Have a new telescope but the sky is falling!

[Bigshadow]

Yesterday I recieved my newly purchased 6" Newtonian short tube telescope and right now Jupiter is near the zenith overhead. However, THERE ARE RAIN CLOUDS IN THE WAY! Arggg! I managed to look at Jupiter for a few minutes last night but the humidity from the torrential rains of the day made it a constant battle trying to see the planet. It has been dry and low humidity today, but now we have rain clouds and lightning in the sky tonight (still tryng to figure out where they came from). I am anxious to see something!

As I write this, I hear thunder

 

[Sam]

The telescope will last longer than the storm clouds.


Still, that sucks.

Hope it clears up!

 

[Martial Tucker]

Yeah, that sucks, but at least you live in an area where you can be outside fairly comfortably year-round!

I live in Chicago, and besides getting away from the city lights, it gets bit tough to focus my scope in January when my hands are shaking.....

 

[Bigshadow]

It has cleared up some. I got to look at Jupiter for a while, it was bright, I could see several moons. I swear that planet reminds me of an orange creme swirl. It was cool. I believe I may have seen my first nebula. According to starry night software, it looks it could have been M16 or M17. I thought it would look different. To me it looked like a greyish mass there. We have a street light so it was causing me some problems. I guess that is what it will look like? There were no clouds in the way. I could definitely see stars with the telescope, although I could not see but 2 or 3 with the eye and certainly nothing visible where the telescope was pointed.

It was fun. I am waiting for the moon to come up now. It is just above the trees, but there are some clouds over that way. I will give it a little bit and take the telescope back out to look at the moon, although it won't be fully overhead until around 3am. I will be asleep by then, I hope. So I figured I would get back on here and read and post.

 

[Bigshadow]

I believe my next telescope will be an 8" reflector, instead of a 6", not anytime soon of course.

 

[michaeledward]

I remember staying out all night one summer, to watch a lunar ecplise. One of the telescopes we had in the yard had a mount for a 35mm camera. Every so often, we would snap a picture on the same exposure. A great shot of the moon through the phases of the eclipse.

I later named my band 'Eclipse' ... and used that image, and the lyric from the Pink Floyd tune as the background.

In our High School Astronomy class, we used an 8' Schmidt Cassegrain telescope for our observations.

And I absolutely LOVED doing the observations in late January, early February. The cold pulls all of the moisture out of the air. The skies are never clearer than when it is frigid outside. Lots of Co-Coa, and Big mittens are required accessories, though, aren't they.

 

[Martial Tucker]

And I absolutely LOVED doing the observations in late January, early February. The cold pulls all of the moisture out of the air. The skies are never clearer than when it is frigid outside. Lots of Co-Coa, and Big mittens are required accessories, though, aren't they.

Very true, Michael. The cold, dry air does make for great viewing. But it really helps to get out in the country, as the turbulence in the air from warm buildings on a cold night can mess things up. I especially like the winter because it's when I can best view my favorite, the Orion Nebula.

I got interested in astronomy in grade school, and when I was in 8th grade I actually built a 6" reflector from a kit ordered from Edmund Scientific. I remember many hours in a hot room, hand grinding/polishing/testing the mirror. Thankfully, I was able to afford a used 8" Meade LX200 several years ago. It's so cool. All computerized. I actually think I could sell it (as if I would) now for quite a bit more than I paid for it.


As an aside, I'd like to ask anyone who is involved in this if they use any
"sky guide" software on their computers, which one, and how they like it.
I started using a simple litte piece of shareware years ago called "Skyglobe". It was written as a DOS program. I have since tried several Windows-based programs, but I keep going back to Skyglobe/DOS for it's
depth, ease of use, and overall elegance.

Anyone else?

 

[MA-Caver]

Elsewhere I've said: I like astronomy as much as I like Martial Arts and Caving. The desert out here offers many a night to choose from for star-gazing. It's dry and usually a few hours after sundown it the residual heat has dissapated enough that the nights are crystal clear, particularly if you travel a good hour or 90 minutes out of the nearest town and city lights, which is fairly easy to do out here.
Does your scope have camera adapting abilities? Just wondering.

Your talk of Pink Floyd (whom band members MUST'VE been star-gazing lovers as well) Eclipse song and all that brought this image I have to mind. It's a NASA photographer's picture of the most recent eclipse that passed over Turkey some time last year (I think it was). It looks photo-shopped and all that but it's a genuine NASA photo and one that is possible to do if one has the patience and equiptment to do it. Wish I took it.

 

[Cryozombie]

I hope you have a camera attachment...

​

 

[Flying Crane]

New Telescope! Cool Stuff!!

As a kid, I had a little 2 inch piece of junk, but I got that thing to work in ways it never should have been able to.

I've always wanted to get a good telescope. Maybe someday...

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Shaolinwind]

Yesterday I recieved my newly purchased 6" Newtonian short tube telescope and right now Jupiter is near the zenith overhead. However, THERE ARE RAIN CLOUDS IN THE WAY! Arggg! I managed to look at Jupiter for a few minutes last night but the humidity from the torrential rains of the day made it a constant battle trying to see the planet. It has been dry and low humidity today, but now we have rain clouds and lightning in the sky tonight (still tryng to figure out where they came from). I am anxious to see something!

As I write this, I hear thunder

What?? Rain in Florida??

 

[Martial Tucker]

New Telescope! Cool Stuff!!

As a kid, I had a little 2 inch piece of junk, but I got that thing to work in ways it never should have been able to.

And the hot neighbor lady was none the wiser, huh?