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bugs
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# Posted: 17 Aug 2010 18:25
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It seems many of us have discovered or rediscovered the night sky at our little cabin sites. Quite enjoyed reading Gary O. and Larry's descriptions of watching the moonrise and the meteor shower, and the posts of others. We have also rediscovered the night sky after years of living in the city. An unexpected bonus to our adventure into the realm of the small cabin and property.
I have been doing a lot of research on the subject in preparation for a new toy purchase (See pic of new toy below.) There are tons of good sites on the internet where a person can get info.
It seems the first thing to have is a good pair of binoculars to scan the heavens and a good sky chart (Skymaps (http://skymaps.com/) provides a free monthly printable star chart and event calendar.) so a person can learn the constellations, what the planets look like and some of the brighter nebulae and galaxies that can be seen.
For meteor showers the best views are with the naked eyes as for the satellites and northern lights. (I guess we should have stayed home instead of going to the cabin to see the light show (http://www.cbc.ca/sask/gallery/index.html?dataPath=/photogallery/regions/saskatchewa n/gallery_3753/xml/gallery_3753.xml) .
The big thing is to let your eyes become night adapted. It takes up to 20 minutes to acquire full night vision. A flash of white light will essentially destroy night vision. A red light can be used to see what one is doing. Red light does not affect night vision as much. A trick I learned when I was a kid was to not look directly at an object but kind of view it from the corner of the eye. The sides of the eye have more cones or rods or whatevers that are better able to see dim/faint things.
I came across a couple of great freeware "planetarium" programs that provide views of the night sky from any location: Hallo northern sky, (http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm), Asynx Planetarium (http://www.asynx-planetarium.com/), and Winstars (http://www.winstars.net/english/) provide interactive views of the night's sky, plus information on many celestial objects. I particularly like the latter as it provides a real horizon that you can add your own view to. The large download of Hallo northern sky will provide images of many of the galaxies and nebulae that can be seen in binoculars or with a small telescope when you zoom in.
I found an excellent guide, one of many, on what types of telescopes for a first timer such as this one (http://www.all-startelescope.com/index.php/Purchasing-Your-First-Telescope.html).
The new toy I bought is a very basic, no frills, 8 inch diameter Dobsonian mounted reflector. It should be reasonably portable at about 20 lbs for the mount and 16 lbs for the tube assembly. The mirror diameter should give good views of the main planets and many of the brighter nebulae, galaxies and star clusters not to mention double stars.
One of the things I have found is that after looking at the moon and the major planets some people are disillusioned by views of the nebulae, star clusters and galaxies when viewed from a small telescope. They expect to see brilliant colours alas newscasts and National Geographic and other such eye candy taken by the Hubble Space telescope or the larger telescopes. People have to realize that these images are often time exposures of many minutes or even hours and the film/digital camera is collecting much more light than the eye can. And often these images are falsely coloured. Once a person gets over that there is lots of enjoyment in finding things in the night sky and seeing them for one's self. And of course contemplating how many "things" are looking back at us.
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bugs
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# Posted: 18 Aug 2010 09:27
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Took the toy out on the patio last night. Dobsonian mounts are not the greatest for photography but not too bad.
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Xplorer
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# Posted: 19 Aug 2010 16:15
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Very nice. Looks like mine except mines black. Blacks not a good color for a 'scope when it's pitch black-lol. I know what you mean. Was hoping to get view like I had seen in the magazines, but as you said, doesn't work that way.
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Gary O
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# Posted: 19 Aug 2010 18:38
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Dang! That's a great pic, bugs!
Inspirational for this ol' wood butcher.
What does something like that set one back?
I can just imagine a harvest moon...............
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Gary O
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# Posted: 23 Aug 2010 22:35
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OK, got a burst of energy and saw where they go for $500 or so.
The web site kinda inspired me to look hard at the Celestron CPC 925. They are a bit spendy at $2500. Anybody tried out these?
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hattie
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# Posted: 23 Aug 2010 22:42 - Edited by: hattie
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Somebody told us about this guy in BC who runs an "observatory B&B" Now that's what I call a telescope! http://www.jacknewton.com/canada.htm
We use a 10 inch Dobsonian reflector.
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MikeOnBike
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# Posted: 24 Aug 2010 00:53
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I used and 8" Dobsonian for a few years so as is natural with aperture fever I'm going to have to get a 10". I would love to have a 12-13" but that takes a pickup or minivan to move around unless you can afford one of the collapsible truss models.
A friend had a Meade 10" Schmidt/Cassegrain. It was really nice, better than the faster Dobs for planets. I really like the big cheap light bucket Dobs for star gazing.
For that kind of money you can get one of these http://obsessiontelescopes.com/telescopes/index.html
I do think the Celestron would take better pictures though.
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bugs
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# Posted: 25 Aug 2010 19:22
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Thought there would be some "closet" amateur astronomers in the crowd. Thanks for the link Mike. The classics sure look good. I like the rich woody look. Could slip one into the living room corner and it would not look out of place.
Ahhh yes the need/quest for size. At some point tho they just become too heavy and large to lug around and set up. I found the tube of the 8 " Dob just fits into the truck cab on top of all our gear. There are some 10" and 12" collapsible Dobsoians out now.
Hey Gary maybe you could build an observatory to house your scope when you get it!!! I wonder how a building permit would go through with "observatory" on it.
I think most of Celestron scopes are pretty good, as are Meade's. The cat/Schmidt/Cass design (folds the focal length) sure make the scopes compact. Toss in the computerized goto feature and a good sturdy equatorial mount and you will be taking time exposure pix like the pros.
Had a chance to try the scope out at the shed the other night. Worked quite well even tho there was a lot of smoke, broken cloud and a bright moon. Definitely will increase the enjoyment of the property as the nights get longer in the next couple of months.
But at 2:30 am when you are concentrating on trying to see something (ie the ring nebula) and the coyotes start singing nearby or something goes crashing through the bush a couple of yards away one does feel a bit vulnerable!
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Gary O
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# Posted: 25 Aug 2010 19:40
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Yeah, Bugs, the county ought have a hayday figuring the many ways to increase my taxes, let alone a permit...."let's see, let's see, ah yes, here it is; universal view property........."
In trying my darndest to minimalize my 'toy' population, I'm backing off the brief mega scope quest. I could easily get consumed with it. I may however look for something having the ability to do more than make little white dots into bigger white dots. May go antique (wood, warmth) just to enjoy gazing at it too.
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MikeOnBike
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# Posted: 25 Aug 2010 19:45
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Bugs,
Congratulations on the new toy!
I have the 10" Meade Lightbridge on my short list. I think it will give me the light bucket I want but still be fairly collapsible.
Meade Lightbridge
They are not necessarily lighter but can be broken down more than a straight tube dob.
'Closet' yes, I have been out of astronomy for about 7-8 yrs. The kids and I used to belong to the local club and work all of the start parties.
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RnR
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# Posted: 22 Sep 2010 23:50
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Hey Thanks for starting this thread Bugs!
As I mentioned on our thread, it's a great time to see Jupiter these days, in a generally southern direction. It won't be this close again for 20 years. It was so bright about a week ago that I knew it wasn't just a star.
I want a telescope for my birthday!
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MikeOnBike
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2010 02:38
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I unboxed my new Zhumell Z10 dobsonian last night but had to wait until tonight to use check it out because of clouds.
Jupiter is impressive with 4 moons and the cloud belts in view. Uranus was hard to find with the moon washing out most of the guide stars but it was there. The moon washed out almost everything else too.
I'm really looking forward to getting the scope to the mtn. cabin. It is so much darker at 6000' and no cities for many miles.
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bugs
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2010 19:19
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That is absolutely great news Mike. I am sure you will have many hours/nights of enjoyment from the scope. I see the new scope curse caught you.... a cloudy night so you could not try out your new toy. Seems to always happen.
I picked up a Telrad finder and a barlow and have ordered an Astro-fix locator from the UK (the company is developing a mini drive for dobsonians that enable a five minute exposure which sounds interesting.) to help me locate the various M's etc. I can see if this keeps up it will not be too long before I will have to upgrade the scope.
We had good views of M13, ring nebula, double cluster in the early evening and then at 3 am the Pleides and Orion were up and the air had calmed down so Jupiter was very good. Unfortunately the moon was too bright. But it too was great to see using a neutral density filter to cut its light.
RnR I was able to see the moons of Jupiter with my little 7x 35 binocs. But as Mike mentions it does not compare to seeing it in a reasonable sized scope. You might want to poke around this link. http://www.cloudynights.com/index.php I found it very informative for a beginning dabbler like myself.
I found the best viewing spot to make a "patio" for the telescope out at the shed. Sure it great to have over 100 degrees of viewing expanse in any direction and no light pollution compared to about 35 degrees and barely being able to see Polaris in my backyard.
The telescope has really added another dimension to our little cabin outings. We used to curl up at night with a book or a movie when it got dark or at best sit by the fire pit. Now we are busy exploring the star clusters, planets, moon and galaxies. A great learning experience. And the lady wife and I are doing it together.
Still spooked though when there is a crash in the woods or the coyotes start a chorus nearby!!!!
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