The amateur astronomist thread

[Juan Rayo]

Some threads about astronomy, telescopes and what not occasionally pop up and then go quickly the way of the dodo (or the "Salsa" thread). So I thought this being a great time of the year (clear skies!) to sky watch and we could kinda just use this thread for our binoculars, telescopes, astro pictures and everything related.

Found this thread about telescopes and surely there are others around, this one has some good advice. Link them if you find some that are particularly useful.

I own a pair of binoculars, and honestly those are the ones I use the most (the best telescope is the one you use right?) but I also have an old Celestron C8 Schdmit-Cassegrain that I occasionally take to a friend's place out of the city, to get heavily drunk while watching the stars.

I also like to bring it to the very few star parties organized by our national observatory, wish the thing had more funding, they do great stuff with their equipment, and their biggest is a 16" mead cassegrain, which I believe to be the biggest in central america, at least till the damn ticos do something about it.

Some other ammateurs will do this too, and it's great to see people taking time to explain, to share with other the night sky. Even if people will inevitable feel the need to stamp their finger print on your precious lenses.

I also had a solar filter, but my dog ate it.

Been thinking about getting me a Refractor, a smaller scope I can carry around but still something with power. Been a while since I frequented astronomy forums and I am a lot out of the current discussions, any recommendations?

Also, would love to see your astropics. I have only tried the moon, will try to find those pics tomorrow and post them.

Edit: Some of my favorite astronomy related sites.

The bad astronomist! used to read this a LOT some time ago, now I can't seem to find the time sadly.

The night Skye magazine, used to buy this and Skye and Telescope but neither comes to Honduras anymore, at least not to the libraries I frequent.

Nasa picture of the day of course :)

[nutsak]

My wife bought me a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ for my birthday this year and it is the best thing she has ever bought ever. It came with a 10mm and a 20mm set of lenses. The first time I ever saw the moon through it I was like a 12 year old boy reading Playboy for the first time. Mouth agape with what was before me I just stood there and stared forever.
To go from being able to see the moon as a big white disc of nothing and have that transform into a gigantic globe filled with craters and character was amazing.

Just over a month ago I wanted to get myself a Barlow lens and double the magnification of my current lenses... ended up getting an entire case filled with eyepieces, the barlow and a bunch of filters. First time I tried the barlow I pointed it at this really really bright star and then moved down in millimeters. Eventually I got to the point where I thought something was wrong because the star had this line right down the middle of it. No matter what I did this fucking line was cutting this star in half and there was all these other god damn blotchy bits all over it... and then I realized I was looking at Jupiter.

Now that I have a bit more time on my hands I fully intend to make use of the coming summer's clearer skies and try to find all the planets when they're in my part of the world. Astronomy is fucking awesome.

[Major Icehole]

I bought a book called "teach yourself astronomy" about 15 years ago and managed to parlay that into a job at a small science centre teaching kids and adults about the stars. We had an inflatable planetarium that I would set up in school gymnasiums and talk about the night skies.

I know my way around the constellations pretty well especially in the Northern Hemisphere. Moving to Australia was a trip because the skies changed on me. I'm getting better though. It's easier to find dark skies in Australia than it ever was in the States.

I've been to a few star parties and have looked through some pretty big telescopes (48 inch homemade reflector for one). When I have a home of my own and a workshop I want to build one myself.

This is a great idea for a thread.

[Chris Nahr]

Just at the right time! I can see Jupiter from my veranda every (clear) night these weeks, so I decided it would be shame if I didn't get a proper telescope. I already had decent 10x binoculars which are fine for moon watching but little else.

First attempt: Celestron FirstScope, a tiny €50 Newton reflector that can sit on a window sill and comes with two especially crappy eyepieces. Complete waste of money. The optics looked fine in terrestrial observation, but when I pointed its nominal 75x magnification at Jupiter I saw... an indistinct white dot. The picture was barely better than through my binoculars. Sadness.

Much fear, uncertainty and doubt. Then I thought, one more try! Dobsonians give the best optics for the buck, so I got this Sky-Watcher 203/1200 collapsible Dobsonian. Collapsed it's about as big as a slim R2-D2, and the base resembles Ikea furniture. But the 8" reflector with the two included Super Plössl eyepieces (10 & 25 mm) finally showed Jupiter's cloud bands in all their glorious colors! Even at 48x the picture was much better than the crappy Celestron at 75x. Lesson learned: optical quality comes first, magnification second...

Now the sky has clouded over again, but I already have a 4 mm Super Plössl and a 2.5 mm wide-angle eyepiece at hand to see just how high I can drive the magnification next time Jupiter comes around. That's 300x and 480x on my scope, and 480x is hard on the edge of its optical limit... we'll see how that turns out.

[Chris Nahr]

(48 inch homemade reflector for one)

That's referring to focal length and not mirror diameter, right? Impressive either way, but a 48" diameter would be truly gigantic. :)

[Major Icehole]

That's referring to focal length and not mirror diameter, right? Impressive either way, but a 48" diameter would be truly gigantic. :)

Mirror diameter. You had to climb a 12 foot ladder to look into the eye piece. The whole thing was on a trailer and the frame was collapsible. It was amazing. The only time I've ever been able to resolve a galaxy with my naked eye.

I can't seem to find the guy online but this http://www.runway.net/pilots/dan/fortyone-page1.html should give you some idea of what is was like.

[Chris Nahr]

Wow, seriously? That's awesome. Where did he get that mirror from? edit: He really ground it himself like described in that article?

[Major Icehole]

I geeked out for quite a while on telescoping. I learned a lot from a guy online named Mel Bartels. If I remember correctly I found google through his page in 1998 or 99.

There is a ton of information about mirror making and telescope design in general on his page.

Edit: It has been at least ten years since I looked through that big scope. It may not have been as large as 48", but I did have to climb a ladder to look through it and it was spectacular.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Also I like this thread.

[Chris Nahr]

Another clear Jupiter transition! I even managed to get glimpses at 300x and 480x but that took a lot of hunting on the awkward Dobsonian. The 480x view sure looks sweet, though... but almost impossible to both focus and keep in view manually. I really should get an automatic motor for the mounting...

[Lunch of Kong]

Wow, seriously? That's awesome. Where did he get that mirror from? edit: He really ground it himself like described in that article?

Growing up, I had a children's book about telescopes that included instructions and illustrations for grinding your own mirror. Any child can grind a mirror, apparently.

[Tman]

Another clear Jupiter transition! I even managed to get glimpses at 300x and 480x but that took a lot of hunting on the awkward Dobsonian. The 480x view sure looks sweet, though... but almost impossible to both focus and keep in view manually. I really should get an automatic motor for the mounting...

i highly recommend Equatorial Platforms. I have one of these on my 20" dob.

[Juan Rayo]

Last night I had to wait till 3am to get clear skies, but it was worth it once the cloudes parted.... for all of 30 minutes :)

So I spent most of the time checking out my books, and found my copy of Turn Left at Orion. I heartily recommend this one as well for observation. Bulky, so you might want to save it for home and get yourself a star chart and a much smaller book for outdoors.

I think someone "borrowed" my copy of The backyard astronomer, long ago. Can't remember who.

[Rumpy]

Ahh nice thread. Every summer, my Dad and I go to Stellafane the biggest ATM convention of its kind. Was the first of its kind, in fact, when it started in the early 1920's. My Dad started going there in the 80's when he built a trailer-mounted 21" Dob, and won many awards with it, and then was featured in S&T and other magazines like Discover. It became a pretty famous scope. Unfortunately we don't have it around anymore.





I can't recommend Nightwatch by Terrence Dickinson enough.

Chris, I bought myself a Sky-watcher 5-inch collapsible Dob last year. The Heritage 130p. It's a sweet little scope.

[Juan Rayo]

Awesome scope!

This makes me remember for no particular reason other than drinking the first time I went to our amazing-prideofthecountry- national observatory.

I was 16 and it was all I could have dreamed off, it had COMPUTERS, it had RED LIGHTS ON, and a BIG TELESCOPE, and DUDES WITH WHITE ROBES and a DOME!.

Then, the tour lady said "we are preparing to open the dome for some star gazing!"

My heart was pounding, I expected a button to be pushed, hydraulic scify-ish sounds as the dome would slide slowly and elegantly revealing the night sky to us.

She gave us a thick rope and said "alright then, pull!"

Third world astronomy/awesome/god dammit in one single moment.

Here she is, beautiful ain't she?



Edit: she still uses the rope.

[Juan Rayo]

The scope, allegedly biggests in Central America, has it's own name: "Rene". Incidentally, that is also the name of Kermit the Frog in the Spanish version of the muppets.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Holy shit Rumpy, that owns.

[Rumpy]

Ha yeah, it does. You can only imagine the stories my Dad had of trying to cross the border into the U.S with it :)

[Juan Rayo]

Ha yeah, it does. You can only imagine the stories my Dad had of trying to cross the border into the U.S with it :)

Do tell.

Also, why don't you have it anymore?

[Rumpy]

Do tell.

Well, there's one story where he was stopped. He was asked questions and they weren't satisfied with his answers. Apparently they had never heard of astronomy. They thought it was some kind of canon. I can see them being suspicious of something that size, but if it's painted orange and blue, the least it could be is a circus canon as it's not exactly discreet. It made for a lot of laughs, however.

Also, why don't you have it anymore?

That's complicated. We don't exactly have the yard space to store it anymore as the thing takes up enormous amounts of space, so years ago, in the 90's, we had asked a friend if we could store the trailer and mounting in his yard. He had just bought a new house out in the country at the time after a successful business venture. Years later, he was having business trouble and had to sell the land, and we never saw the trailer and mount again.

We do still have the tube out in our garage however. My Dad has stated that he wants to eventually build a new mount for the tube, and perhaps make an even bigger mirror for it. I can tell you, however, that this scope was the direct cause for much envy among many astronomers at the time. It's affectionally reffered to as the "size" war of the 80's among astronomers.