expection of what it'll look like with your scope (don't expect the Hubble). The one Rian has sounds good, and I've also heard that Turn Left at Orion is really good, too.


I think that about covers it, though if you have any more questions, ask. I really enjoy astronomy, when I have the time. (That first look at Saturn's rings will hook you, won't it?)

[EarthBound]

Khamûl,

Excellent post, thanks for advice and tipage...

Yes, Saturn's Rings pretty much made me rabid to see more more more

I find drinking beer helps me slow down and relax within my atrium while I bounce around the infinite beach with my telescope. Celestrial Brew, as it were...

Viewing the stars and beer...hmmmm....AAAA....Alcoholic Anonymous Astronomy Association.

[Rían]

Hey, 1k isn't cheap for us, either, although we finally did it - I was just showing you that you don't need 10k!

One route to consider is to buy used - I guess there's a fair amount of people that buy a nice system then never use it and finally sell it cheap to get rid of it.

Good luck!

[EarthBound]

oy! You're right RÃ*an about buying used...EBAY here I come

uhhh, wait, I'll give you $100 for your system...Deal or no Deal?

worth a try,,,lol