I miss seeing the Milky Way, have to drive 40 miles for true dark skies...
Those Oberwerk light bucket binos do help.
AA
Those Oberwerk light bucket binos do help.
AA
Star gazing ?
- Thread starter CurtisB81
- Start date
Thread Resurrection!!
After a decade long hiatus, I have returned to another hobby I love, backyard astronomy. I recently purchased a new telescope, one that I think will be easier for me to set up, use, and take down, thus allowing me to Look Up more and not be put off by alignments, mounting, and all the other tasks needed to start looking.
My previous scope was/is a modest Newtonian reflector with a 6" mirror and a focal length of 750mm. This served me well for over 6 years, observing many deep sky objects and completing 5 or 6 Astronomical League observing programs. With the typical 25mm or 10mm eyepieces, my magnifications were 30x and 75x respectively. Here is a picture, taken today in anticipation of putting an ad together.
Homemade Wilcox rings (the Tygon tubing with hose clamps inside) allowed me to turn the optical tube to get the eyepiece in a better position so I didn't have to be a contortionist!
Yesterday, this arrived:
This is a Newtonian reflector with an 8" mirror and 1200mm focal length. Those two eyepieces mentioned above will give magnifications of 48x (25mm eyepiece) and 120x (10mm eyepiece).
It is mounted in the dobsonian fashion, named after John Dobson in the mid-60s when he started his sidewalk astronomy "flash mobs" in San Francisco (he didn't use the term flash mob
!)
After a decade long hiatus, I have returned to another hobby I love, backyard astronomy. I recently purchased a new telescope, one that I think will be easier for me to set up, use, and take down, thus allowing me to Look Up more and not be put off by alignments, mounting, and all the other tasks needed to start looking.
My previous scope was/is a modest Newtonian reflector with a 6" mirror and a focal length of 750mm. This served me well for over 6 years, observing many deep sky objects and completing 5 or 6 Astronomical League observing programs. With the typical 25mm or 10mm eyepieces, my magnifications were 30x and 75x respectively. Here is a picture, taken today in anticipation of putting an ad together.
Homemade Wilcox rings (the Tygon tubing with hose clamps inside) allowed me to turn the optical tube to get the eyepiece in a better position so I didn't have to be a contortionist!
Yesterday, this arrived:
This is a Newtonian reflector with an 8" mirror and 1200mm focal length. Those two eyepieces mentioned above will give magnifications of 48x (25mm eyepiece) and 120x (10mm eyepiece).
It is mounted in the dobsonian fashion, named after John Dobson in the mid-60s when he started his sidewalk astronomy "flash mobs" in San Francisco (he didn't use the term flash mob
!)
One of the joys of backpacking in the wilderness areas of Northern California, and the Sierras is the nightly Milky-way display that isn't obscured by city glow.
I like to go during the Perseids meteor shower that occurs in August. It's an unforgettable experience.
I like to go during the Perseids meteor shower that occurs in August. It's an unforgettable experience.
Congrats! That's the very dob I was on track to get.... A fine choice. Winter will come, don't do much astronomy here in August... Admit I used the Seestar a lot last winter/spring, but nothing beats visual astronomy.Thread Resurrection!!
After a decade long hiatus, I have returned to another hobby I love, backyard astronomy. I recently purchased a new telescope, one that I think will be easier for me to set up, use, and take down, thus allowing me to Look Up more and not be put off by alignments, mounting, and all the other tasks needed to start looking.
My previous scope was/is a modest Newtonian reflector with a 6" mirror and a focal length of 750mm. This served me well for over 6 years, observing many deep sky objects and completing 5 or 6 Astronomical League observing programs. With the typical 25mm or 10mm eyepieces, my magnifications were 30x and 75x respectively. Here is a picture, taken today in anticipation of putting an ad together.
View attachment 1888168
Homemade Wilcox rings (the Tygon tubing with hose clamps inside) allowed me to turn the optical tube to get the eyepiece in a better position so I didn't have to be a contortionist!
Yesterday, this arrived:
View attachment 1888171
This is a Newtonian reflector with an 8" mirror and 1200mm focal length. Those two eyepieces mentioned above will give magnifications of 48x (25mm eyepiece) and 120x (10mm eyepiece).
It is mounted in the dobsonian fashion, named after John Dobson in the mid-60s when he started his sidewalk astronomy "flash mobs" in San Francisco (he didn't use the term flash mob
View attachment 1888173
AA
I've lived in the same city for the past 30 years and have noticed the fading in the skies for nighttime viewing. I took an astronomy course in college and it really blew my mind. I can somewhat find my way around a north american night sky.
We're still waiting on that scheduled nova in Corona Borealis ... supposed to be by September. Any day now, please. I'll get the SE4 out for that.AA
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