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

Is that how you can see Saturn? With its donut and everything?

I think this is going to inspire me to give this a crack, ive always fancied it.
 
PermaBanned said:
Urgh, Silverlight. I will however use this as an excuse to promote the other thread i made this morning[/url]

:D
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Silverlight or not take a look at the content, it's a country mile beyond pretty much any other public resource. The narrated tours are particularly good for anyone picking up Astronomy from frsh.
 
Here's a pic of my scopes:

Z0NeN.jpg

I've also recently started astrophotography and here's one of my first images below, the veil nebula its approx 1500 LY from Earth. Hopefully I will get some better pics in winter.

AHQTo.jpg
 
Ooo Shiney.

This ones been bugging me for a while. Is the Sun a name or a type of star? I always assumed it was a name but I've been told I am wrong.
 
Great thread idea OP. It's worth mentioning to anyone that is new to Astronomy with either the Naked Eye or with Binoculars/Telescope there are a lot of fantastic apps out for Android and Apple.

Google Sky is fantastic if you want find out whats in the heavens above very quickly.
 
I've not used my scope since I moved house. I have a bloody great 10" Meade LX 200 GPS. I'm planning to sell it as it is too bloody heavy to lug up n down the stairs to my flat. I'll have to make do with my ETX90 instead.
Anyone wanna buy it?:confused:
 
Depends how much :D
Don't forget newbies, you will not see colour in galaxies, nedbula etc. The human eye is just not sensitive enough! I would recommend anyone wanting to try this, finds a local starparty and pops over on one of the open nights. Oh, and you will need deep pockets!

edit: Why on earth was my post deleted? Pretty sure it just had my equipment in there?
 
PhillyDee said:
Depends how much :D
Don't forget newbies, you will not see colour in galaxies, nedbula etc. The human eye is just not sensitive enough! I would recommend anyone wanting to try this, finds a local starparty and pops over on one of the open nights. Oh, and you will need deep pockets!

edit: Why on earth was my post deleted? Pretty sure it just had my equipment in there?
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was yours the one that linked to a youtube video of some man utd fans? :p

Also, you don't have to have deep pockets, to get started at least, my scope and go to mount was £130 all in (2nd hand) and is decent enough to see galaxies etc :)
 
What do you mean you cant see colour?

I thought Mars showed up red? So does this mean that looking at like Jupiter will not be anything like the photos they show us, with those clouds etc... and the Sun, I wont see all the explosions and stuff?
 
Ah, that could be it! I quoted the poster before to say wrong thread!

You can see colour on the planets, and the colours (spectra) of the stars, but galaxies and nebula do not (I have never seen anwyay) have colour. This does not make them boring!
Saturn is by far my favourite planet! Because, simply put, it looks exactly like saturn. When I first saw it, it was breathtaking, and I was hooked for life!

Although starting in Astronomy is cheap, you will want to spend more and more and more!

I can fully recommend these as suppliers: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/ They are incredibly knowledgeable, and if you want to buy something, ring them up! They are happy to help you get the best for your money!

I would also recommend one of these as a starter scope:
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-skyhawk-1145p.html
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130.html
And a copy of Turn Left At Orion

Pretty much all you need at first! But would also recommend an eyepiece kit
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/eyepiece-sets/revelation-photo-visual-eyepiece-kit.html
Good for getting started. I have since upgraded 4 of them, but still keep the same case.

Then once you have seen the moon, and gasped at its magnificence (you will never look at it the same again) you will want to go bigger and better!

In regards to viewing the sun, I have only viewed it a couple of times, if you use the Baader film with your exisiting scope, it appears grey, to get the correct colour, you would need a dedicated solar scope, these colour correct and the sun appears as a big orange ball. My viewing occurred in a time of no activity at all, so it just looked like a perfect orange sphere!
 
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I can see a really bright planet just over the horizon at the moment, I think in a NW direction just as it starts getting dark. It's red so at first I thought it was mars but I had a look and I think it must be Saturn.

I like www.astroviewer.com to see what planets are about.

When I was camping last year I could actually see the moons around jupiter with just a pair of binoculars - I think we could see 3 of them. Also around 22:30 every night a really bright satellite would shoot overhead which I thought had to be ISS due to its brightness. Checked on one of the tracker websites and sure enough it was. Amazing to see, especially when you're expecting it and keeping an eye out. It's gone soon enough mind!
 
ScoTTyBEEE said:
I can see a really bright planet just over the horizon at the moment, I think in a NW direction just as it starts getting dark. It's red so at first I thought it was mars but I had a look and I think it must be Saturn.

I like www.astroviewer.com to see what planets are about.

When I was camping last year I could actually see the moons around jupiter with just a pair of binoculars - I think we could see 3 of them. Also around 22:30 every night a really bright satellite would shoot overhead which I thought had to be ISS due to its brightness. Checked on one of the tracker websites and sure enough it was. Amazing to see, especially when you're expecting it and keeping an eye out. It's gone soon enough mind!
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The IIS is great to watch, there was a pass last year which was really clear, I could make out the solar sails. Fantastic :)
 
I have an 8" skyliner 200p, great piece of kit. I need to get a few more eyepieces really and i've lost my Barlow:(


I would highly recommend a dobsonian for a beginner. In fact, i would recommend one anyway tbh.

this is excellent, i have a mate who has one- http://www.harpersphoto.co.uk/product/skywatcher_heritage-130p_flextube_/


I get some amazing detail on Saturn and Jupiter, Also the moon.

I don't have a photo of my scope specifically, but it is this model-

skylinetr.jpg




I am considering picking up a motorized or goto mount if i can find one cheap second hand and try to attatch my scope to it
 
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.
 
When i subscribed to Sky At Night i got a Nebula filter and a moon filter, so that might be worth considering for anyone starting out. A nebula filter is very useful if you live in a highly light polluted area.

In terms of eyepieces i can not recommend the TMB Planetary eyepieces enough. They are VERY high quality for the price.
http://www.burgessoptical.com/EPs/Planetary.html

I have the 10mm and 6mm and they are the best eyepieces i have by a mile.

There aren't that many places to buy them now though. I ended up getting them form Ebay. Also the Meade 400 series are pretty good value. I have the 4mm and it is very good. I do everything on a budget though, so they are by no means the best you can get, but they are still high quality
 
its hard to imagine today the original reason the milkyway was named. Like a splash of milk across the sky. This is why we need Hubble and Juno.
Anyway Has anyone read:
The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek
as was thinking of picking it up to read on holidays is it any good?
 
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