Wyz_sub10

To say that I'm an amateur astronomer would be an insult to people who want to be amateur astronomers, but are themselves, insults to amateur astronomers.

My wife bought me a telescope for my 30th birthday last July. We went and bought it together because I had a pretty good idea about what I wanted.

I only took it out 3 times this summer because I was doing my MBA thesis, and it always seemed to be too cloudy or windy (I live in downtown Toronto, but right on the water, so it's surprisingly clear viewing).

The first star we identified was Arcturus, which was cool. Then we looked at Vega, and of course, the moon as often as possible.

The other night I noticed an incredibly bright object which I assumed was a planet. Sure enough, it was Jupiter, and late last night I hauled out the telescope to see it.

Wow. Wow fucking wow. For anybody who's never done this - do it. It is beyond cool to see something from that distance. You could definitely see the red bands on the planet, and the three largest moons (all in a line, which was cool).

The was a lot of colour "flickering" caused from our atmosphere (right?), but it was still a very, very good view.

My question to those astronomers out there: what else will offer the 'wow' value like this? Saturn's around at this tie of year, but I can's see Venus or Mars. What's that like?

I was blown away to see the colours of Arcturus and Vega. I was floored to see Jupiter.

What's next??

ajm51987

I've looked at Jupiter, but not at the highest magnfication. Even then it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

seanie

My brother's a sailor and one night I was on a boat with him up the north west of Scotland. Clear sky, no light pollution.

He handed me his binoculars and told me to look at reddish patch above the horizon with a few stars in it.

And while looking at it he told me it was another galaxy. Andromeda I think. And that I was looking at something as it was 2.5 million years ago.

Kinda mind boggling.

So I poured myself another whisky...

Abacus

That sounds awesome. I would love to see something like that.

You might want to try Saturn next. Kind Bud took a pic recently of it.

Saturn Thread

cjack

I think this is the best time of year to see the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades star cluster.

What you really need to do is pack up your telescope and get away from the city lights!

Shadowy Man

Definitely Saturn!

How big is your telescope? That will help determine what you might be able to see well.

Orion Nebula and Pleiades are good, as cjack mentioned. In the summer months you can try for the Dumbbell Nebula. There may be a globular cluster you can see.

Unfortunately, I'm a professional astronomer so I don't know the sky as well as an amateur.

But definitely try taking it somewhere dark. If you can beat down the sky brightness that will help tremendously.

Asha'man

Jupiter and Saturn are the jewels of the sky, very little can compare with them in a small scope. (Or a big one, for that matter!)

Just the other night, I watched Ganymede pass in front of Jupiter, followed shortly by it's shadow. If I had stayed up a little later, I would have seen the red spot rotate into view as well. I love the fact that Jupiter can change in real time, as well as night to night.

This summer, Mars will be closer than it's been in a long time. With a small scope, you should be able to make out some surface regions. Don't miss that.

Venus is kinda booring. It's bright, but there are no details visible. You will be able to see the phases, just like our Moon.

Oh, and don't forget to look at the Moon. High magnification right at the terminator, where the lunar night and day meet. The long shadows clearly show some amazing craters and mountains.

Once you have done the planets and the Moon, the Messier catalog is the next step.

Back in the 1750s, a french astronomer, Charles Messier, was trying to spot some comets. However, he kept running into things that were not comets, and were interfering with his search. He started writing them down in a list, and that has become the Messier Catalog. There are 110 of them, all visible in a small telescope. Some are spectacular, some are just fuzzy spots. But they are the set of objects to start looking at next.

The Messier Catalog

Puck

I would like to get a pair of good binoculars in future, what 's the minimun I want to get? ie, not too expensive!

I have a telescope, but it's more for decor than use. I used to be able to get the moon pretty good, but it won't even do that any more. I have a perfect sky, no lights! Waaaay out in the country.

Kind Bud's Saturn pic was impressive!

seanie

Binoculars are tricky unless you can secure tham. The more powerfull the more your shakey hands disrupt the image.

Shadowy Man

Here's a decent page on binoculars for astronomy:

http://www.astrogeek.org/equipment/binoculars.html