Star gazing ?
- Thread starter CurtisB81
- Start date
Absolutely! Every chance I get, though it's too oten cloudy in the evenings here in West Michigan.
Coolest thing I've seen in awhile? After staying up until 3 am fixing a bike cable, my wife woke me at about 7 am Thursday morning. "Hey! Come outside and see the Space Station!" I walked out back and saw a crescent moon rising before sunrise in a cloudless blue sky to the east. She points to the WNW and I see the ISS moving steadily across the blue backdrop, illuminated by the soon to be rising sun. I'd seen it at night amongst the stars before, but this was pretty spectacular!
I love star gazing. Best investment I made was in a good pair of 12x50 binoculars and a tripod stand for the binoculars. Amazing what is out there that we don’t see until we add some magnification to see deeper into space.
Really? I need to go this route, tho I really only use one eye. I'll bet the moon would look awesome through them!
It does! I grabbed a pair of Nikon binoculars on amazon for a great price. Plus it’s nice to use them for daytime activities. You can rest them on your neck at night and never worry of dropping them, it’s a great way to go to get into star gazing without dumping $1,000 or more into a decent long term telescope.
We are remaking my old barber shop into a mudroom, and I have thought it would make a great place to watch the wildlife and the sky. I'll try to post a picture of the view out my back door.
Should at least be able to enjoy a cup of coffee anyway.
I wish we had a foliage like that this year. That is out of a postcard. It would be hard to pull me from that spot.
This/ Every time there's a 5-6 minute pass, we go out and see it.
Binocs not needed, ISS is pretty bright.
See it yourself:
International Space Station
See the International Space Station! As the third brightest object in the sky the space station is easy to see if you know when to look up.
Plug in your info and go!
AA
This. Good widefield binocs trump a telescope for most. Monopod works well, too.
I have/use Oberwerks ... great for satellite spotting; a fun hobby in itself.
AA
Some great astro links:
earthsky.org
tonight:
earthsky.org
for sat-spotting:
heavens-above.com
NASA daily:
Commercial but good:
www.space.com
AA
EarthSky - Earth, Space, Human World, Tonight
earthsky.org
tonight:
| EarthSky
On October 30 and 31, 2019, watch for 2 brilliant luminaries - the crescent moon and dazzling planet Jupiter - to pop out near one another as dusk gives way to nightfall.
earthsky.org
for sat-spotting:
Heavens-Above
Satellite predictions and other astronomical data customised for your location.
NASA daily:
Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive 2015
astronomy picture of the day dated archive listing
apod.nasa.gov
Commercial but good:
Space.com: NASA, Space Exploration and Astronomy News
Get the latest space exploration, innovation and astronomy news. Space.com celebrates humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier.
AA
EarthSky.org daily email is part of my every morning routine!
I spend quite a bit of time in the Cloudy Nights web pages too!
Clear skies!
I spend quite a bit of time in the Cloudy Nights web pages too!
Clear skies!
I would be into stargazing if I didn't live so close to NYC. The lights in this area just wash out the night sky and really limit the stars that can be seen to the brightest ones. When I was in my early teens I went to camp in the Adirondacks far away from civilization. We would go down to the lake and lay on the dock and look up at the sky. You could easily see the milky way with it's cloud of densely packed stars. I never got to know the constellations though. But it really was an amazing sight and allowed us to marvel at just how small we all are in this vast universe. Even years later when I was financially independent and rented a cabin on the same lake years later and brought my wife and some friends, we would go out on the dock and look up at the sky and it was no less magical as it was when we were kids. I really need to buy a cabin on that lake.
It blows my mind how many satellites are orbiting us
One of the things I like about camping out in the mountains of the UK is that there are usually few, if any, man-made light sources close by. The sky seems to have much greater clarity and depth.
I love star gazing! I live out in the country, so as long as it's not cloudy, I have pretty good dark night skies. I can clearly see the milky way, and I just love that. Have a good pair of binocs too. One day, I'll actually get serious about it and start searching for all the Messier Objects.
I usually see at least one or two every night I go out looking.
One more rabbit hole for Badger and Blade to suck me into.
That's right. And you know you're going to NEED to go out and buy an extremely sophisticated and expensive telescope that will allow you to see at least 300 trillion miles away. And all the gadgets and filters that go with that so you can see stuff at any time of day.
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