Foo - Astronomy

Anyone else here have an interest in astronomy?

I've saved my chart from a college course I took many moons ago (ow) but today I wouldn't know my ursa major from minor.

I'd love to get back into it full on but seems pointless while living here in the land of air pollution and artificial lighting....went out to the country last weekend and was looking forward to a starry sky but it was overcast the whole time we were there.:(

It's one of my back-burner hobbies. I have a small refractor that got me started, and I'll buy something nice to get back into it once the kids are off to college and I get to have my life back.

yes

It's one of my back-burner hobbies. I have a small refractor that got me started, and I'll buy something nice to get back into it once the kids are off to college and I get to have my life back.

Same for me, except for the kids and college. I need to get out of it before I can afford it... :)

Yeah, I helped my daughter build a 6" Dobsonian for a science project and got hooked for a while. I got a $10 webcam off eBay and mounted it to the scope feeding free Astrostack on a laptop. I got some nice shots of the planets and the moon for $10:

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd44/donheff/ASTRO1.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd44/donheff/ASTRO2.jpg

I've got a 10 inch Newt. It's a Celestron, but I don't care for the mount, the goto function does not work at all, it does track fairly well though. I also can't get my camera close enough to the secondary mirror to focus, so I just use it as a push around.

When I have the time and the extra cash I plan on getting a refractor for astrophotography and maybe put the Newt in a Dobsonian mount.

Never been a fan of Celestron mounts... that's one respect where Meade is definitely worth the money.. their mounts are oh-so-much better..

The scope I'm looking at now is an 8" Schmidt-Newt...

Yeah, I helped my daughter build a 6" Dobsonian for a science project and got hooked for a while. I got a $10 webcam off eBay and mounted it to the scope feeding free Astrostack on a laptop. I got some nice shots of the planets and the moon for $10:



Nice job!

I dont even want to tell you how much money I had to spend to get shots like this one of Jupiter, Saturn or this Ha image of the Pelican Nebula.

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//Jupiter_4_16_04_Cap5_254stack.jpg

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//Pelican_2hrs_rev1_IF_Neat.jpg

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//Sat_ATIK_050202_rev4.jpg

I am especially proud of that Saturn image. I shot it with a 4" apo refractor.

I sold everything. The light pollution has gotten so bad in my area the last 5 years that the reward is no longer worth the effort for so few available good days for aquiring images.

I liked shooting lunar landscapes with my 4" apo too.

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//LunaCap88_HAfilter_Final_rev2.jpg

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//LunarMontes_Serenitatis_60k.jpg

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//MareCrisium_041128_Mosaic_258k.jpg

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//Plato_widefield_050418.jpg

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//StraightWall_041204_RichardsonLucyDCV.JPG

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//Ptol_Alph_Arz_Dvy_050418.jpg

Never been a fan of Celestron mounts... that's one respect where Meade is definitely worth the money.. their mounts are oh-so-much better..

The scope I'm looking at now is an 8" Schmidt-Newt...

LXD75? I wish I had gotten that one. I bought the Celestron when Meade was switching between the LXD50 and the 75. There was a multi month wait, and I should have waited.

I had a Celestron 9.25". I bought it with the GOTO mount. It never did work right. The scope was fantastic, the mount was crap. I sold it the day after the Losmandy G-11 I waited forever for, arrived. I didnt get GOTO with it. To take pefect images I had to drift align my mount everytime. Once thats locked in, it was very easy to find things using the equatorial circles on the mount. Manual goto!

I sold the 9.25" to by the APO.

This thread is cool.

I have a 5" Mak. Equatorial mount. Nice optics, but the mount is a bit on the light side.

{snip**. The scope was fantastic, the mount was crap.{snip**

Perfect summery of my experience.

LXD75?

Yup. That's the one.

I'd love to have a scope that would allow me to take a look at emission spectra, but I imagine that would cost a little bit more than I want to spend... hah...

If I were to get back into it, I'd go for a wide-field newtonian (800 mm f/4 or something). Start out as a dob and build a simple eq mount with a tracking motor. Then get a good CCD unit and just shoot all night long! :D

Got an A in it in college. I love the subject!

I took a course in university and loved it, but now can't remember a single thing. I do recall looking through the university's telescope and seeing saturn. That was amazing!

I loved it since 3rd grade or somewhere around. Bad thing about growing up. I got back into bikes after 30 years. Maybe astronomy is next.

I like Start Trek. Does that count?

I like Start Trek. Does that count?

Only if you like Stop Trek as well. :P

Anyone else here have an interest in astronomy?That would depend on what you mean by astronomy. If you mean observational astronomy, then no, I don't have any interest. If you mean theoretical astronomy, then, yes I have an interest.

I have no interest in looking through a telescope to look at a star, a planet, a galaxy, etc. I have a great interest in the physics and understanding of the life of a star, the formation of black holes, etc.