Any amateur astronomers post here?

[pylon]

This Christmas I decided to treat myself to something I have always wanted. A high quality amateur telescope. I decided to go full bore with the Celestron Nexstar 8SE 8" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. With the CAD dollar where it is at, and the low entry cost to get involved, it was a no brainer. All in after eyepieces, GPS, scope, CCD imager, case, power tank, SLR photography adapters etc. it all came in at about $2500. I was looking at the same equipment about 3 years ago, and it was almost double the cost. Anyone who has ever had an interest in this stuff, now is the time do some research, and you would be amazed at how prices have come down.

Heres the scope:



Anyhow, my first night out was absolutely amazing. After getting all my stars tringulated, I pulled up Saturn on the planet menu, and after about 30 seconds of tracking... there, dead centre in my eyepiece was saturn and her rings at about 4:00 in the morning. I popped in the 2X barlow lens, put in the reccomended filter for Saturn, and went down to a 15mm eyepiece, and I was stunned. Color, and cloud bands were visible. The rings are to on edge right now to make out the Cassini division, but in about 7-8 months it will be, and that will be equally awesome to see. Last night I got a glimpse of Jupiter, cloud bands, GRS and 3 of her moons, equally stunning.

So my questions are these:

- As opposed to setting up in cemetary out in Springbank to get good dark skies, where do you guys set up?

- Does anyone have any experiece with SLR astrophotograhpy, looking for good pointers and possible live help.

- And being relatively new, what are some good pointers in general.

Also thanks to Ken at All-star Telescope in Didsbury. What a cool store, and incredible service. For only about a hundred bucks more than getting the stuff online, I got to deal with a true entusiast, and that is there for any service concerns. I would recommend anyone looking to take up this hobby to visit his incredibly cool shop, and get advice.

link to Kens shop:

http://www.all-startelescope.com/

[troutman]

Wow, that's great.

I would assume the sky would be clearer and darker west of town. You certainly see more stars out by Millarville.

My friend in Penticton had a real big telescope, and we would take it up on a mountain west of Osoyoos.

[moncton golden flames]

that's effin awesome pylon. i have a big interest in the cosmos, but cost is keeping me out of the game right now.

i really hope you get the photography figured out soon, i would love to see it!

[AvsJerk]

That looks like an awesome scope pylon. I've always wanted to get into the astronomy hobby, but figured after investing all that money into a telescope the novelty would wear off rather quick. How would that scope be for peeking through windows across a valley? jk

[pylon]

Originally Posted by AvsJerk

That looks like an awesome scope pylon. I've always wanted to get into the astronomy hobby, but figured after investing all that money into a telescope the novelty would wear off rather quick. How would that scope be for peeking through windows across a valley? jk

Actually it works quite well for terrestrial stuff, only problem is everything is mirrored backwards. You can get a correcting prism for it though. I pointed it down my street and a rock chip on the hood of a car filled the entire widest angle eyepice at about 300 metres LOL. After all the research I did, 8" aperture is the best balance of portability, and image quality, and deep sky stuff, like nebulae and Messier objects.

This is how Saturn captures using a $120 CCD imager which I purchased with the scope. If you can master SLR it is much better. This is pretty much what I saw as well, only a little smaller, my eye percieved it as about the size of a loonie.

[MRCboicgy]

So could I see Uranus with it?


So sophomoric, I know...

[RougeUnderoos]

Several years ago I got a "manual" telescope and it was such a chore to get it lined-up (my technical term) that it now collects dust. I was able to just point it up and fidget with eyepieces and knobs to see some stars and the moon and that was pretty cool but I never had a clue what I was looking at (well, I knew what the moon was).

What does it take to get that telescope you have triangulated? Do you need some amount of expertise, or does the computer do most of the work for you?

[pylon]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Several years ago I got a "manual" telescope and it was such a chore to get it lined-up (my technical term) that it now collects dust. I was able to just point it up and fidget with eyepieces and knobs to see some stars and the moon and that was pretty cool but I never had a clue what I was looking at (well, I knew what the moon was).

What does it take to get that telescope you have triangulated? Do you need some amount of expertise, or does the computer do most of the work for you?

Just level it, enter the time date and your location in the computer, point to any 3 bright stars in the sky (there is a few button sequences in there) and it automatically knows exactly where to point. It will also tell you the three stars you pointed at. The GPS narrows down the time/date/location thing a little more acurately, but I haven't used it yet.

It has 40,000 + catalogued objects in the database as well. So you just pull them off the menus or type them in then the motors do the rest. It also tracks them as well once they are in the eyepiece. If it is slightly off centre, you just use the arrows to recentre, and it accepts the adjustment. My first night out, I had it up and running in about 30 minutes, and it aligned perfectly on the first try. It is pretty slick.

[worth]

That is amazing. I'm super jealous. Congrats on the purchase.

[GreenLantern]

LoL there can never be an astronomy post without a Uranus joke... we just can't help ourselves. I love it.

[photon]

I'm jealous too, nice one.

[troutman]

The Science Center has free telescope viewing Friday nights. You can talk to lots of telescope enthusiasts there for good advice.

[Mike Oxlong]

Originally Posted by troutman

The Science Center has free telescope viewing Friday nights. You can talk to lots of telescope enthusiasts there for good advice.

My wife and I went there a few years ago to see some celestial event that was happening. I think Mars might have been close to the earth at that time and people were lining up to catch a glimpse through the telescopes at the science centre. I can't tell you how underwhelming it was. It just looked like a slightly brighter star through their telescopes. No detail, you couldn't tell it was a planet at all. Dissapointing after lining up that long, I thought it would be far better.

I love that picture of Saturn that pylon posted. That is the type of stuff I would love to be able to go out and see. That really blows me away you can see Saturn that clearly with a relatively affordable telescope like that.

I never realized telescopes of that quality were available. This thread really makes me want to go out and buy one now. I've wanted one since I was a kid. Now that I have a kid I think it would be cool to take him out and for him to be able to see Saturn, Jupiter and yes even Uranus with his own eyes.

Keep posting pics Pylon. Love to see what you are able to see through that thing.

[Sample00]

Many years ago, when i was just a wee lil lad, the Calgary Planetarium used to do a show with that wierd looking projecticle camera. One was escorted into a theatre and they beamed the universe onto the ceiling and then proceeded to tell you about the star system in kind of a show format.
do they still do something similar to that?

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by pylon

- Does anyone have any experiece with SLR astrophotograhpy, looking for good pointers and possible live help.

This recently has become an interest of mine as well. Do you have any good resources you've come across?

[3 Justin 3]

Damn, your getting me excited for my Astronomy class I will take in University. Space is truly amazing and I can't wait for the class.

I wish I had the money to buy a big telescope, so cool.

[dissentowner]

I currently use an EXT-125, it has about half the power yours does. I have been doing amateur astronomy all my life. I am upgrading my scope big time though next year as I have been saving to a Meade LX200 12", can't wait!

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Sample00

Many years ago, when i was just a wee lil lad, the Calgary Planetarium used to do a show with that wierd looking projecticle camera. One was escorted into a theatre and they beamed the universe onto the ceiling and then proceeded to tell you about the star system in kind of a show format.
do they still do something similar to that?

They sometimes do star shows on the Dome screen, but it is with some kind of Imax projector - not as impressive as the old projector IMO. That made a big impression on me. Mostly, they show movies (and they don't change them very often).

http://www.calgaryscience.ca/exhibit...hows/index.php

A brand new Science Center wil be opening soon.

http://www.calgaryscience.ca/resources/links_space.php

When complete in the Fall of 2011, the new world-class TELUS World of Science - Calgary will be one of Canada’s largest science centres and will be a significant addition to the cultural offerings within the country.

http://www.calgaryscience.ca/schedules/stargazing.php

IT'S FREE!

Friday Night Stargazing - from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Every clear Friday night amateur astronomers lead visitors through the spectacular night sky. Weather permitting (meaning clear skies).

[SinceDay1]

Nice scope Pylon. I've got a Nexstar 5i. It's the predessor to the Nexstar SE line and only a 5" aperture. Still gets the job done but struggles a bit with deep sky as it doesn't pull in as much light as yours. Looking to upgrade to 10" or 12" dob in the next year or so as my current interest is mainly visual deep sky. Any photography I've done has been strickly afocal. I joined the Calgary chapter of the RASC last year mainly to get access to the Wilson Coulee Observatory near Okotoks. It's only an Orange site on Bortle scale but still darker than my backyard. It would probably be equivalent to the place you observe in Springbank. You have to drive a ways to get to a green site or better. The RASC has turned out to be a great help. They have new observer nights where more experienced members are available to lend a hand. Here's a link to their site:
http://calgary.rasc.ca/
Another great website is the Cloudy Nights forum:
http://www.cloudynights.com/
I'd also recommend The Backyard Astronmer's Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer. Very comprehensive book with a great section on astrophotography. Speaking of which, nice picture of Saturn. I'm guessing you used a Neximage CCD. Not really an expert but my colleague is an avid astrophotographer. Here's his site:
http://calastro.webs.com/
He's also started a private Yahoogroup dedicated to astrophotography in Alberta. Plenty of folks there who could help you out. PM me if your interested in a link to it.

[habernac]

very cool.

The Terence Dickinson book is a very good one.

An old friend of mine from high school is an astronomer. He's such an authority on it that he's worked with NASA, he's gone on a meteorite recovery mission, all sorts of stuff. I wish I had the time to do more of this kind of thing.

My Dad has a decent telescope, I'll have to take some time to actually figure it out.