Amateur Astronomy

[Pakage]

Space is awesome. I dont even need to back up that statement as its obviously true. Ive been wanting to do this for a while now and Im seriously considering buying a pretty sweet 8" Dobsonian Telescope. Once purchased ill be spending some nights looking at the planets and other stuff thats floating around space.

 

An 8" Dobsonian is a pretty beasty telescope for an amateur. 8" refers to the diameter of the reflector inside it. On a clear night you should be able to see the giant red spot on jupiter, the rings of saturn, nebulae and other galaxies.

 

Here's a pic of one:

Does anyone else out there own a telescope?

 

Ill give it a go from my back deck at my flat in westmere, but i am dubious as to the quality of viewing from such a light polluted area.

 

Once i get it probably gonna take this out to my mums farm out on south head to get some clear, non-light polluted skies.

 

When the weathers clear for the weekend, im going to try and sus out a star gazing night out there. If anyone's keen to come along, with their own scope, or even if you're just interested in checking out my one, hit me up and ill see what i can do.

 

They run a B&B out there, so there's plenty of beds that can be arranged relatively cheaply.

 

You bring the weed

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

[Known One]

nice one... yea my workmate is into it eh, he got his telescope from a lad in Masterton who sells them on Trademe. Apparently he's a descent bloke who knows his stuff... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=1345258

 

He has this telescope (http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Binoculars-telescopes/Telescopes/auction-382353693.htm).

 

He mentioned that for light polluted areas, a smaller lens size is a blessing and a curse as it's not as susceptible to nearby sources of light as the larger ones. Of coarse you don't get as high a rate of magnification so it's a trade off. I think most people are limited by budget though, I imagine he would have bought a larger one if he could have... not sure.

 

Keen to get one at some point, probably not for a few years... we are in a bad spot at the moment, the port runs massive flood lights at night. Would be keen for a combo terrestrial one though.

[Known One]

Oh yea, he also said if you go to a park at night to get away from the light polution around your place, try not to give off a pervy vibe. Single guy by himself in dark park with telescope =

[mike]

Oh yea, he also said if you go to a park at night to get away from the light polution around your place, try not to give off a pervy vibe. Single guy by himself in dark park with telescope =

 

Just throw on some night-vision goggles - no-one will notice

 

On a more serious note, come out to Whitford, stunning views without a telescope

[Pakage]

he got his telescope from a lad in Masterton who sells them on Trademe.

 

This is the one im looking at getting: tardme link

 

Its the same price from this guy in auckland that runs an online store and is also the treasurer of the Auckland Astronomical Society.

 

I called him up to ask him a question about a couple different scopes on his site and ended up talking for almost 10 mins lol.

 

He said that the Society meets every monday night at the observatory in one tree hill. Think i might head down there either next week or the one after and check it out.

 

It would be pretty boss if the weather's good looking through the scope they have there.

 

Anyones more than welcome to join me.

 

The dudes website is a POS www.astronz.co.nz so i might try chat to him and see if he wants to do a swap, hook me up a nice scope and ill build him a better website!

[Dr Awesome]

We used to have a pretty cool telescope, but then we stopped using it.