Davekyn
15-11-2009, 11:18 PM
Well it’s been slightly over a year now, since I bought my Bino’s/ED 80 & 12” Dob. I pretty much took an online crash course into Astronomy via various websites and of course, much help from here & cloudy nights. I should probably say “Stargazing” at this point so as not to alarm the more experienced members who’ve pulled me up on using such terms before. I wonder at what point I can call myself a Backyard Astronomer. I’ll admit that I am a very simple minded fella that simply enjoys staring at the wonders in our night sky.
It’s so good to just get back into things with my Bino’s and nothing else. A lot of the reason I have given the stargazing the flick of late is the ever growing light pollution here in Toowoomba. It just seems tobe getting worse each month. More and more houses going up and roads upgraded; it’s simply destroying the night sky. Yea, Jupiter’s out there and the moon is on offer…but nothing beats the challenge of DSO’s. At first I put the 12” Dob in the car and drove to my usual spot several km’s out of town…TOO MUCH WIND!!!!!! & now I have to admit pulling the seat out to get the bugger in, on the off chance the conditions are going to be right, is a bit of a pain in the Butt. HOWEVER, Impressed with the fact I could actually see stars again and a desire to start again, I came back to this spot with my Bino’s & a chair, enjoying the simplicity of set-up and easy of gazing. Found NGC253 easily enough as well as the spiral Galaxy between Triangulam & "Andromeda"…which looked pretty good with a decent looking core over the light polluted horizon of Toowoomba. Spotted Neptune just to the upper right (45/44 & 42 cap) of Jupiter really enjoying searching out all the star patterns. Before getting in some more well practiced orientations of the night sky and its constellations & so forth, before setting up camp for the 12” DOB…I do believe I have a new appreciation & anticipate some good viewing with my ED80 I am yet to really use.
I’m not sure what to expect, but I figure if I can play around, learning more with my Bino’s and experiment with my ED 80 and some of the magnification options with it; I may then, find it a much more pleasurable experience to go through the effort of packing and unpacking the DOB for those out of town trips…if ya know what I mean!
Anyways…It’s just good to know that I don’t really need to drag the DOB out for some pleasurable viewing…It was just the Bino’s tonight…I’m looking forward to doing some good practice Obs with the ED 80. For a while there, I was in the mind set, that because I have a big 12” Scope, I was missing something if I did not drag it along every night. I think that kind of put me off after a while and now understand some of the warnings associated with large scopes. I’m really looking forward to using it again, but this time of the year for me, is going to be more about going light!! and challenging myself a little more and planning more sensibly ahead before dragging it out so often. Yadda Yadda, maybe some of you have experienced such beginnings yourselves? It would not be so bad if not for all this Damn Pollution!!!!
Cheers Dave :)
It’s so good to just get back into things with my Bino’s and nothing else. A lot of the reason I have given the stargazing the flick of late is the ever growing light pollution here in Toowoomba. It just seems tobe getting worse each month. More and more houses going up and roads upgraded; it’s simply destroying the night sky. Yea, Jupiter’s out there and the moon is on offer…but nothing beats the challenge of DSO’s. At first I put the 12” Dob in the car and drove to my usual spot several km’s out of town…TOO MUCH WIND!!!!!! & now I have to admit pulling the seat out to get the bugger in, on the off chance the conditions are going to be right, is a bit of a pain in the Butt. HOWEVER, Impressed with the fact I could actually see stars again and a desire to start again, I came back to this spot with my Bino’s & a chair, enjoying the simplicity of set-up and easy of gazing. Found NGC253 easily enough as well as the spiral Galaxy between Triangulam & "Andromeda"…which looked pretty good with a decent looking core over the light polluted horizon of Toowoomba. Spotted Neptune just to the upper right (45/44 & 42 cap) of Jupiter really enjoying searching out all the star patterns. Before getting in some more well practiced orientations of the night sky and its constellations & so forth, before setting up camp for the 12” DOB…I do believe I have a new appreciation & anticipate some good viewing with my ED80 I am yet to really use.
I’m not sure what to expect, but I figure if I can play around, learning more with my Bino’s and experiment with my ED 80 and some of the magnification options with it; I may then, find it a much more pleasurable experience to go through the effort of packing and unpacking the DOB for those out of town trips…if ya know what I mean!
Anyways…It’s just good to know that I don’t really need to drag the DOB out for some pleasurable viewing…It was just the Bino’s tonight…I’m looking forward to doing some good practice Obs with the ED 80. For a while there, I was in the mind set, that because I have a big 12” Scope, I was missing something if I did not drag it along every night. I think that kind of put me off after a while and now understand some of the warnings associated with large scopes. I’m really looking forward to using it again, but this time of the year for me, is going to be more about going light!! and challenging myself a little more and planning more sensibly ahead before dragging it out so often. Yadda Yadda, maybe some of you have experienced such beginnings yourselves? It would not be so bad if not for all this Damn Pollution!!!!
Cheers Dave :)