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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/27/2018 at 12:06 PM, JamesHackerMP said:

Anyone own a telescope? I've owned one for a few years now and enjoy looking at stuff in outer space. Any other astronomy  junkies out there?

A telescope is something that I have always wanted to own but never bothered to buy one. What the hell am i waiting for is beyond me. How stupid is that, eh? No nasty reply, please. :D 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/30/2019 at 12:46 AM, taxme said:

A telescope is something that I have always wanted to own but never bothered to buy one. What the hell am i waiting for is beyond me. How stupid is that, eh? No nasty reply, please. :D 

Make sure you do research before you buy one. Do you want an old fashioned one (that you have to aim yourself) or a "go-to" that does it for you? Take into account that there is some legerdemain involved in the latter.

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10 hours ago, JamesHackerMP said:

Make sure you do research before you buy one. Do you want an old fashioned one (that you have to aim yourself) or a "go-to" that does it for you? Take into account that there is some legerdemain involved in the latter.

I just want a real good telescope to be able to go and see way out there in space. The prices for some of the good ones are quite expensive. I am going to ask Santa next Christmas to bring me one. Santa has not brought me much since I said that Santa does not exist. I think that he heard me. Sometimes my big mouth does get me in trouble. LOL. 

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On 6/28/2019 at 2:07 PM, taxme said:

I just want a real good telescope to be able to go and see way out there in space. The prices for some of the good ones are quite expensive. I am going to ask Santa next Christmas to bring me one. Santa has not brought me much since I said that Santa does not exist. I think that he heard me. Sometimes my big mouth does get me in trouble. LOL. 

If you're looking to get the most aperature for the cheapest price for deep sky observing, a Newtonian reflector is the ticket.  You can get a decent size 6-10" dobsonian for pretty reasonable price compared to similar sized SCT's, or Maksutov-cassegrains, etc. and they basically do the same thing, minus the mount.  Personally I think it's better to start out with a basic mount without goto, as it encourages you to learn the sky better, and finding some of those elusive deep sky objects is half the fun IMHO.  There are some limitations to going this route, such as photography, etc.  but that's a whole other ballgame ...and the scope is usually the cheapest part of a good astro-photography rig.  The other disadvantage of reflectors is their size...if you're looking for anything larger than a 10" objective, dobsonians are big and cumbersome unless you go with a truss tube, which are a bit more work to set up but easier to store and transport.

I started out with a 10" dobsonion and a few good quality eyepieces and filters.  I added a push-to object locator/ finder (Orion intelliscope) later on, which definitely helped find those dim fuzzy galaxies and nebulae.  My rig is easy to use, and everything I need to resolve most of the deep sky objects that I'm interested in observing (although it's hard to resist wanting more aperture once you get into it).

Having said all that, there's lots you can observe with a good pair of binoculars or a spotting scope if you're interested in planetary viewing or open clusters.

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  • 7 months later...

Earth has a "new" temporary moonlet...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mini-moon-1.5478308

http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/mini-moon-2020-cd3-08170.html

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/615293/earth-just-gained-a-new-mini-moonbut-it-wont-be-around-for-long/

Earth has a tiny new companion in its journey around the sun — at least for now.

The new "mini-moon" is an asteroid called 2020 CD3. It's about 1.9 to 3.5 metres in diameter, roughly between the size of a cow and a hippopotamus.

I believe Earth also has a semi-permanent artificial moonlet in the form of Apollo 12's upper stage which is in some sort of resonance orbit with our Lagrange points that occasionally captures and ejects it along a predictable path. If seen from a vantage point in space, it would look like a huge corkscrew maneuver followed by several looping orbits...or something similar. 

Edited by DogOnPorch
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