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Anybody into the old stargazing malarkey?

 

I've just been given one of these telescopes and am looking forward to getting it set up and plan to take a real interest in it. The shear scale of what's out there scares the bejesus out of me but fascinates at the same time.

 

JVV2ayI.gif

 

Apparently once I've got it set up I can point at any star / planet and it will tell me what it is called, alternatively I can ask it to give me a tour of some of the bodies in it's database and it automatically locks onto them through the viewfinder.

 

Cannae wait, I'm like a big kid with a new toy.

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Anybody into the old stargazing malarkey?

 

I've just been given one of these telescopes and am looking forward to getting it set up and plan to take a real interest in it. The shear scale of what's out there scares the bejesus out of me but fascinates at the same time.

 

JVV2ayI.gif

 

Apparently once I've got it set up I can point at any star / planet and it will tell me what it is called, alternatively I can ask it to give me a tour of some of the bodies in it's database and it automatically locks onto them through the viewfinder.

 

Cannae wait, I'm like a big kid with a new toy.

Yeah, truly amazing to think whats out there

We also have a Celestron telescope, got great views when it was the super moon a while back

 

Last year we went down to Kielder for an Aurora lights night , was blown away...if you get a chance check out what they have on and get down for a night

http://www.kielderobservatory.org/

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Big Slim Stylee

It's amazing when you get away from city lights.  When you sit in places like the Joshua Tree National Park and gaze up, it just does your head in.  It's so crowded up there! Really awe inspiring.

 

Good hunting, man. :)

Edited by Big Slim Stylee
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Dusk_Till_Dawn

Bought my five year old a telescope for Christmas. It's fairly low tech but you still get a cracking view of the moon and stars. Amazing stuff.

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Not Uranus? :look:

 

Post them up, if you can?

Will do when I can. Laptops down at the moment so I can't upload anything unt I get it back from the repair shop.

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John Gentleman

All Celestrons are great units. Being a reflector, everything will look 'arse-about-face' though. Not that it really matters when you're staring into space mind.

 

Happy star gazing. How were you lucky enough to score one of these?

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All Celestrons are great units. Being a reflector, everything will look 'arse-about-face' though. Not that it really matters when you're staring into space mind.

 

 

Happy star gazing. How were you lucky enough to score one of these?

Not sure I've heard Brian Cox waxing lyrical about the cosmos with an "arse about face" reference. ;)

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If anyone is struggling for something interesting but it's a clear night have a look at Betelgeuse on the Orion constellation.

 

It's a red super giant that is due to explode and when it does it will be as if earth has a second sun.

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Some people far more intelligent than us (You might be an astrophysicist for all I know, in fairness) have said the second sun theory is pretty unlikely.

 

Though it probably will be very, very, very bright for a few weeks, maybe months, like a full moon. Probably even visible in daylight.

 

Will it happen tomorrow? In our lifetime? No one knows with certainty.

 

It's about 600 light years away, and was once so large it would reach out to Jupiter's orbit if placed in our own solar system.

 

Space...it's fan-tastic.

So am I right in thinking that it could have exploded 600 years ago but we don't know yet?

This kind of stuff just blows my mind.

 

I was born in 63 so can just about remember the moon landing and Skylab. The space race and all that. Had telescopes when I was wee. Always had an interest

 

In 2012 we we stayed overnight at Grand Canyon and me and Mrs JH just wen out at night and lay on the ground looking up at the stars. It near brought tears to my eyes.

 

I read A brief history of time but it was a bit deep for me. 7 brief lessons on physics by Carlo Revelli hit the spot. 

 

That telescope looks the nuts

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If you really want to bake your noodle have a look at it tonight.

 

While your looking at it think of all the things that have happened to the human race in the 600 years since the light you're looking at began it's travels to you.

 

 

Then consider the furthest stars you can see. Some of their light started traveling towards us when T-Rex was walking the earth.

 

 

Then consider the Hubble is currently looking at stars that started sending the light that it's looking at before the earth existed. Over 4.5 billion years ago.

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If you really want to bake your noodle have a look at it tonight.

 

While your looking at it think of all the things that have happened to the human race in the 600 years since the light you're looking at began it's travels to you.

 

 

Then consider the furthest stars you can see. Some of their light started traveling towards us when T-Rex was walking the earth.

 

 

Then consider the Hubble is currently looking at stars that started sending the light that it's looking at before the earth existed. Over 4.5 billion years ago.

This is the kind of stuff you must never consider whilst stoned. You may never come back from it[emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Eldar Hadzimehmedovic

When you look through a telescope are you still seeing the light from however many light years? If you were on a planet 65m light years from earth right now and you had a telescope powerful enough to see the surface, would you see dinosaurs?

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Anybody into the old stargazing malarkey?

 

I've just been given one of these telescopes and am looking forward to getting it set up and plan to take a real interest in it. The shear scale of what's out there scares the bejesus out of me but fascinates at the same time.

 

JVV2ayI.gif

 

Apparently once I've got it set up I can point at any star / planet and it will tell me what it is called, alternatively I can ask it to give me a tour of some of the bodies in it's database and it automatically locks onto them through the viewfinder.

 

Cannae wait, I'm like a big kid with a new toy.

That looks like a great instrument.  You'll have many hours of enjoyment out of it.

 

I have one which I got as a gift many years ago.  It had a limitation that made "star-gazing" difficult;  It had a very narrow field of view.  As a result, it was hard to get the object I wanted into the viewer, and it was hard to keep it there because of the earth's rotation.  It looks like your telescope will not have those problems.  Light pollution isn't much of an issue if you're just looking at the moon and planets.

 

Stars are so far away that there isn't much to see of them.  They're just points of light.  But you'll get some incredible views of the moon and planets.  Good luck .... if you're the first to spot a new comet, you'll get it named after you!!

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When you look through a telescope are you still seeing the light from however many light years? If you were on a planet 65m light years from earth right now and you had a telescope powerful enough to see the surface, would you see dinosaurs?

 

Now you're talking.

 

This is where we get into the realms of time travel.

 

 

For example, and this won't be accurate so take it purely as a hypothetical example, if you traveled to the sun and orbited it for 10 years you would come home to earth 50 years into the future.

 

 

What you are doing every time you look at images in space your time traveling. Looking back in time at events that have already happened.

 

Hypothetically speaking the answer is yes.

 

But we're talking about distances and technology that are beyond comprehension. Just to be able to render an image of earth from that distance you would need a lens about 4 light years in diameter and a lens length halfway to the sun.

 

All the stars you see with the naked eye are no more than 1000 light years away. The Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across, so even looking up you're seeing bugger all in the grand scheme. We're talking about a planet the speck size of earth and then to render that down further to something as big as a dinosaur.....noodle baked.

 

Also to do it you would need to teleport or travel by wormhole since you would need to make the jump instantly for it to work.

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Yet we're the only intelligent life out there.

 

:rolleyes:

It's true that the number of goldilocks planets are probably quite small but the universe is a big place and in relative terms it's probably in the millions. They will be out there and they will no doubt contain some forms of life. The amount of carbon out there makes it a nap.

 

Since our sun is just a baby I imagine there will also be much older goldilocks planets as well. Possibly meaning much more advanced civilizations.

 

For me though it's the Dr Malcolm chaos theory. Correct conditions or not life will find a way.

 

This is where I get depressed because I'd give anything for the ability to go find out.

 

To Bauldly go as someone once said on here.

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When you look through a telescope are you still seeing the light from however many light years? If you were on a planet 65m light years from earth right now and you had a telescope powerful enough to see the surface, would you see dinosaurs?

Yes. That's exactly what would happen. In theory at least. It also means anyone or anything on another planet, 65 or 165 million light years away will be oblivious to our existance. They may know this blue and green planet as being populated by dinosaurs. But not humans

Edited by euan1874
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My mind is ******* blown by this thread :lol:

 

Haha, that's exactly how I felt the first time I actually perceived one of the consequences of Einstein's special relativity--time dilation.  Still amazed that we humans, with brains that are tuned to perceive things that move slowly through tiny slices of time compared to the age of the universe, have managed to figure these things out.

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J.T.F.Robertson

An infinite universe could conceivably contain an infinite number of "liveable" planets and that's assuming there are not an infinite number of universes.

 

My pea brain just shut down.

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An infinite universe could conceivably contain an infinite number of "liveable" planets and that's assuming there are not an infinite number of universes.

 

My pea brain just shut down.

 

I'll fry it even further......if infinity does exist, the word contain becomes null and void. no start, no end, no boundaries......this has literally sent people over the edge in science.

 

Best to think about it for a short period...then have a drink !

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I highly recommend watching the US TV series 'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey'. Neil DeGrasse Tyson presented it, and Seth Macfarlane from Family Guy helped with the animation work. Watch an episode of that and then take your telescope for a spin.

 

Living in a city rejects the opportunity to see the night sky. A real shame, there's so much to ponder up there and we're seeing some of the same arrangements and cycles as our ancestors.

Edited by kila
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deesidejambo

Venus clearly visible in night sky towards SW. For those with scopes or good binocs check out the Andromeda galaxy.

 

And if anyone interested the six Apollo landing sites were photographed by the recent LRO Orbitter. Google em.

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Venus clearly visible in night sky towards SW. For those with scopes or good binocs check out the Andromeda galaxy.

 

And if anyone interested the six Apollo landing sites were photographed by the recent LRO Orbitter. Google em.

 

Cloudy on the west coast tonight. Nothing doing for me.

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Venus clearly visible in night sky towards SW. For those with scopes or good binocs check out the Andromeda galaxy.

 

And if anyone interested the six Apollo landing sites were photographed by the recent LRO Orbitter. Google em.

Where in the sky will I find andromeda?
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Governor Tarkin

Venus clearly visible in night sky towards SW. For those with scopes or good binocs check out the Andromeda galaxy.

 

And if anyone interested the six Apollo landing sites were photographed by the recent LRO Orbitter. Google em.

I have a reasonable beginners scope - can pick out thr moons of jupiter and rings of saturn - but have never managed to cop a look at Andromeda. :( Edited by Governor Tarkin
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Venus clearly visible in night sky towards SW. For those with scopes or good binocs check out the Andromeda galaxy.

 

And if anyone interested the six Apollo landing sites were photographed by the recent LRO Orbitter. Google em.

 

The bloody remote control on this thing needs 8 batteries which I didn't realise.   :ahhhhhhh:

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To find Andromeda, Locate Cassiopeia. It can be found by locating the big dipper and following a line from it to polaris, keep going until you find Cassiopeia which looks like a giant W in the sky.

 

 

36dc3553cf24bf03aa2ba96a05b550d1.jpg

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Venus clearly visible in night sky towards SW. For those with scopes or good binocs check out the Andromeda galaxy.

 

And if anyone interested the six Apollo landing sites were photographed by the recent LRO Orbitter. Google em.

 

NGC224 (SAC Reference number) is what I need to input when I get this telescope working tomorrow and it should automatically locate it..

 

I believe it has the name M31 and is the nearest spiral galaxy to ours. Really looking forward to this.

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Anybody into the old stargazing malarkey?

 

I've just been given one of these telescopes and am looking forward to getting it set up and plan to take a real interest in it. The shear scale of what's out there scares the bejesus out of me but fascinates at the same time.

 

JVV2ayI.gif

 

Apparently once I've got it set up I can point at any star / planet and it will tell me what it is called, alternatively I can ask it to give me a tour of some of the bodies in it's database and it automatically locks onto them through the viewfinder.

 

Cannae wait, I'm like a big kid with a new toy.

Edinburgh Uni run short 10week Astronomy courses (2hr every Wed night) three times a year. The courses are open to anyone and cost around ?55 and are actually held inside the Royal Observatory at Blackford Hill, each week there's a lecture on a specific subject followed by an open discussion.

 

The courses for part of the Uni's 'Short Courses Programe' which are designed for the general public to attend. Astronomy has two different courses for 2016/17 entiled 'The Local Universe' and 'The Distance Universe' - the individual listed lectures include topics such as 'Observering the Universe', 'Telescopes' and 'Blackholes'.

 

The courses are brilliant, all the latest thinking/theories deliveried by Observatory researchers/Uni staff. Mixed crowd/age group usually attend the courses.

 

Link to course https://www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/SN/science-and-nature/

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deesidejambo

To find Andromeda, Locate Cassiopeia. It can be found by locating the big dipper and following a line from it to polaris, keep going until you find Cassiopeia which looks like a giant W in the sky.

 

 

36dc3553cf24bf03aa2ba96a05b550d1.jpg

Mind though it's not too spectacular but at least can be seen, sort of, with binocs. It takes a bit of finding so be patient.

 

For those lucky swines with good telescopes there's probably better galaxies to spot.

 

Great thread. I love stargazing and all that.

Edited by deesidejambo
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Mind though it's not too spectacular but at least can be seen, sort of, with binocs. It takes a bit of finding so be patient.

 

For those lucky swines with good telescopes there's probably better galaxies to spot.

 

Great thread. I love stargazing and all that.

Could well be...lets just hope someone doesn't copy and paste all over it to ruin it :)

 

Here's hoping for clear skies to get some decent views - my little lad got handed a Celestron Astromaster 114 from my mate who no longer uses it....first glimpse of the moon was outstanding

 

Again I will recommend the Kielder observatory - get down to one of their events if you can, brilliant night if you are into this sort of thing 

Edited by moz
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Ron Burgundy

Anybody into the old stargazing malarkey?

 

I've just been given one of these telescopes and am looking forward to getting it set up and plan to take a real interest in it. The shear scale of what's out there scares the bejesus out of me but fascinates at the same time.

 

JVV2ayI.gif

 

Apparently once I've got it set up I can point at any star / planet and it will tell me what it is called, alternatively I can ask it to give me a tour of some of the bodies in it's database and it automatically locks onto them through the viewfinder.

 

Cannae wait, I'm like a big kid with a new toy.

 

 

Hope you don't mind me asking but what sort of cash are you talking about for something like that?

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Hope you don't mind me asking but what sort of cash are you talking about for something like that?

 

Nothing in my case but from looking online they are about ?250.

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Thunderstruck

A very good alternative as phone or tablet App is Distant Suns.

 

Distant Suns was originally a program for the Commodore Amiga computer in 1987, and is still available for the Windows operating system. Among iPhone star charting apps it is one of the more serious, with rather plain graphics but a wealth of text information about astronomical objects.

 

http://distantsuns.com/products/

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maroonlegions

Great thread indeed. 

 

Looking forward to any images captured from those engaging in their telescope activities of the night sky.

 

Love space ,always have done since i was young.

 

I am really looking forward to getting updates on radio galaxies from my wife's cousin who is  a post-doctoral researcher in astrophysics at the University of Western Capetown. 

 

She is currently out in South Africa  just now and is involved  with the Square Kilometre Array  telescope ,(or SKA for short), that is being built to  study radio galaxies.

 

The times i have met her at family gatherings she has come across as a very bright individual, full of enthusiasm and a  love for deep space and the mysteries is still holds and is still yet  to reveal to science.

 

She has promised to keep me updated on any new developments in regards to SKA and its findings. :cool_shades:

 

 

Below is a piece she wrote recently.

 

 

width170_logo-1432795466.jpg

It's difficult to get jets - powerful, lightning fast particles - to give up their secrets. The new Square Kilometre Array radio telescope could hold the key to solving jets' mysteries.
THECONVERSATION.COM|
 
 

For those interested in SKA and what its function will be in the field of astronomy here is a small snippet below. 

 

 

"The SKA will be 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 faster than the best radio telescopes we have today. It will have the capacity to produce images with resolution quality 50 times higher than the Hubble Space Telescope. :20: 

 

The SKA?s greater sensitivity will expand the range of the observable universe and has the potential to answer profound questions in astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics".

link; https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-square-kilometre-array-40870

 

 

 
 
Edited by maroonlegions
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The post about the SKA in South Africa is interesting.  Why will it take better images than Hubble?  We all know that Hubble gets good images because it doesn't have to contend with the distortions created by the earth's atmosphere.  To say that earthbound SKA images will be 10,000 times better than Hubble is quite a claim.  Not a hundred times, or a thousand times ... but 10,000 times better?   Hmm.

 

And why is the SKA so superior to the existing VLA in south western United States? My interest is tweeked.

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maroonlegions

The post about the SKA in South Africa is interesting.  Why will it take better images than Hubble?  We all know that Hubble gets good images because it doesn't have to contend with the distortions created by the earth's atmosphere.  To say that earthbound SKA images will be 10,000 times better than Hubble is quite a claim.  Not a hundred times, or a thousand times ... but 10,000 times better?   Hmm.

 

And why is the SKA so superior to the existing VLA in south western United States? My interest is tweeked.

 

SKA is being built for one purpose and that is it will capture images in the radio spectrum, that changes the game so to speak, it will not be inhibited by distortions by the earths atmosphere i think.

 

Who said it was superior to the VLT in Chile , the SKA will be superior to all known RADIO telescopes.

 

Radio telescopes can capture better images because they are operating  in the radio spectrum was my understanding when i spoke to her last.     

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The post about the SKA in South Africa is interesting.  Why will it take better images than Hubble?  We all know that Hubble gets good images because it doesn't have to contend with the distortions created by the earth's atmosphere.  To say that earthbound SKA images will be 10,000 times better than Hubble is quite a claim.  Not a hundred times, or a thousand times ... but 10,000 times better?   Hmm.

 

And why is the SKA so superior to the existing VLA in south western United States? My interest is tweeked.

 

SKA is a radio telescope, so that probably is why--it'll receive extremely low frequencies compared to the optical spectrum which won't be as subject to interference, and I imagine they'll also have interferometry built into it since the site stretches across a kilometre of distance.

 

I'm absolutely just speculating though.

 

Edit: What maroon said!

Edited by Justin Z
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SKA is being built for one purpose and that is it will capture images in the radio spectrum, that changes the game so to speak, it will not be inhibited by distortions by the earths atmosphere i think.

 

Who said it was superior to the VLT in Chile , the SKA will be superior to all known RADIO telescopes.

 

Radio telescopes can capture better images because they are operating  in the radio spectrum was my understanding when i spoke to her last.     

 

I think we're getting mixed up in our terms.

 

The VLA in New Mexico (nothing to do with Chile) is a RADIO telescope, and I asked why the SKA is better than that.  I'm still curious.

 

Hubble is not a RADIO telescope; it takes pictures.  To say that a RADIO telescope will take 10,000 times better images than a VISUAL telescope is misleading, probably even wrong. 

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I asked for a telescope for Christmas a few years back. Got a LIDL telescope. Didn't work, despite all the hours I spent trying to see stars.

 

I googled the model and the problem was that it was shite. You need a good one.

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maroonlegions

Oh well. Thread ruined.

 Grow up you.  :5643:

 

 

 

How is it ruined.  :sleepy:

 

Or are you out to shit stir.

 

No comment on the SKA in my post then, :sleepy:  you would think you could  act  a bit more mature  and look past the link snippets.. :placate:   mmmm, Oh well you seem uninterested in this branch of astronomy regarding the SKA, strange as you clearly stated you love space and astronomy.

 

You do realise  that comments like that tend to get responses and end up ruining threads, oh the irony eh.  :lol:

 

Looks like its because i posted it you will not comment on it,  at least you are transparent i will give you that.  :65:

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I think we're getting mixed up in our terms.

 

The VLA in New Mexico (nothing to do with Chile) is a RADIO telescope, and I asked why the SKA is better than that.  I'm still curious.

 

Hubble is not a RADIO telescope; it takes pictures.  To say that a RADIO telescope will take 10,000 times better images than a VISUAL telescope is misleading, probably even wrong. 

 

Ah okay, I see.  Well, regardless of what frequency a telescope is looking in, it's still all light.  So accounting for those differences I think it's possible to make a claim that a certain radio telescope has 50x the resolution of certain other optical telescope.  But obviously it'll be looking at things in a much different way.

 

Also, a lot of the images we see taken by Hubble are composite--the same image viewed in various wavelengths, including infrared, UV, x-ray, etc., and then each of them assigned a colour and merged into one "false colour" image.  Honestly, the whole thing confuses me.

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