# Any skywatchers here?



## Aqualung (Nov 21, 2009)

I'm gaining an interest in an old hobby. Years ago I lived in a place with dark skies & a high elevation & got into sky watching. Had a small refractor & some 8x56 binoculars. Well I'm now working the night shift so on my nights off I find my curiosity growing again as I look up at the night sky. Starting to read up on telescopes & seeing what might be in my budget in the coming weeks. At some point maybe a 10"-12" Dobsonian reflector & maybe a 120 mm refractor. I don't much get into memorizing the names of hundreds of stars but just looking at the planets & their moons is fascinating. The Earth's moon too. Nebulas & stuff. Watched a satellite speeding over in an orbit once. Just a very fast, dim dot in my binoculars. Anyone else into this? If so, what equipment do you have & how do you like it? And what's on your wish list? Also, I now live at sea level next to a big city so the night sky is rather washed out, so would it even be worth pursuing under these conditions?


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## Siggy (May 25, 2009)

Dobs are great for deep sky objects; like nebulea and such. They are however huge and weigh a ton, so you really cant move them around. Since they take in a ton of light, they are not good for the city and the burbs. Gotta a cabin in the mountains? Dobs are perfect

refractors are all round good scopes. When buying any telescope you need to take into account filters and lenses. That can add about $100 bucks to the budget

the jury is divided on the electronic ones, that find the objects for you. I had one and i hated it. Personally spend money on the optics instead of the bells and whistles


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## All in Twilight (Oct 12, 2012)

I am no professional sky watcher in any way but I do enjoy looking at it when I take the boat to go from an island to the other in South East Asia. The sky is so clear, no artificial lights and there is so much to see; millions of stars. I can spend hours and hours just observing it, enjoying it and become totally absorbed by it, and I don't care about names and all that. Anyway, that is why I prefer boat over plane, because the trip is so much more enjoyable even though it takes me a little longer to reach my destination.


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## milti (Feb 8, 2012)

My dad and I lug our telescope up to the terrace and do some star-gazing once in a while. He's the real professional, I just sit there because I like it. I can identify a few constellations, and watch out for interesting planetary movements, but it's really too cloudy and polluted in my city to be able to see much.

There was this one time we took a long drive 10 hours away, far far away from civilisation, and we saw a whole swathe of stars, like a big white band. My dad pointed up and said "Look, that's the Milky Way, those are OUR stars!" I was just 12 years old and I'll never forget that sight.


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## Aqualung (Nov 21, 2009)

@Dear Sigmund - Thanks, you answered a question I was about to ask. Large Dobsonians in the city; All that light gathering ability but all that city light to ruin the view. Was wondering how that might work out. I think I may look for a weekend getaway before I get Dob. If I can find dark skies 3-4 hours away I'll get one.


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## Siggy (May 25, 2009)

I am taking a two pronged approach. I just bought a Maksutov Cassegrain for the planets, and plan on getting a dobs for deep space. I am going to get higher end lenses that can work for both.


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## Scribbler (Jul 10, 2013)

I started with an 8" dob then moved up to a 12" dob after a few years. I can recommend an 8" dob as a first scope - I could carry the whole thing (base and tube) easily in one go. Which certainly isn't the case for the 12", and probably wouldn't be for a 10".

Regarding light pollution, a bigger scope will always outperform a smaller one at any site (it's not true that bigger aperture suffers more from light pollution). But a small scope at a dark site will always outperform a large one at a light polluted site, at least on DSOs (galaxies, nebulae etc). If you're at a light polluted location and want to look at DSOs then best advice is to get a scope you can easily transport to a dark location. If you can't easily get to a dark enough location then you may need to stick to moon and planets, double stars, star clusters.

The two-scope option is sensible - just make sure that the light bucket is one you'll be able and willing to take somewhere dark, otherwise all that aperture may end up going to waste.


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## HouseOfFlux (May 18, 2013)

As someone whose father did a lot of sky-watching, I do have a passing interest in it. I would appreciate any advice for first time telescope buying though.


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## Aqualung (Nov 21, 2009)

Comet ISON gives me another reason to buy before October. And the cold weather. :happy:


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## The Frozen One (Oct 10, 2012)

Aqualung said:


> I'm gaining an interest in an old hobby. Years ago I lived in a place with dark skies & a high elevation & got into sky watching. Had a small refractor & some 8x56 binoculars. Well I'm now working the night shift so on my nights off I find my curiosity growing again as I look up at the night sky. Starting to read up on telescopes & seeing what might be in my budget in the coming weeks. At some point maybe a 10"-12" Dobsonian reflector & maybe a 120 mm refractor. I don't much get into memorizing the names of hundreds of stars but just looking at the planets & their moons is fascinating. The Earth's moon too. Nebulas & stuff. Watched a satellite speeding over in an orbit once. Just a very fast, dim dot in my binoculars. Anyone else into this? If so, what equipment do you have & how do you like it? And what's on your wish list? Also, I now live at sea level next to a big city so the night sky is rather washed out, so would it even be worth pursuing under these conditions?


I love astronomy! I like science in general but I've always had an affinity for astronomy. I have a Meade 130mm equatorial mounted reflector. I am currently looking at getting a Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain SE 8 Telescope.

Last winter, I had a field day observing Jupiter and I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Comet PANSTARRS. The weather hasn't been cooperative lately so I haven't been able to get a good look at Saturn. When I get my new telescope I fully intend to track Comet ISON in December.

If you want to follow fast moving objects, you definitely need a computerized telescope with tracking capability. If you have the funds, get a GPS so that you don't have to work so hard aligning your telescope every time you set it up. A power tank is also handy as some telescopes can quickly deplete your batteries. As far as atmospheric conditions and light pollution, you might be able to get a filter that may help a little bit. None the less, depending on how much interference there is, it may not make any real difference. The best option is to go to where there isn't as much lighting and industrialization.


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## countrygirl90 (Oct 11, 2012)

I like watching clouds sail through the sky, flock of birds going for tour in mornings and return back in evening ,lol.during monsoons watching black clouds in the sky and waiting for rain pleases mwy eyes and heart like no other thing.


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## SirDave (Sep 1, 2012)

Aqualung said:


> I'm gaining an interest in an old hobby. Years ago I lived in a place with dark skies & a high elevation & got into sky watching. Had a small refractor & some 8x56 binoculars. Well I'm now working the night shift so on my nights off I find my curiosity growing again as I look up at the night sky. Starting to read up on telescopes & seeing what might be in my budget in the coming weeks. At some point maybe a 10"-12" Dobsonian reflector & maybe a 120 mm refractor. I don't much get into memorizing the names of hundreds of stars but just looking at the planets & their moons is fascinating. The Earth's moon too. Nebulas & stuff. Watched a satellite speeding over in an orbit once. Just a very fast, dim dot in my binoculars. Anyone else into this? If so, what equipment do you have & how do you like it? And what's on your wish list? Also, I now live at sea level next to a big city so the night sky is rather washed out, so would it even be worth pursuing under these conditions?


I have an eight inch catadioptic reflector and the motor drive is non functional so I don't drag it out any more, particularly because of your last comment; artificial and city lights. I'm resigned to binoculars now days

If you have an I-phone I'd recommend you get the SkySafari-3 (by Southern Stars) app. Except cloud cover you can preview the sky and focus immediately on the object of your interest. It will aim you where to look, give you azimuth, elevation above the horizon, and give you the rt. ascension/declination of any object. It lets you "look" right through the earth at the south celestial sphere. It also plots all artificial satellites giving magnitude and percentage of lighted surface. That little app is only a one time cost of $2.99

One of its benefits, once your lat/long and elevation is programmed in, you can look for where to go to move into a grazing occultation of a star, planet, or asteroid by the moon. It's an interesting phenomenon to see. A devoted amateur can join groups that observe these and then report observations that add to data on the objects, say in the case of an asteroid, of the moon's surface profile, once the reports are all collected and collated. Here's a link to the _ International Occultation Timing Association web page _where you can take a look at what they do. The link is for the AUSTRALASIA Group, but you can launch from there, and they give their "mission statement, goals and objectives" in full. 

I was very fortunate in that as a five year old boy I witnessed a meteor storm (not just a shower) of thousands of "falling stars" over several hours. Afterwards for me it became a nightly ceremony to go outside and spend some time, even if only a few minutes, to observe or look. The closest I ever came to repeating my experience with the meteor storm was when, in a Marine Corps night field exercise, up in the mountains when we were cooling our heels I saw how a sky can look in dark skies from a high elevation (3,000') and very low humidity in the winter time.

I found that when looking straight up at the zenith, that even with the naked eye, I could see very tiny objects which had to be meteoroids flashing around right at the threshold of my vision.


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## Aqualung (Nov 21, 2009)

@SirDave - Thanks! That looks like an excellent app. Exactly what I need. I just got an iphone & I'll set it up to download apps tonight.


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## John Coltrane (May 11, 2013)

Too much light pollution where I live but I do it when I can. Saw this recently, its stunning.


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## stargazing grasshopper (Oct 25, 2013)

I'm down to owning only a few decent telescopes.
My most portable scope is a Televue 147mm (2" eyepieces), it travels around very nicely in a carrying case.
My least portable Telescope requires 2 trunks to transport, the furthest I've had it from home was the Stellafane Star Party a few years back.

Remember when Comet Holmes became a naked eye object as it made it's way through Perseus?


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## SirDave (Sep 1, 2012)

@stargazing grasshopper I'm in the market for a new one right now since my Meade LX 2080 Cat was lost in a fire back in September. Of first importance is a portable size and the new goto guidance system. I have left-over from the old scope an Orion 2" plossl 50mm, a 2" 56 mm, a 2" - 2X Barlow, and a 2" T-adapter none of which will fit what I'm considering buying. I suppose they'd bring a few bucks on eBay. 

Everything I'm considering will use only 1-/4" lenses, of which highest on my list is a Celestron NextStar 4SE 4" 102mm that weighs just 21 pounds. It has a 1325mm focal length at f13.


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## Jebediah (Mar 27, 2013)

I love shooting time lapse and when I can get a friend to drive me to the arse end of nowhere I shoot the stars. This was my attempt at the Perseids meteor shower this year. That bright streak at the start is the ISS. Sorry it's so short, we got cold and went home. 






And here's a stacked image of over 1,000 photos I shot. 









I really want to shoot this type of stuff more often!


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## stargazing grasshopper (Oct 25, 2013)

SirDave said:


> @_stargazing grasshopper_ I'm in the market for a new one right now since my Meade LX 2080 Cat was lost in a fire back in September. Of first importance is a portable size and the new goto guidance system. I have left-over from the old scope an Orion 2" plossl 50mm, a 2" 56 mm, a 2" - 2X Barlow, and a 2" T-adapter none of which will fit what I'm considering buying. I suppose they'd bring a few bucks on eBay.
> 
> Everything I'm considering will use only 1-/4" lenses, of which highest on my list is a Celestron NextStar 4SE 4" 102mm that weighs just 21 pounds. It has a 1325mm focal length at f13.


 1-1/4" eyepieces? 


You might first invest your money into a good mount, I found it irritating looking at shaking images due to a scope being mounted upon a cheap mount. A good "middle of the road" mount is Celestron's CGE-Pro. 
You can purchased a very nice mirror blank & participate in a telescope building class & end up with a very nice scope along with the satisfaction of knowing that you built it yourself.


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## SirDave (Sep 1, 2012)

In 1-1/4" I do still have a 6.4mm, a 10mm, and a 26mm all multicoated super Plossls and 5-or-6 1-1/4" filters to use with a new scope.

@stargazing grasshopper, those Celestrin CGE mounts are pretty pricey, and I'm 72 and don't have enough time left to justify a big expenditure. 

My old scope had an equatorial mount so its all I know. I expected an Alt-Az might be a little jerky (so thanks for the heads-up!) but if I can't tolerate the movement because it's jerky I can turn the drive off and hand-adjust to view. 

I won't be doing any astrophotography. The most demanding viewing I'll be doing is lunar craters, occasional occultations, and the planets, moons, and star clusters for the most part.


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## stargazing grasshopper (Oct 25, 2013)

SirDave said:


> In 1-1/4" I do still have a 6.4mm, a 10mm, and a 26mm all multicoated super Plossls and 5-or-6 1-1/4" filters to use with a new scope.
> 
> @_stargazing grasshopper_, those Celestrin CGE mounts are pretty pricey, and I'm 72 and don't have enough time left to justify a big expenditure.
> 
> ...


Yeah the CGE-Pro is a computerized GEM for just over $6k, it'll securely carry a 14" compound but I hear where your coming from.

Maybe you'd be up for a Messier Marathon this upcoming spring while so many galaxies are easily visible?


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## SirDave (Sep 1, 2012)

@stargazing grasshopper:Quote: _Maybe you'd be up for a Messier Marathon this upcoming spring while so many galaxies are easily visible?_

I'm afraid I don't have the physical energy, eyesight, or clear skies for such an endeavor. Do you do it in star parties? 

My personal highest aspiration is to spend a night on a mountain top of one of the western US "deserts." I did that one night during a night exercise in the Marine Corps - Santa Margarita mountains only about 3k asl - and it was incredible! 

For that a decent set of binoculars would be more than I'd need, even with my present degraded eyesight. I recommend something like that; visiting a high elevation, winter skies for low humidity like a desert. The S.M. Mountains where I was are right up against the Pacific Ocean, so city glow wasn't a factor, at least back then in 1960.


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