*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

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Soldato
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The nights are getting longer. Jupiter's coming out to play. Hell, soon we might even see Orion pop his head over the horizon. What better time to create a long overdue Astronomy thread? I know there's quite a few of us on here, ranging from full time imagers (if any of you would be kind enough to donate something to the OP i'm sure it would be much appreciated ;) ) to naked eye observers (like me). So stop hiding away, show off your gear and find yet another place to whine about these cloudy nights :D

We can also use this thread to keep up to date on all the latest Physics (and, yes... i suppose other Sciences :rolleyes: ) news and help out prospective astronomers. And feel free to suggest anything to go in this post to make it more helpful/just generally better.

Clear skies! :cool:

Helpful links:

http://www.stellarium.org/ - Essential Open Source software for any budding astronomer
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/astronomy/astro21/sandt/startright.html - Great reading material for beginners
http://stargazerslounge.com/ - Arguably the best dedicated Astronomy forum out there
 
Nice images! Are they with a webcam? As always; details! :D

Random image of the day:

JbNSEl.jpg

Because, you know, i can totally understand having 42" of aperture to look at something as dim as... THE SUN?!

Just imagine if something flew through the film... that's one way to make a nice 1.25" diameter hole your skull :p
 
Yeah, the 150P and 200P are about as perfect beginner observing scopes as you could ask for. And if you don't want to splash out on a whole eyepiece kit then this article is definitely worth a read:

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/80772-eyepieces-very-least-you-need.html

So basically the very least = one for wide angle viewing and one for high power viewing, which may very well be the ones that came with your scope. But pretty soon you'll be wanting something in between. Oh, and a moon filter is always a good buy :)

And if you have an Android phone an app called SkEye can be used to essentially turn it into a push-to (which i think you can do with Google Skymaps too but you'd have to try them both to see what's better.
 
LP filters designed for the old 'orange' streetlights might not be very effective with the new white(er) light since they cover a much wider part of the spectrum.

Anyway, just before the rain rolled in I managed to get out and enjoy the first clear skies in a long while. Moon was quite bright but I managed to spot The Plough and Cygnus, and a satellite passing directly overhead (what's the word for that?) but Heavens Above didn't load fast enough to tell me what it was. A couple of owls seemed to be out enjoying it too :D

Still, naked eye can only get you so far... not that I'm anywhere near learning the sky or anything :p
 
Pighardia said:
it is definitely worth it if you can afford it!

But it isn't difficult to find your way with a decent guide/Stellarium etc. Half the fun is finding stuff!!!

The 150p is a very nive scope and would be an excellent starting scope, but then i would say that there isn't that much difference from the 130p tbh.

I don't know about anyone else, but i would recommend getting a dob as a first scope, especially if you do not end up getting a goto scope
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I wouldn't say it's worth it so much as it's there if you want it. For some half the fun is tracking down and finding an object. For others they just want to jump straight in and be looking at something amazing. Plus you can always get push-to apps for your phone ;)
 
churchhawk said:
Some of those pictures are amazing, for a complete noob would there be anything out there under say 200 quid that would enable me to see things like that!? Or are we looking at LOTS of money here?
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Under £200 the best beginner scope would most likely be the 150P Dob, which would get you some pretty amazing views... but imaging is completely different, you can't say what you'll see because the human eye is nothing like a digital (or an emulsion) sensor. As said there are very few nebulae you'd be able to see colour in without a huge scope, but 6" is a very good place to start out (;)).
 
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