Astronomy Anyone?

[IndyWS6]

I’ve had a passing interest for years but never acted on it. Starting to be intrigued by the thought again. I don’t know anything about it other than what I’ve Googled this weekend, but probably wouldn’t be satisfied unless I had a complete 10”, go-to, equatorial mount setup. Something that could track for long-term exposures for detailed photos. Not even sure I’m describing that correctly . Anyone have experience with something like that?

 

[311boogieman]

Can't speak to the photography part but I too have been getting more into it. I have nasa.gov, the jpl site and earth.gov tabs open on my browser at all times. I have seen people on Facebook hold their iPhones up to the view finder on their telescopes and take pictures of planets etc. I do know for long term exposures you need something that has a long shutter hold time. And then I think a camera, like a DSLR, would take a pic every so many seconds and piece those together?

Basically what I wanted to say is that, "I'm following this thread"

 

[IndyWS6]

I was looking at telescopes that are “Go-To” systems with motorized tracking hardware. You align to known “things” and the software will put the scope in the proper position and then follow across the sky. Some of the results are amazing - thousands of photos stitched together via software to see deep- space objects. I don’t know much more than a few hours of Google “research”. Trying to understand what would be required…

 

[lol]

I've been obsessed with astronomy since I was a wee lad. I used to carry around a notebook that I drew the planets in along with writing down the facts of each planet. I have a telescope. It's kinda crappy, but still works. I still take it outside from time to time. I also have books as well that I would like to get back into. I prefer the images in the books over the typical CGI crap you see in an astronomy related video, although I get why they do that. I like the real deal more so.

 

[Floyd Eye]

I’ve been interested for years. Even took a trip to the observatory at Bruneau Dunes Idaho. I have a cheap telescope. It’s easier frankly to use my bad ass binoculars. A decent telescope isn’t cheap. And the mount is uber important.

@Thumbpicker is the real deal. He built his own and it’s bad ass.

 

[Monkey Man]

Yeah I was thinking about him today. Haven't heard back since I PM'd him following his brief meltdown and exit a month ago.

I'm assuming for now that he just needs some R&R and to reset.

 

[311boogieman]

I have a decent telescope. Not cheap but not over the top. It does not have the motorized action but it does have an electronic bolt on device that allows you to track once found, but it won't do the work for you. I honestly have not spent a lot of time with it yet. It is an Orion 130. It does have a LED pointer scope and a decent tripod and weights adjustments, etc.

My dad used to take us out in the country when we were young to look at the moon and planets with his telescope.

 

[japetus]

There is nothing for you, in that vast void. What you see is but nothing of a guilded, sparkling past that exists no longer. Gaze upon it with wonder. But wondering, is all we ever will do.

 

[70 Mach 1]

I have a star gazer app on my phone.
Point, click and it tells you everything about the star including LYs.

Farthest i saw was 1600 LYs.
Distance like anything over 100 LYs freezes my mind.

I see one 250 LYs and just say wow george Washington was here when that light left.

1000s of LYs just locks up my head. Holy shit thats a lot of distance and still considered to be a close neighbor

It would take approximately 250 million years to walk one light yr.

If you left when the dinosaurs went extinct youd be only 25% there..shit that messes with my head

Our closest star after the sun is 4LYs

 

[IndyWS6]

The vastness of space and time is mind boggling. Unless you believe in flat earth and its 20,000 end to end (or top to bottom )…

 

[HellraiserJohnny]

I just got into it last year but Astonomy has been a lifelong obsession. I started out with a simple telescope and learning NGC and M Numbers. I quickly found out how difficult it is to track anything I wanted to observe. I saw a new type of scope with menue systems, auto tracking and and built in storage. Ordered in Sept and It didn't come till March of this year. Changed my whole transition to Astrophotograph quite easily. spent a few night a week picking targets and starting getting shots like this no problem

Then I discoved since I mark the Log/Lat of my telescope placement for every session I could do muliple sessions on an object. I picked Andromeda for my first try:

These are all from my AWO S30 which is the size of a lunchbox.

 

[Monkey Man]

Well-done man!

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I just got into it last year but Astonomy has been a lifelong obsession. I started out with a simple telescope and learning NGC and M Numbers. I quickly found out how difficult it is to track anything I wanted to observe. I saw a new type of scope with menue systems, auto tracking and and built in storage. Ordered in Sept and It didn't come till March of this year. Changed my whole transition to Astrophotograph quite easily. spent a few night a week picking targets and starting getting shots like this no problem

View attachment 457851 View attachment 457852
View attachment 457853

Then I discoved since I mark the Log/Lat of my telescope placement for every session I could do muliple sessions on an object. I picked Andromeda for my first try:

View attachment 457854

These are all from my AWO S30 which is the size of a lunchbox.

That's some really nice images you were able to capture.

 

[Rottweiler]

Amazing. Back in 2013/14, I taught my sons how to navigate on the stars and planets. One of those years we had a few weeks were we could see Mercury thru Saturn. We saw the rings with a 60x spotting scope. I got to see a total eclipse once and snapped a photo of Mercury.

 

[Rottweiler]

I've been in a few spots, far away from cities where we could see the milky way. If you grew up in the city, seeing the MW is pretty cool.

 

[HellraiserJohnny]

I've been in a few spots, far away from cities where we could see the milky way. If you grew up in the city, seeing the MW is pretty cool.

This year me and a buddy went to Cherry Springs State Park in Upper PA. It's a well known dark spot with no white light allowed for 75 miles around the park. I have never seen so many stars in the night sky. Literally millions with the naked eye. We saw the Milky Way rise over the trees @ 12:15 AM with just our eyes . . . Completely blown away.

 

[311boogieman]

Took these with my son's iPhone while we were camping off-grid in Utah last year.

Also played with the 'night' setting.