Amateur Astronomy

[in abyssia]

What a better way to relax than to look through an eyepiece of a well crafted telescope and gaze at worlds beyond!

Geeky hobby but it sure does get rid of the stress from  everyday life. Anybody else into STAR GAZING?

[NEVR4GETLOL]

"Geeky hobby but it sure does get rid of the stress from  everyday life." I thought entertainment was for uentermensch?

I would love to have a telescope, but I lack two things: money, and stars. I live inbetween the glare of two industrial estates and a local town. Fucking shitty streetlamps, they should have motion censors or something.

[buckets_of_rain]

I'm happy just looking at the stars with my eyes, but astronomy does sound like something that would be quite relaxing to get into.

I remember as a child I was always into constalations and the stories behind them.  

[chrstphrbnntt]

When I move, the first thing I'm going to do is bust out my old telescope. I hate light pollution. Now, the closest thing I get to stargazing is picking out constellations with my green laser whenever I go camping.

"Geeky hobby but it sure does get rid of the stress from  everyday life." I thought entertainment was for uentermensch?

I would love to have a telescope, but I lack two things: money, and stars. I live inbetween the glare of two industrial estates and a local town. Fucking shitty streetlamps, they should have motion censors or something.

Save a star: break a streetlamp.

[Fallibilis]

Save a star: break a streetlamp.

Heh, sounds like a good idea.

I partake in this hobby, though not as habitually as I used to. I've been volunteering at the local University observatory for about 4 years now and operate the 26" refractor telescope there. It's an impressive piece of machinery for being over 122 years old. Unfortunately, this is all in a small city, so there isn't much visible in the sky.

However, just 13 miles South of where I live there's an observatory with a 41" reflector and a beautiful open sky with a sizable Milky Way streak brushed against the sky. Hell, even looking up through binoculars is spectacular in an area like that.

[Necrolust]

Astronomy is one of the two possibilities career-wise for my future. Nothing is more breath-taking and awe-inspiring as the Universe itself.

[NEVR4GETLOL]

Astronomy is one of the two possibilities career-wise for my future. Nothing is more breath-taking and awe-inspiring as the Universe itself.

The Universe tends to contain everything, so I'd have to agree

[wEEman33]

Coincidentally, I am taking an intro-level Astronomy class this semester at my university.

So far, I'd say it has been the most interesting and enlightening science class that I have ever taken.

It is a shame that Astronomy gets overlooked in most school curricula.

I have always wondered if the reasoning behind that is because so much of its subject matter contradicts the Christian view of the world and its origins. Too, there is the fact that studying Astronomy can really put things into perspective as far as the Earth and the human race are concerned:

Man is a little germ that lives on an unimportant rock ball, which revolves around an insignificant star on the outer edges of one of the smaller galaxies.

[Vajra]

"Geeky hobby but it sure does get rid of the stress from  everyday life." I thought entertainment was for uentermensch?

I would love to have a telescope, but I lack two things: money, and stars. I live inbetween the glare of two industrial estates and a local town. Fucking shitty streetlamps, they should have motion censors or something.

If you have a little bit of free time, and can procure a small eyepiece size lens, you can build your own telescope out of toilet and kitchen roll tubes. The said lens is quite difficult to get from stores, I think. For the refracting lens, a small magnifying glass should fair well. It should be decent enough for the moon, since I doubt you'll see much else. It's the only thing I can observe in London, as constellations made up of aeroplanes are not as much a celestial experience. When I was in education, I was hoping to get into university to study Astronomy. It's definitely a higher thing to be able to immerse yourself in the vastness, rather than distract yourself after a mere glance at the night sky the engulfing sensation.

[neoclassical]

Does anyone use a Signal-to-noise calculator, or is that not for amateur astronomy?

[Necrolust]

The Universe tends to contain everything, so I'd have to agree

I meant the Messier 110 mainly.

[David_Ravel]

If you have a little bit of free time, and can procure a small eyepiece size lens, you can build your own telescope out of toilet and kitchen roll tubes. The said lens is quite difficult to get from stores, I think. For the refracting lens, a small magnifying glass should fair well. It should be decent enough for the moon, since I doubt you'll see much else. It's the only thing I can observe in London, as constellations made up of aeroplanes are not as much a celestial experience. When I was in education, I was hoping to get into university to study Astronomy. It's definitely a higher thing to be able to immerse yourself in the vastness, rather than distract yourself after a mere glance at the night sky the engulfing sensation.

If I have an old broken telescop at home, do you think that I could manage to get the eye lens out and ''construct'' another one ?

[Vajra]

If I have an old broken telescop at home, do you think that I could manage to get the eye lens out and ''construct'' another one ?

Should be able to. I've never actually had access to a real telescope before so I don't know how they're fitted, but if you can get the eye lens you have a good start. You might end up buying a few make-shift refracting lenses to see which one is suitable. An eyepiece lens 1/5 the size of the other lens is a good size. Then just play around with distances to get an optimum focal distance, which shouldn't be a great length.

[nAMELESShERETIC]

this is kind of off the topic, yet related; i find the theories about the multiverse and zero-point energy to be quite fascinating. quantum physics/mechanics is pretty cool shit.

[Chains]

Funnily enough, even though I study all of this, I never did any real stargazing. I'm just too much of a theorist to go through all the hassle of actually doing any of the more experimental or  observational work.