Games & Recreation Astronomy & Telescopes

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Never bothered despite having a keen interest in the stars

Always assumed a telescope capable of seeing anything worthwhile would be to difficult/ expensive to bother with
 

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You shouldn't really expect much, most far away objects like galaxies and nebulas look like smudges most of the time. Though, when you do get a really clear night you can see planets and closer nebulae pretty damn well. Star clusters are pretty good to look at but after a while everything is pretty similar. It really depends on the telescopes power on how well you're going to see anything, even then most objects are still pretty small.

Have a look at Jupiter at the moment, it's at it's closest tomorrow I believe.
 
mad_monkey_j said:
Have a look at Jupiter at the moment, it's at it's closest tomorrow I believe.
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Its such a pity there isnt life on other planets, how cool would it be to find another form of human beings. The race to reach there and make contact would just be bloody the greatest discovery ever.
 
Had access to a really good telescope once - Dad's friend is a real astronomy nut -

Could see the rings on Saturn and a couple of its moons -

I thought it was pretty cool
 
dealt with a customer once he told me they have a group and a special hill where they all hang out and look through the lens. just imagine if you come across a UFO........:cool:
 
JuddsABlue said:
Never bothered despite having a keen interest in the stars

Always assumed a telescope capable of seeing anything worthwhile would be to difficult/ expensive to bother with
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Yeah, it's far more interesting just to watch documentaries with cool graphics if you're into this sort of stuff.

Save for the occasional comet you can't expect the real life view from our little rock to provide much excitement.
 
Gasometer said:
So got given a telescope and went out last night to have a look.

A little underwhelming of an experience.
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What sort of scope was it?, thinking of taking mine out tonight if the wind dies down.
Meade-Dobson-telescope-N-406-1829-16-LightBridge-Deluxe-truss-tube.jpg
This is what I have 16" Meade lightbridge
 
Kram81 said:
Spend a lot of time looking at the night sky but don't think I'd ever bother getting into telescopes.
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You live in the country don't you? I miss that stuff.

One of my favourite parts of camping up north was the clarity and beauty of the night sky. Diamonds in the sky, even when Lucy wasn't involved.

It's a little sad being back in the city where the lights drown out the beauty.
 
estibador said:
You live in the country don't you? I miss that stuff.
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Yeah pretty much go for a walk every night in summer near and around the edge of town, back when I was in Perth hardly ever thought to even glance up at the sky when venturing outside.

I'd would hate living on a farm but one of the few good things would be constantly having a perfectly clear sky with absolutely zero light pollution around.
 
So the SKA has started dishing out construction contracts. It will be ramping up in WA in the coming year.
Exciting times for Space Science in WA Australia.
www.csiro.au

CSIRO and the SKA project

The SKA project is an international effort to build the world’s largest and most capable radio astronomy observatory, designed to enable transformational science that will change our understanding of the Universe.
www.csiro.au www.csiro.au
 
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My mate had a celestron when we were kids

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We would take it most places we went up to the Dandenongs Mt Buffallo or just some isolated hill in Eltham or Research
It was good because he did all the boring stuff and we just looked
 
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Nothing said:
How big is it? Preferably in metres.
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Many of the physical antennas are concentrated within a core with a radius of about 50km. There are some antennas that stretch out to about 2000km to allow for a larger coverage of the sky. It's virtual collecting area amounts to 1 sqm
Note this is SKA-Low not Mid which is in South Africa.
 
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Gasometer said:
So got given a telescope and went out last night to have a look.

A little underwhelming of an experience.
Click to expand...
I had opposite experience when first used one looking at Saturn.
Clearly if you using them in suburbs it less impressive as there just less to see due to skyline has more things in the way, like lights, trees, other houses and just if it ever a cloudy night.
I not used one for a long time.
I sold my last one when was short of cash in about 2008.
Wish I still had one.
 
Thinking about getting in to this, decided I'd very much love to see a planet in some detail with my own eyes, is this possible?

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edgie said:
Thinking about getting in to this, decided I'd very much love to see a planet in some detail with my own eyes, is this possible?

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk
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There are plenty of entry level telescopes you can buy to do just that. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all accessible.
 
ChampRevesby said:
There are plenty of entry level telescopes you can buy to do just that. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all accessible.
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Yeah I was watching a video from the cricket world cup where a camera just casually zoomed the heck in on Jupiter in some dead time and it blew my mind. Obviously that's a high end professional sports camera, but surely I can manage an entry level telescope to have a look.

The sky is so amazing out here in the country, but I've stayed away from my astronomy hobby for a while, for someone who can fall in to existentialism, space is a bad thing, but now I want to do that and feel positive about it.

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Growing up I had a pretty simple $200 telescope, loved every minute of it. Amazing zooming in on a star only to see that there's actually a sh*t tonne of stars making up that light in the sky. The storm spot on Jupiter. The rings of Saturn. The cratered surface of the moon feels like you could reach out and touch it.

Looking into space with your own eyes, as it's happening live (well, slight delay, speed of light thing), not a digital image on the screen. If you're into astronomy or science in general, having a telescope once in your lifetime is wondrous. Humbling too, we are insignificant stardust haha.
 
Tonight



During Friday night’s partial blood moon about 97 per cent of the moon will be in shadow.
Lasting three hours and 28 minutes, it will be the longest partial eclipse this century.

6a162321552045cf9d7576ef1021ed275b94afb0
 
Set your clocks and get ready for the best meteor shower in the Southern Hemisphere this year.

The annual Geminid meteor shower will peak in the early hours of Tuesday, December 14, but you will see meteors for a day or so either side of this.

This year's Geminids will really reward people who are prepared to get up in the early hours of the morning, around 2-3am, after the Moon has set, says astronomer Jonti Horner of the University of Queensland.

Each year, like clockwork, Earth travels through a stream of debris left behind by an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
 
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