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Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night
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spot
Aug 9, 08 5:26
Post #1 of 12 (209 views)
Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night
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Decided last night to break out my little 5" telescope and take a look at the bright planet that was low in the southeast (in SW Ohio) last night about 9:00pm. Was rewarded with a spectacular view of Jupiter and 4 of her moons. Even with my small telescope, if I sat real still (I was on my deck...not the best place for viewing), I could clearly see the color bands when the telescope settled down. The moons were very bright, and in a perfect plane. Great viewing of the moon as well, as the terrain near the shadow line is really visible.
Don't know why, but seeing a planet with my own eyes, rather than in some photo, is always awe-inspiring to me. Gonna let my 8 year old stay up late tonight to get a good look.
Spot
Cervelo / Kuota Mafia Member
"Mine goes to 11...."
chainpin
Aug 9, 08 7:40
Post #2 of 12 (192 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [spot]
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Ahh Jupiter, one of my favorite celestial objects!! If you get a chance get a copy of Sky and Telescope or go online and find the occultation and transit times for Jupiter's moons, that can be great fun and as you stated, very awe inspiring. I remember when I was dating this girl and whipped out my scope for her for the first time, showing her the moon, nebula, planets, etc., she was amazed and thought I was pretty damn cool... LOL!!! Must have left a lasting impression because we are now married!! Hahaha!
I took this picture and the others with a 2.1 megapixel Canon Elf camera via eyepiece projection though a LX200 8" several years ago. I noe have a 8 megapixel SLR that I haven't rigged up yet for astrophotography, your post has got me thinking about getting going with this stuff again!! Thanks!
"Capitalism is tough on the participants that get beat by it."
Crapola
jenhs
Aug 9, 08 8:36
Post #3 of 12 (185 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [spot]
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We have a telescope but havent taken it out for a while.
What always got me was looking at Saturn with the rings. It seemed so unreal.
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Jenhs
spot
Aug 9, 08 9:03
Post #4 of 12 (180 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [jenhs]
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I haven't had mine out in over a year, probably longer. I remember the first time I saw the rings of Saturn...I was simply amazed.
Spot
Cervelo / Kuota Mafia Member
"Mine goes to 11...."
chainpin
Aug 9, 08 9:36
Post #5 of 12 (175 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [spot]
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I haven't had mine out in over a year, probably longer. I remember the first time I saw the rings of Saturn...I was simply amazed.
Spot
My scope is now at our house in MA--it used to be up in NH where the skies are much, much darker--so I have been doing a lot of viewing of the moon. As much as I like the "other" objects, the moon is the one object that absolutely gets people's jaws dropping! They can't pull their eyes away from it. Viewing anything else besides planets and the moon is tough with all the light pollution here, but there are filters that help a lot, however I don't have one.... : (
"Capitalism is tough on the participants that get beat by it."
Crapola
spot
Aug 9, 08 11:07
Post #6 of 12 (170 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [chainpin]
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Yeah, for getting started, simply looking at the moon is pretty cool. Amazing the amount of detail you can see with even a 3.78" maksutov - cassegrain (Meade ETX90).
Spot
Cervelo / Kuota Mafia Member
"Mine goes to 11...."
(This post was
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lunchbox
Aug 9, 08 11:46
Post #7 of 12 (164 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [spot]
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Spot (maybe Chainpin too),
How does one tell if a used telescope is any good? I've been thinking about this a lot since last winter. My childhood obsession w/ astronomy has been rekindled a bit. I'd like to take a trip to west TX (big observatory out there) and check things out- we've got a few weeks at christmas, so should be a good time!
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If I don't, who will?
spot
Aug 9, 08 11:57
Post #8 of 12 (161 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [lunchbox]
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Unfortunately, I have absolutely no clue. I bit the bullet and bought a new Meade quite a few years ago.
Spot
Cervelo / Kuota Mafia Member
"Mine goes to 11...."
chainpin
Aug 9, 08 14:04
Post #9 of 12 (152 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [lunchbox]
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Spot (maybe Chainpin too),
How does one tell if a used telescope is any good? I've been thinking about this a lot since last winter. My childhood obsession w/ astronomy has been rekindled a bit. I'd like to take a trip to west TX (big observatory out there) and check things out- we've got a few weeks at christmas, so should be a good time!
My first telescope--when I was 8--was a used one from a yard sale! As far as buying used, well I guess it's sort of like buying a car--it depends on what's under the hood and how well the previous owner treated it. By that I mean you need to be sure that the optics are in good shape, as well as focus nobs, etc. Unless you can test out the scope yourself--the easy way is to simply focus on a bright star and observe how sharp the point of light gets (that's sort of a simplification but you get the idea)--I would be hesitant in making such a purchase. If you want to roll the dice I'm sure ebay has some good prices on new/used scopes.
If you are just starting out my advice is to get a quality instrument form the get go. The claimed 1000x magnification department store models should be avoided, you will only be disappointed. I'm partial to Meade, although there are other very good makers out there. This would be a kick ass entry level scope in my opinion. All the ETX scope are great and you could definitely find a reputable source for a used one somewhere I imagine.
http://www.meade.com/etx/etx80.html
Careful though, once you get a telescope you're likely to experience "aperture fever", and the desire to get a bigger and bigger scope will consume you!! : )
"Capitalism is tough on the participants that get beat by it."
Crapola
lunchbox
Aug 9, 08 18:41
Post #10 of 12 (135 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [chainpin]
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Interesting- at 1st glance, it looks like could program in your coordinates, then the computer will tell you what's visible, you select a celestial object, and off it goes? That's cool! The old-school in me says to learn to do it the manual way, then get the automatic toys (sorta like kids learning math before being allowed to touch a calculator).
Went to the bookstore this evening, got some vacation reading and an astronomy magazine- this should be cool.
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If I don't, who will?
chainpin
Aug 9, 08 20:13
Post #11 of 12 (128 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [lunchbox]
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Interesting- at 1st glance, it looks like could program in your coordinates, then the computer will tell you what's visible, you select a celestial object, and off it goes? That's cool! The old-school in me says to learn to do it the manual way, then get the automatic toys (sorta like kids learning math before being allowed to touch a calculator).
Went to the bookstore this evening, got some vacation reading and an astronomy magazine- this should be cool.
Yeah the GoTo scopes are very cool, once you align the instrument you can punch in coordinates for any object in the sky and the instrument will slew to it with amazing accuracy. You can even hook the scope up to a laptop and use software to control it. However, the downside is that you get less aperature/$ with these scopes compared to alternatives. I would note that you can still use a GoTo scope "manually" if you so choose, the benefit of course of having a motorized mount is that you don't have to worry about that annoying rotation of the earth!! : )
And I agree, learning to manually point the scope and find objects with an astronomical map is a basic skill to develop. The good news for you is that there are tons and tons of resources online about amature astronomy--and first time telescope buying in particular.
"Capitalism is tough on the participants that get beat by it."
Crapola
spot
Aug 10, 08 10:00
Post #12 of 12 (107 views)
Re: Excellent viewing of Jupiter last night [chainpin]
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Yeah, I'm jonesin' for a scope that will automatically track. When looking at distant planets, you get about a minute of viewing before you have the object is disappearing from the field of view.
Spot
Cervelo / Kuota Mafia Member
"Mine goes to 11...."
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