astronomy

finchy

Just as added motivation for buying that telescope, you should see Jupiter in real time, with the moons' shadows. They move fast - very fast.

slowmart

Blimey, Gregger's posted his yearly contribution in January

Then again you may have a real hobby rather than posting drivel on here!

Velonutter

Just spent an hour on the phone to one of my cycling mates who happens to be heavily into Astronomy and I never knew it.

He's currently studying one of these online courses and he is a very clever bloke but reckons even some of the maths has tested his abilities, so there is no hope for me :shock:

I'm going to pop round and have a look at his setup to try and get an idea as still can't visualise what it must be like to look through a scope and see a planet/star that is millions of miles away.

finchy

Velonutter wrote:

He's currently studying one of these online courses and he is a very clever bloke but reckons even some of the maths has tested his abilities, so there is no hope for me :shock:

The good thing is that you don't need maths to look through a telescope. Anyway, are you sure he isn't doing astrophysics? That's quite a lot harder than astronomy in terms of mathematics, so I'm told.

Velonutter

johnfinch wrote:

Velonutter wrote:

He's currently studying one of these online courses and he is a very clever bloke but reckons even some of the maths has tested his abilities, so there is no hope for me :shock:

The good thing is that you don't need maths to look through a telescope. Anyway, are you sure he isn't doing astrophysics? That's quite a lot harder than astronomy in terms of mathematics, so I'm told.

You might be right John, he's a computer programmer and says it has really tested him, I'll find out more when I go round.

awavey

Capt Slog wrote:

They always used to say on the telly when this came up that the best thing to start with was a really good pair of binoculars.

The main point about looking at the night sky is getting as much light in the eye as possible, so using two eyes is a bonus. A pair of bins with big objective lenses is quite useful for this even though not as glamorous as a telescope.
.

its partly also because what tends to happen is people catch the bug for the hobby, spend alot of money on some hitech stuff, and then after the initial enthusiasm wears off, it gets cold and tiring, people give up and their shiny toy sits in the corner gathering dust...are we sure we arent talking about cycling

at least starting with binoculars they are easier/quicker to setup and hande and you can use them for bird/animal watching.

Cygnus

Took this yesterday early evening with a 300mm telephoto lens

Cygnus

This one is increased camera exposure and processed to bring out the Earthshine

Wheelspinner

Serendipity... was reading an article about US professional golfer Jimmy Walker, who noted his passion off teh course is astronomy photography. Article is here:

http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2015-02/my-shot-jimmy-walker

His photos are here:

http://jwalk.smugmug.com/

Can probably afford pretty good equipment given his prize winnings last year were almost 6 million USD, but still, looks like he's keen.

Velonutter

This one has just blown my mind away: -



I can appreciate that there are many layers to this, but just how does he manage to do so many beautiful images?