I'm going to recommend that you start eating just rice and beans in order to save some money for better equipment. Strongly consider just living in a van. Maybe only beans on special occasions. Those are some amazing pics you posted.

No need to cut down on food. Less than 200$. Although cut it anyway and eat sandwiches lol and spaghetti if it gets you there faster because you can get all kinds of accessories like power battery etc.

https://www.amazon.com/ZWO-ASI120MC-...O+ASI120MC+USB







Can get a used DSLR if needed for near 200 also.

Basically $1600 (or 1200 if 5SE) buys all this great hobby for whoever is interested (telescope and nice supporting accessories ).

Here you are: https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/1...-eclipse-2017/

Don't worry guys, I already have plans to get a ZWO ASI224MC.

Every August - Perseid Meteor Shower 2017: When, Where & How to See It. This weekend should be the best viewing.

perseid-meteor-shower-guide

The main trick is that you have to go outside and also look up. For best viewing, it is best to do this at night.

August 21 Solar Eclipse. View it safely:

eclipse2017_eye/safety

Another link from Sky and Telescope Magazine better article

how-to-look-at-the-sun/

In the Northern hemisphere, an eclipse travels across the Sun from right to left, but in the Southern hemisphere it travels from left to right. I can't get my head around that.

Still working on getting a ZWO camera but messing around with the iPhone 6 camera for now...



Andromeda Galaxy center. A dust lane is visible, diagonally from top-left to bottom-center





M37, an open star cluster





And the Orion Nebula

schu, how did you set up your iphone to get those pics? They're great.

https://www.space.com/38838-interste...ace-cigar.html

Hey sorry - So I used an app called NightCap Pro. You can take long exposures, adjust the focus & ISO settings, and all sorts of stuff that's not really available on the stock camera app. I am no photography expert and the phone is not really the preferred tool anyway, so I just play around until I get something that looks reasonable. For a bunch of these, I actually took many exposures and then stacked them & sharpened a bit using a program called Registax.

The phone is attached to the telescope using a little smartphone adapter holder thing that holds it snugly up to the eyepiece. It's a terrible system, but all it cost me was $15 for the little holder thing so hey, not bad for now.




Anyways here's tonight's full (almost full) moon. Didn't turn out too bad.

^
Thanks, schu

Dont forget moon live now lunar eclipse and proof to the morons on flat earth society that the planet is curved. Explain this out idiots lol! What is the shadow like but another bigger coin covering a smaller one!

All the proof about our world in the sky from ancient times!

Endless things one can learn from the phases of moon, the position of sun then and the 2 eclipses all combined. All available from ancient times.


https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive




Plus to the morons what gives the moon its color during eclipse if the earth were in fact a flat disk (which is where they will always go when cornered).

Also why is it day right now in Japan lol?

Asteroids are rampaging through the Universe and are attempting to Rape The Earth!

asteroid-2018-cb-to graze-earth-friday-watch-online/


From above link:

Potentially hazardous and near-Earth asteroids zing through Earth's neighborhood nearly every day. Since the weekend, seven small asteroids — including two potentially hazardous ones — came within 0.5 to 16 times the distance of the Moon. The largest, 2002 AJ29, was all of 2,100 feet (640 meters) across. The work week ends with an exceptionally close approach of asteroid 2018 CB, which will skim just 44,000 miles past Earth around 5 p.m. Eastern Time (22:00 UT) Friday, February 9th.

I finally have my planetary camera up and running. ZWO ASI224MC with an IR-cut filter.

Really poor weather the last month so no planetary imaging chances, but I did get it up and running tonight for some lunar work with decent results.

Great thanks! Now take as project to estimate the size of the main features and check with databases and imagine what having a city there would look like. I bet you could see buildings eventually one day.

That second picture with the fractal like crater inside crater sequence i think is Mare Humorum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_Humorum

They say it is 389km diameter. The great circle circumference on the moon is about 10900km about 28 times that.

Try to capture if you have the chance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_Tranquillitatis

where Apollo 11 landed (the lower of 3 big craters on the other side right up in next picture)

I'm finally getting a chance to try out some planetary imaging. These are from last night (Venus) and this morning (Jupiter and Saturn) - I had to battle thin clouds and dew, and this is definitely a beginner attempt, but they turned out ok.


Venus
(nearly full disc and very far away right now)


Jupiter
(with Io, Io's shadow, Ganymede, and a small white storm near the bottom called Oval BA)


Saturn
(through some bad clouds, not the best)


And I made a 2-frame gif out of two Jupiter images that I made - you can see the planet's (and the moons') rotation!

Cool stuff Schu, Thanks.

+1 Schu, love the pics

Sent from my HTCD200LVW using Tapatalk

Yes great looking, makes us want to get some of these toys too hehe.

How about even measuring the speed of light with these observations for fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B...speed_of_light

Look what nikon p900 for under 500 used can do also before getting to a real telescope;





Technology is rapidly increasing and we will soon have amazing equipment available.

Here's the latest! Slowly improving. Mars and Saturn are so low in the sky this year that getting any remotely sharp images is halfway impossible

That must be such a great feeling to look and see these huge distant worlds and imagine. I can only wish you to see them up close one day. Thanks for sharing.

Imagine a mission to Titan with a stop at a cylinder colony world in orbit around it where the resort with great view of the rings is.