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The Astronomy Thread.

I had an eight inch Clestron, long barrel for many years, had to leave it behind when I moved to the states. If I had my time over, I would have bought a short barrel 10" Meade. The 8" was just the wrong height for for me and my ageing back lol

But the old adage of telescopes is the best one you can get is the one you are going to use.
 
lionking said:
Now I'm getting inspired. What's the cost of a good, entry level telescope? (if this is not a naive question).
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that depends on your level of interest. You can see most of the cool clusters with binocs.

basically as much as you want to spend. I like just looking at the stars.
 
Lionking, I believe you are in Melb. I would recommend these guys

http://www.ozscopes.com.au/

Stay away from tasco scopes or virtually anything you find in a department store or camera shop. Particularly stay away from any telescope being sold by the amount of magnification it offers. The real trick to scopes is resolution.

In reality once a scope gets beyond 200 x magnification, sky conditions make it useless. It is better to have a larger scope ticking over at no more than about 48 x mag than to overdrive a smaller scope.

There is a specific calculation that attributes maximum usable magnification to the amount of glass you are using.

Personally if I was starting again, I would begin with binocs, if you get bored the binoculars are good for other things
 
MG1962, well, REALLY high magnification can be useful for planetary work, where there is enough light to make a bright enough image. You just have to be patient and wait for that tenth-second of clear path through the atmosphere when you can briefly see detail. The caveat is that this is how the Canals on Mars originated; Its devilishly hard to remember accurately and record what you see in that instant.
 
BenBurch said:
MG1962, well, REALLY high magnification can be useful for planetary work, where there is enough light to make a bright enough image. You just have to be patient and wait for that tenth-second of clear path through the atmosphere when you can briefly see detail. The caveat is that this is how the Canals on Mars originated; Its devilishly hard to remember accurately and record what you see in that instant.
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Agreed, however, you need a seriously stable mount to do that, and scopes such as the Tasco range simply would not allow you to take advantage of that rare moment, they tend to be the ones who boast 504 x magnification
 
MG1962 said:
Agreed, however, you need a seriously stable mount to do that, and scopes such as the Tasco range simply would not allow you to take advantage of that rare moment, they tend to be the ones who boast 504 x magnification
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Amazingly, you can make do with a really bad mounting if you are very patient!

This fellow did;
 

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Was just out with my ETX and full aperture solar filter.

WOW is the sun blank. No features I could discern at all and even without spots there is usually something you can detect that indicates activity.

What I really need (but cannot afford) is one of those very cool Coronado H-alpha filters.
 
Bah! I hate you all! The night sky here is like pea soup. On an average
night I can just about see the moon. Maybe I should build a radio
telescope instead... :(
 
For a good entry level scope I cant recommend dobsonians enough. Affordable for the size, easy to set up and use - especially nice for those just starting.
BTW for those of you using DSLR's for astrophotography - how did you overcome the problem of focus? I use a goto 8" SCT on a wedge with a Canon DSLR and 2" flip mirror and find focus is a big problem. (Might be my 40+ eyes)
 
Humanzee said:
BTW for those of you using DSLR's for astrophotography - how did you overcome the problem of focus?
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I cut 5 cm of my OTA to shift the focal point so as to line up with the sensor.
You need to compensate by 5cm when you use the eyepieces.

A SCT will not like this approach.
You need to have an adapter that will allow you to move the camera either in or out to find focus.

I recommend you look at the IIS link in an earlier post:)
 
Never underestimate normal binoculars for astronomy.
- Many people have them already - instant astronomy, no waiting.
- You can see lots of cool stuff, especially if you're lucky enough to have dark skies
- They're useful for lots of non-astronomy things
- They're super portable
- They don't have to be expensive (but make sure the optics are decent)
- Nice, wide field of view - great for learning your way around the sky
- Eyestrain is minimal over long periods
- When you get a scope you'll probably still want them
- They'll give you a good idea of whether you enjoy the hobby enough to get a scope

Cons:
- You can't see planetary detail
- Can't pull in the faint fuzzies
- Impractical to photograph through (but so are most scopes with cheap mounts)
- Less coolness factor
- What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a man with binoculars looking around at midnight? Doubly bad if the "horizon" happens to be over top of your neighbors window. :D

My favorite scope is an 8" Dob. It's very usable, and I mean that in the most positive way. I think that their popularity is well deserved.
 
The dedicated astro-photographers get much better images than I do.
One I like a lot is this 4 a.m. wide field (135mm telephoto lens) of Halley rising in the pre-morning day.
And a serious Celestron farm.
And a hand-made wood scope assembly, using the optics from a Meade 8" Dobsonian, on an equatorial mount.
 

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Thanks Skwinty for the link, I'll check it out...tho I will likely be very jealous of your southern skies.
It would be interesting to see some astro images made by JREF members if people would care to share.
 
The Moon, Venus and Jupiter, Dec 1, 2008.
Casio point-n-shoot camera.
You don't always need the largest and bestest equipment to get a pleasing shot.
 

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Has anyone logged Comet Lulin yet?

I'm going to start keeping an eye on it as soon as the clouds piss off - should be visible for the rest of the month.
 
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