Hello everyone

[michael_m]

Hi all,
my name is Michael (hence the username). I've been lurking here for a few months and thought I would say hello.

I've only recently come back to astronomy after a few years in my teens when I used a borrowed telescope to stare at the night sky. I had no real idea what I was doing, but I enjoyed it at the time.

Now, as a teacher, I have taught the science of astronomy to students as a stand-alone subject for several years, but have not ventured out to look at the night sky. I am comfortable with hertzsprung-russell diagrams, stellar evolution, tuning-fork diagrams and local groups, but had no idea on constellations, where specific deep space objects are, or what they look like through binoculars or a telescope.

Well a few months ago, on the urging of some students, my employer (in its wisdom) decided to allow the formation of an astronomy club, with me as the teacher in charge. Since then, I've been playing catch-up. Work bought a 10-inch dob that I've been using since the end of July every weekend with no cloud cover to bring myself up to speed.

I think I'm developing a taste for it! I'm working my way through the BAM600 list (about 74 or so seen so far) from my heavily light-polluted backyard and I now "know" about 20 constellations and the major named stars of the sky at this time of year that I can ID when I see them without needing a starmap or stellarium. I watched the occultation of Saturn by the moon and after last night have seen the comets Siding Spring, Panstarrs and Okumaiden.

Anyway, I just thought I would introduce myself - I'm not hugely interested in astrophotography at this stage, so will probably be posting mostly on the visual astronomy pages. (Not that I don't love the idea and end product of astrophotography, but it is a bit like my original and primary hobby - birdwatching v. bird photography. Trying to do both at the same time means neither gets done well, and the ability to find and identify trumps the clicking of the shutter, as if there's nothing to be seen, there's no point in taking the photo).

Cheers, Mike

[Renato1]

Hi Mike,
Good to see someone else who isn't hugely interested in Astrophotography (my only interest is looking at someone else's photos). I enjoy the notion that photons have travelled for hundreds of millions or billions of years to hit the back of my eye.

What an enlightened school you have. I've met half a dozen or so teachers over the years who tried, but never succeeded in getting a school telescope.

One suggestion I have for you. There are plenty of bright objects in the sky that you will know how to locate by sight (Great Nebula, Eta Carina Nebula, Omega Centauri, Magellanic Clouds, Tarantual nebula, Pleaidies). Get the students to bring their own binoculars along, show them how to focus them properly (two thirds don't know how to do it). Aim a green laser at each object and have them follow the beam to the object with their binoculars.

Everyone I've done this with has been fascinated comparing the view in the telescope with the much smaller view in the binoculars. Also, they then get less bored waiting for their turn at the telescope.

Who knows? Maybe the Police will waive the licence fee for a school and you can get a cheap 5mW laser from Ebay.

Regards,
Renato

[xelasnave]

Welcome Michael.
Never ever take up astrophotography....maybe a couple of Moon shots but no more than that...there is no end to it and no matter how good you become you want to do better..if you are a perfectionist you will go crazy.
These days I enjoy simple star gazing using 80mm binnos over the 12 inch even.
Great to hear your story.

[Regulus]

Welcome Michael.
It's nice to be able to look up at night and iD some of what ur seeing.
I think you'll enjoy the first time u take that big 10"er out to a dark sky site too.
I will be interested to hear if the interest in the astro group spreads and the group grows from other kids getting interested from hearing there friends reports.
Look forward to ur posts.
Trev

[michael_m]

Thanks Renato, Xelasnave and Regulus for your welcome. :)

I've been lucky in that the school has also sprung for a second 6" scope and half a dozen binoculars. Our first monthly night session is in October and we should have another 2 or 3 scopes there as well. I'm looking at about 50 students interested at this stage. We're going to start the session with Mars and Saturn then by finding the various constellations, starting with Scorpio and the Southern Cross, before looking at some double stars, Open Clusters, Globular Clusters and maybe the Silver Coin Galaxy.

That should do it for one evening - it takes a bit of time to get eyes in front of eyepieces and yet have enough to keep those not looking through the scope interested. I will definitely encourage the students to bring their own binoculars and equipment.

Previously, we have only had a small 75mm 'firstscope' I was given as a present a few years back. Still, with that (and a solar filter on front), I have shown students a couple of partial solar eclipses and in spite of the clouds, managed to show around 200 kids the last transit of Venus. So having a real scope is just marvellous.

I have just got back from my first night at a dark site (since starting up again, that is) which was a mixed blessing. A blessing because I had a clear night, and mixed because it was a family trip and the scope didn't come with me! (my wife preferred to take the children instead :screwy:). Still, I used my father's birdwatching scope to good effect, seeing Centaurus A, comet Okumaiden and the tarantula nebula for the first time.

Cheers, Mike

[Renato1]

Hi again Mike,
Your school is even more impressive than I thought.

Don't forget to aim the 10" dob at globular clusters Omega Centauri and 47 Tucana. Tell your students that they are looking at millions of old suns clustered into balls outside our galaxy, and that people from the northern hemisphere take vacations down here just so that they can say they've seen them - because their biggest globular cluster looks very sad in comparison.

The other much overlooked constellation in the sky which is in good position around 10.30pm is Fornax. It's a bit tricky to star-hop to because there aren't many stars around. But when you get to the right place, there are ten or so bright galaxies that one can easily see just by moving the eyepiece around sideways and up and down.
Cheers,
Renato

[Regulus]

Buy your wife a telescope and she will make better decisions about the kids place in family outings into the future :-)
I have a swann webcam that sits in an old 35mm plastic film cannister that fits straight into the ep holder. Connected to a netbook and a webcam program you may be able to share the moon at the very least with a large group. With a longer scope like the dob you can get a reasonable view of Saturn and Jupiter. Just a thought you might like to experiment with.
Cheers - Trev