a
I took this picture of Comet Hyakutake and the dipper

very nice rockfish...what was your setup like?

My 35mm SLR Pentax with a fast lens 1.8 f stop and Fujifilm ASA 800 with a 15 second exposure.

I also have a Celestron CAT 8 and Celestron 10x50 binoculars which are tripod mountable and terrific. The most amazing thing I ever observed were the dark spotches on Jupiter after the train of comet fragments hit (Shoemaker Levy).

lol so sick. This thread is getting good!

Just got back from a trip to the beach where I had hoped to get in some stargazing.

Didn't go as well as I had hoped due to hazy weather and more light pollution than I expected (stupid people covering their beachfront property with lights...).

I did see Jupiter's moons with binoculars. I had thought it was Venus until I saw the moons next to it . I also saw a couple of meteorites and the major summer constellations.

I had been hoping to spot the North American nebula near Deneb but I don't think it was dark enough to see it with my binoculars.

The problem with binoculars is that the more powerful they are the harder it is to hold them still (some can be mounted on tripods though), but the great thing about them is how quick and easy they are to use. I have a pair of Orion 7x50s or maybe 10x50, can't remember...

On a trip to Vermont I saw the Andromeda galaxy through binoculars as well as the nebula in Orion and some star clusters. Pleiades is easy and gorgeous.

I've watched an eclipse of the moon which was fun, although I ended up lending the binoculars to an 8 year old kid who was watching and going to write a school report on the event and he was so captivated he kept them for most of the eclipse.

On a trip to Barbados I took the picture below of Orion as well as a few others that I was pleased with. That is the moon glowing off to upper right and that is a tree on lower left. I took the photo with a regular digital camera with a 12 second exposure. The original shot has a ton of noise in it and is mostly gray -- I fixed that by re-setting the 'black point' in Photoshop.

I have Discover the Stars by Richard Berry which I have found to be an easy to use guide.

Sadly I live in a big city and have little chance for amateur astronomy. If I ever find myself living somewhere dark, a telescope will be one of my first purchases.

Those are great. Thanks for posting.

Did you use my technique? You can get image stabilized ones too.


They also have a nice wide field of view.

One piece of advice that was under-appreciated by me when I bought my first scope was how a smaller scope (or binoculars) will get used alot more often. I thought "meh, I can carry anything anywhere". There is a difference though between what you *can* do, and what you *will* do. I often grab a pair of binoculars for a quick few minutes of viewing.


I'm guessing meteors.

No, that's the first time I saw that technique described. Will try next time (which will likely be October in the Catskills).

Yes, yes. Bits of space rock incinerating in the atmosphere and making pretty bright trails across the sky. The second one made a rather wide track but was fairly short.

I also saw several satellites, which I guess are common sights to people who live in darker areas than I.

For a non-native English speaker: Meteorite = the rock; meteor = shooting star?

A meteorite hits the earth's surface and survives. The object itself which enters our atmosphere from outer space is called a "meteoroid", but most normal people don't use that word. A meteoroid can vary in size from that of a grain of sand up to a boulder. Most are the size of a pebble. "Meteor" refers to the streak of light it produces as it burns, also called a "shooting star" which is a misnomer since it is not a star. Some people use "meteor" to refer to the meteroroid, or the meteoroid/meteor combination.

Awesome! Thanks!

Is the light pollution so bad in major cities that you can't see things like Orion?

You can see the major stars of Orion -- the 3 in the belt, the 4 that outline the body, maybe 1 or 2 in sword -- on a clear night in the city but certainly not all of them. It helps to be somewhere locally dark enough for your eyes to adjust a bit (i.e., no streetlights shining in your face).

i live in los angeles and right now from my apartment i can see the summer triangle, jupiter, the moon, and maybe 10 other stars if ive been outside for a few minutes...tons of light pollution, but if i go up to mt wilson or some areas of malibu its gorgeous

What about public telescopes? how often are observatories open to the public?

If you mean professional (for want of a better word) observatories, when I visited the US I went to the Lowell and Griffith observatory and they both had public openings when I turned up, and I *think* they were open most evenings.

Only speaking for the UK here, but in all the places I've been to there's been a [Amateur] Astronomical Society, which usually has a communal "large" (20" +) telescope and a couple of smaller ones (8" +) that members have access to, as well as having guest speakers visit every month or so, and sometimes trips to see eclipses as well. It's fun, and the people all tend to be like minded and get on well. It generally doesn't cost much either. I would highly recommend checking out if there's one in your area. [I'm not sure if this goes on in the US though].

It does. They are called "star parties". They give you the opportunity to sample different equipment before you buy. Check the web. If you have a local planetarium or similar, you might be able to find a class where you can make your own telescope, including grinding a mirror.

Tonight I got certified for 24/7 access to the 10" refractor telescope inside the Loomis-Michael Observatory on top of the Science Center at Harvard. So excited!!

This makes me really sad. I never realized there were tons of people who couldn't even see the stars at night and I've been taking them for granted.

Yes, deep sky observing would need a bit of car driving. Until that it´s the moon and phenomenons like that I guess.

yup, ive lived in LA almost my whole life, but luckily we have a lot of nice desert within 100 miles or so, as well as some nice mountains...

I'm from the UK so it would be good if you could go into more details or at least show me the right direction to find out about good places. I've always been interested in the night sky but living in london its tough to a good view.

you will probably have to google around for astronomical societies in your area or check out cloudynights.com (astronomy forum)...maybe check meetup.com and see if there are any groups in your area...

Just want to say that google night sky app is a fun little toy that anyone with an interest in astronomy and iphone/android should get. Its free and maps out the stars/planets etc etc for you as you move it in front of the sky.

I took this picture of the lunar eclipse Dec 10, 2011 4:20 am HST with my Canon T2i 250 mm f5.4 one second exposure. Auto focus and IS off