#visualastronomy — Public Fediverse posts

@WestportObservatory Stellarium also is quite useful for understanding what's where and when.

#VisualAstronomy

@MikeImBack Follow the advice of the commenter who recommends Ed Ting's reviews.

Watch out for 4.5 inch reflectors that are catadioptric -- that is, they have a correcting lens in the focuser tube. There are a lot of them out there. It allows for a shorter tube, but makes them difficult to collimate (collimation is the process of aligning the primary and secondary mirrors in a reflector).

Have fun shopping.

#visualastronomy

Hercules is a tough constellation for me. The stars in it are not super bright, and when one starts looking, it turns out there a lot of vaguely keystone-shaped asterisms up there, from which one's imagination can compose the torso of Hercules.

Happily, there are star maps. And I know that one can draw a line from Sulafat through Sheliak, in the constellation Lyra; and drawing that line outward in a direction away from the constellation Cygnus brings one right to Messier 13, the Great Star Cluster in Hercules, in a location that maps to right above Hercules' right hip in the torso keystone asterism.

But when one is looking down at the star map with a red light, then craning back one's neck to look upward, it all gets rather confused. So last night I tried a different method: I brought out the binoculars (big Oberwerk 12x60 LERs capable of spotting M13), and reclined in a chair, so no longer looking down, then up.

Better result. The Sulafat-Sheliak line took me right to M13, and I was able to work out the torso keystone from there. Still, my neck complained after 20 minutes of this game. Next time I try this I'll bring a blanket out and simply lie on my back.

#VisualAstronomy
#Constellations

Fairly decent skies last night so I had the 10-inch dobsonian reflector out back, peering at Messier 51 and Messier 101 near Ursa Major. Nice to have a chance at it; the skies have been so cloudy of late.

#astrodon
#visualastronomy

OK, forecast looks good, gonna set up the truss dob.

#astrodon
#visualastronomy
#reflectors

@[email protected] Sky not that bad either. Some separation from nearby light domes.

#visualastronomy 👍

Since it'll be lunar observing for the most part, for the next week or so, as the moon waxes to full, the 10-year old and I will try our hand at mapping some of its larger craters.

#astrodon
#VisualAstronomy
#Moon

Had a lovely night out with the telescope Tuesday. There is nothing quite like getting stars in your eyes.

Good to see that Wednesday the sky got a complete wash before I used it again.

#astrodon #astronomy #visualAstronomy #norfolk

Looked for the Crab Nebula visually using 8” Dob before Moon rise on my driveway. Carefully looked for star patterns in SkySafari and compared to what I saw in the eyepiece. I looked and looked but can’t convince myself that I saw the nebula at where it supposed to be. Bortle 6 sky.

#visualastronomy is hard. But it does make me learn star names and patterns. Will try this target in a dark sky site #Astrodon

Are you struggling to find your way around night sky constellations? I've written an article for CPRE that may help you. Read it here: https://tinyurl.com/32aemeh7
#StarGazing #Constellations #NightSky #Astronomy #VisualAstronomy

Questions for my fellow #astrodon people:
Is there a noticeable difference between a Televue Wide Field 24mm and a TV Panoptic 24mm?
Also, partially related question, do the more complex eyepieces reduce transmission? Would a well built but fewer element design give a brighter but less corrected image?
#visualastronomy

I went observing this weekend! Spent 4 hours in sub-zero temperatures and somehow managed to see about 6 objects?

It may have had something to do with the company and the fact that there was a 65 cm (!) dobsoninan standing close by :) #astronomy #visualastronomy #astrophotography #starparty

Full story (in Dutch) at http://www.oetie.nl/astronomie/ook-eens-een-paap-slachten/