Clear skies and a full moon tonight, so I did a quick viewing just outside my house. Horrible light conditions, but I had fun finding a few things for my first time.
I started with Jupiter on accident. I expected The brightest point to be Saturn, but it ended up being Jupiter. It was mostly a massively bright ball, no color, but I saw three moons.
Moved on to Mars for just a second to see what it looks like. Just an orange disc.
Found Saturn and I could make out the rings. The wife was impressed with that.
I finished up just watching the moon. Even with a filter it was almost blinding. But it was awesome to see the full moon in such detail.
I'm hooked, now I need some better eyepieces and to get out of the city.
I would invest in some eyepiece filters to help bring out some of the detail for some planets if you really want to get a good view. You can see some banding on Jupiters clouds but when you start putting filters on and stack some, you can really see some good detail.
Also I am extremely jealous of Australians. They are lucky because they got an occultation of Saturn yesterday which basically means the moon passed directly over Saturn.
Can anybody recommend a nice set of binoculars for star gazing please.
Yes I know my money should go to a telescope, but this place sucks on many levels, having a sturdy/small set of binoculars is a much better option.
Just the defaults that came with the scope. 15mm and 6mm, and a 13% moon filter. I plan to get a 2x Barlow, but haven't put much thought into it yet beyond that. I might take a look at this kit when I'm ready to spend some money.
It really depends on how much you want to spend. You can get a solution with the binoculars and tripod all in one for about $150 with 15x magnification:
http://www.telescope.com/Binoculars/...2/p/103023.uts
Up to $200 for binoculars says my wallet.
Portability and less maintenance vs magnification.
So this Friday the 23rd, there will be a meteor shower from the comet Linear209/P. Supposedly it will produce anywhere from 100-500 meteors per hour. Luckily we will have a waning crescent so moonlight shouldn't interfere too much.
I've been plagued by clouds for like the last week
Also shit, that sucks. I won't be home on friday to try to check that out Bad luck all around for me.
Did anyone catch the meteor shower last night? We had clouds/fog last night so I didn't see a thing
I wish. Been raining near nyc for what seems like 3 weeks straight now >.<
I haven't been able to put as much time into this as I would like. Always end up busy when the sky is looking good. But last weekend I was at a beach house for a night. One of the older guests had a very expensive binocular telescope. Ended up viewing a bunch of stuff with him.
We got a very good look at Saturn and it's rings. Mars wasn't all that impressive but we could see it. Even got to see a nice faint glimmer of Andromeda. Then I got up for like 15 minutes at 5:30 am and we got to see Jupiter and Venus. Both were very shiny because the sun was just below the horizon shining up at them. Was very cool though. Helped me learn a bit about navigating to things.
Figured you guys might be interested in this. Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques is visible right now with binoculars or a small telescope. It is currently traveling through the constellation of Cygnus which is by far one of the easier constellations to find. After sunset, look overhead for what looks like a large cross. The comet will look like a fuzzy blob under urban skies while viewing through a telescope but if you have the ability to attach a camera to your telescope and take long exposures in the 10-15 second range you should be able to see the tail in the photos.
Location Spoilered for large pic
Spoiler: show
http://www.space.com/27032-comet-jac...40905_31092356
Not sure this is the bestest thread to post this in, but there should be some interesting aurora to watch in the near future. Yay for solar flares? D:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/09...adcast-online/
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/tech/i...html?hpt=hp_t2
I figured this thread could be used for all things astronomy
Here's a map of the visibility
http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc200...11550_hd22.jpg
I'm right on the line in Utah, I might get to see my first aurora. Now I just need to find a good spot away from city lights that's far enough north.