Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Viewing the Moon, Saturn and Regulus
The Moon, Saturn and Regulus tonight. Regulus is the faint dot right next to the overexposed Moon (no, the won't go in front of Regulus tonight, but it will get very close). Saturn is the bright dot off to the left.# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:34 pm 
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Hi Ian. I found my way to your site via John Wilkins Blog. Anyway, last night I got out my cheap e-bay telescope, and following your directions and a bit of fidling I got to see Saturn! It's appeared quite small, but had rings and that. I only wish I had a more powerful telescope.
Anyway, thanks heaps.
Anyway, thanks heaps.
G'Day Brian, sorry to take so long to reply, but I've been caught up with things.
Don't despair about your small scope. I used a 50 mm refractor for years, followed by a 114 mm reflector, and I have seen and done cool stuff with it.
A must is getting a 6mm eye piece for your scope, most store scopes come with a limited range of eye pieces, usually no bigger than 12.5 mm, you need a size higher.
That's the biggest you can go without a clock drive, planets, the lunat landscape and stars will drift out of the field of view of a 6 mm pretty fast.
Also, a small scope is readily transportable to a dark sky site, and eay to set up for the kids. Once you have a bit of sky experience under your belt with a small scope, you will probably have saved enough money for a grunty scope too.
So keep on looking up, there will be lots to see with your little device.
Don't despair about your small scope. I used a 50 mm refractor for years, followed by a 114 mm reflector, and I have seen and done cool stuff with it.
A must is getting a 6mm eye piece for your scope, most store scopes come with a limited range of eye pieces, usually no bigger than 12.5 mm, you need a size higher.
That's the biggest you can go without a clock drive, planets, the lunat landscape and stars will drift out of the field of view of a 6 mm pretty fast.
Also, a small scope is readily transportable to a dark sky site, and eay to set up for the kids. Once you have a bit of sky experience under your belt with a small scope, you will probably have saved enough money for a grunty scope too.
So keep on looking up, there will be lots to see with your little device.
Hi Ian,
Brian wrote:
I found my way to your site via John Wilkins Blog.
And I found your blog from your comment on Brian's blog and with a name like Astroblog I had to take a look.
It may sound funny, but I've always wanted to be an amateur astronomy (with the focus on amateur), and thinking of buying my first real ‘scope, one to play with to learn the skills of the trade and all that, then I hope a larger one later to do some CCD photography and the such like, maybe a spectrograph if they are not too expensive to try some science… but I need to walk first hence.
Any tips? I was thinking a telescope of around $500 shouldn’t be noticed by the wife.
Lee
PS
A quick look around your blog looks like I have a lot to learn – I’ll be back
See ya
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Brian wrote:
I found my way to your site via John Wilkins Blog.
And I found your blog from your comment on Brian's blog and with a name like Astroblog I had to take a look.
It may sound funny, but I've always wanted to be an amateur astronomy (with the focus on amateur), and thinking of buying my first real ‘scope, one to play with to learn the skills of the trade and all that, then I hope a larger one later to do some CCD photography and the such like, maybe a spectrograph if they are not too expensive to try some science… but I need to walk first hence.
Any tips? I was thinking a telescope of around $500 shouldn’t be noticed by the wife.
Lee
PS
A quick look around your blog looks like I have a lot to learn – I’ll be back
See ya
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