My favourite is Venus in the night sky around November time in the UK. With the naked eye, Venus is the diamond of diamonds of the sky to me. Kate xx
Any Amateur Astronomers Out There?
by cofty 39 Replies latest social entertainment
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LoisLane looking for Superman
Hi Fellow Stargazers,
After you get to their webpage there is a free download. It takes 4 minutes to download.
When that is finished, you type in your city and country and up pops your latitude and longitude with the sky view, right now.
While you look at the night sky in front of you, can use your mouse pointer to touch a bright dot on the screen and it will get encircled and tell you the name of the star or whatever it is and info about it.
There is also a feature that allows you to see the path of satellites overhead.
I am curious if everyone has as many satellites flying in their area, as I do.
Happy stargazing.
LoisLane
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cofty
Hey great to find some fellow sky geeks. I am a total novice so all advice is welcome.
One of the attractions for me is finding objects like M31 and trying to get my head round the fact you are seeing what it looked like 2 and a half million years ago. Stunning!
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nicolaou
I'm Cancerian, we get a real kick out of this stuff. Here's a free one for you; With any form of two sun signs dating, you could potentially find flaws in the other before seeing the same flaw in yourself. This can be a bit of a downer in any potential relationship. It's true you know.
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AnnOMaly
Loved the night sky since being a kid. I don't own a telescope (yet - maybe one day) but have had the use of a small, basic Skywatcher reflector from time-to-time and I do own a pair of 10x50s which just about resolve Jupiter's moons. I like Jupiter (and Venus). The amateur astronomical society that I'm a member of organized a sky-watching event recently and we had lots of new interest. Lots to see that night too. Some had brought their monster Dobsonians - Jupiter + moons and some new (to me) Messier objects just looked gorgeous through them.
I like finding the Beehive Cluster, Andromeda Galaxy, Double Cluster in Perseus, Brocchi's Cluster (the Coathanger) in Vulpecula (within the Summer Triangle) and Kemble's Cascade (a challenge, especially in a light-polluted town - envy you, Cofty). My fave constellation is Orion - it always cheers me up to see it - as do the Hyades and Pleiades clusters. Iridium flares and the ISS fly-bys are also neat to catch.
The Sun's activity is at its 11 year maximum and has had some wonderful sunspots of late. You don't need high-tech filters to pick them out (but they will look fantastic with a H-alpha filter). Get out your binocs or scope and project the Sun's image* on a wall or piece of white paper to show them up. Lovely.
Seeing the aurora - another for my bucket list.
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* Safety reminder. Looking at the Sun through your binoculars or telescope would be a totally insane thing to do - but you all know that already.
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prologos
like twitch I am interested in the motions, for without them the universe, our solar system would not be sustained aginst its "weight". I enjoy the viewing in the telescopes, the lectures, that the local astronomy society I belong too sets up.
My two memorable sky sights: The milky way , stars in blacked-out Europe in the 40s. Later, the daily progression of comet Hale Bopp; not--Halley's, which was a mere cotton seed as seen,- even- through a telescope. MY eerie experience? the crackling sound that the Northern lights make, perhaps produced directly into our nerves?. my fixed star? Polaris. way up, here in the north, just a hand breath above the balcony railing in our southeren residence. Eclipses are great too, with the apparent sizes of the biggies matching so closely.
motions are complicated. my fixation is the "Bode law",
every planet's outer neighbour is twice as far as the inner, except near the sun and way out there, where it is the same. In that scheme, Earth =10, what else?. Orbits have been stable for the past billion years, so we live where all motions have settled down to a harmonic rythm, linked to solar pulsation via c I theorized.
with troubled, old age eye sight, my every night's astro fix? --nasa googled "Astronomy picture of the day", but
getting the real photons, vibrations that traveled minutes, hours, millions of years --directly into your eyes, particularly when enhenced by refraction or reflection, is the real great cosmic experience. like the song said: "--we ought to have a moonlight saving time,so I can--"
good viewing all.
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Splash
If you have an android phone then install Google Sky Map for free.
Just point your device at the sky and as you move it around it detects where it's looking and tells you what you're seeing. Simply amazing.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.stardroid
Splash.
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LouBelle
I have a telescope that I use to scan the night sky. A gift from KurtBethel when he visited 4 years ago. With that we saw as far as Saturn and a twinkle of one her moons (I'm sure)
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zeroday*
Check out an app called "Star Walk"...
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UN informed
I started with a Meade 4.5", then went to a heavier 8" Meade, then finally got a 10" Meade that is computerized.
please don't fall for the same trick that I did. Bigger is not necessarily better. It's too heavy to use, so I quit amateur astronomy because it is too big and clumsy. A big scope should be on a permanent mount.
my most enjoyable viewing is of the milky way---with binoculars. I would trade my 10" for a real good pair of binoculars. Any takers.
brant in New Mexico. Skies are ok here but too close to ABQ for dark skies.
