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Not to steal the spotlight from Blayne, but I was feeling restless tonight when I should have started sleeping. I decided to go out to a dark sports field on campus and look at stars with my binoculars, so I drove out there, set up a camp chair, and stared at the sky.
And then I realized, hey! I have access to the campus observatory! Why the heck am I not out there looking at the stars!?
Back story: Since last year, our stargazing club has crashed and burned. Partly because the physics and astrophysics majors had all graduated, and partly because of poor leadership in the last year. While I was away on co-op last semester, I was elected president (and by elected, I mean that no one else wanted the position). So that put me in position to have primary access to a run-down, yet fully functional observatory about a mile off campus. Hardly anyone uses it, which is really sad because it is free, and available to any student interested.
So that' how I found myself out at 12:30 a.m. watching Mars rise through a large telescope.
So here's my question: does anyone else here stargaze on a regular basis? Do you have telescopes / what kind? And who here has or has not seen the planets through a telescope? The experience is truly remarkable, since you can see, for instance, the moons of Jupiter, as well as some of the surface patterns with your own eyes. If you haven't, I recommend you try to find somewhere where you can.
Sorry for the rambling post, I'm going to sleep now.
Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Actually, since my move out to western Kansas, I've become more interested in astronomy. It's easier to be interested, because unlike Kansas City, there's actually stars visible out here.
At the college, there's an observatory, though the main telescope is down because the building is being repaired. The astronomy teacher holds a monthly "Star Party" and uses some Dobsonian (sp?) telescopes for those events.
To answer your question, I don't stargaze on a regular basis, but I do have access to telescopes through these events. Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I have a 3" refractor, the StellarVue NightHawk Next Generation, which I use on trips. I also have a 6" Dobsonian reflector, but since I live pretty much in the center of a large city, I don't take it out much, especially now with the refractor (which cost 5 times more money EDIT: and yet is 5 times lighter )
I also have a couple of binoculars (8x56 and 20x80) which I use off and on. On my recent cross-country roadtrip I only got to see the moon, since it was pretty much full the entire time.
I have split mizar and alcor in the big dipper (and then split mizar itself), viewed albeiro, the orion nebula, the beehive cluster, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, the moon, and swaths of stars.
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I have a 10" Newtonian altazimuth reflector but I don't have anywhere to observe since my neighbor put up this honkin big street light (or got the city to do so). I wish it were legal for me to shoot that thing out. It's a public menace.
I love skygazing! I've been doing it since I was a little kid. I get all evangelical about it and annoy all my friends. I saw Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter (the black smudges on the cloudtops, anyway), and one total eclipse of the sun. I saw a partial that was something like 93% eclipsed, too, which was neat in its own way. I particularly love comets and lunar total eclipses. Some time in the sixties I saw the most amazing comet ever, the first comet I'd seen so I thought they all were that great. I've been waiting for one approaching that ever since.
I love to look at Saturn's rings and moons, and Jupiter's moons. Oh and I love love love globular clusters. Has anything ever been more beautiful than that? But really just looking at the craters on the moon is way cool. A whole other world! And it's just hanging up there in the sky! <gets the shivers>
I also have a little 4" dobs that sits on a tabletop. It's nice for portability.
And I agree that looking with your own eyes through a telescope is an extraordinary experience, totally enthralling. Looking at even the most gorgeous hi-res Hubble images doesn't compare, for some reason. Being out for hours in the cold adds to the mystique. I recommend you have hot chocolate with marshmallows when you finally make it back inside.
Skygazing is magical.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Every month, when I go camping, I end up spending at least an hour staring at the sky. A few times, I've done it with a telescope. Last month, I accidentally went backpacking during a meteor shower. We were far enough away from cities and airports that we got a really nice show, even as early as 10:30PM.
My first scoutmaster was also founder of the Mid-Atlantic Star Party, and we regularly camped at the Scout Camp near where MASP is held. Naturally, we had many opportunities to use his several telescopes and learn about what we were looking at.
Posts: 145 | Registered: Apr 2007
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Something else that's cool that I look through the telescope at.....
I just wanted to tell you guys about it. Just you, the few who will read this thread. Because it's really neat.
I feed the animals and birds behind my house, and it's really fun to sit and watch them eat. They're so cheerful and active. I just love to gaze at them, and everyone who comes to visit seems to feel the same way. I buy sunflower seed in the 20 lb bags from Pennington, and put that up in feeders that hang from the eaves of my house, right outside the plate glass windows overlooking the deck and woods. The cardinals love that, and the house finches, chickadees, tufted titmice, goldfinches (in season), and various other species. Then I put out a bowl of Purina cat chow on the deck and the neighborhood cats like that, as well as the blue jays, mockingbirds, brown thrashers, red bellied woodpeckers, carolina wrens, gray squirrels, and others. What they don't eat, the raccoons come and finish up in the late afternoon and evening. Finally if there's any after that, the possums finish it off before dawn when I put out the next day's bit.
Finally, I scatter seed on the ground, the type that ground feeding birds like juncos, mourning doves, cardinals, indigo buntings, goldfinches, (cardinals and goldfinches will eat from either the ground or the feeders), and an occasional red breasted grosbeak will enjoy. Chipmunks love this seed too, and they come and fill up their cheek pouches, then scurry away. They're extremely cute.
The little wild animals who come and join us for meals and snacks add tremendously to the warmth and hominess of this place, and I have books that I look them up in, because I like to know all their species, and their ranges and migratory habits. The Golden field guides are the very best. They bring me so much joy, sort of like skygazing does. I thought I would share that with you guys in here, because I know you would understand.
If you've never tried it, it takes a few weeks for the critters to catch on, but once they do figure it out, they'll be your steady customers for life, if you let them. Sometimes the raccoons come and put their paws on the window and look in, especially if I haven't put their food out that day for some reason, as if to say "hey, we're hungry out here, where's the chow?" They're just so cute, all of them! It's a whole lot of fun.
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