Nico13
04-05-2011, 12:23 AM
Sorry if this goes on a bit here but I think it was all worth it.
Having been introduced to astronomy in the early seventies by a friend with a 12" I think f4 home made newt and that included the mirror grind as well in the home made I was fortunate to have many nights of observing in Horsham.
We, that is Carol and I, then having moved to Geelong were lucky enough to find a new friend with very similar talents when it came to building telescopes and again spent many hours viewing and photographing the stars but it seemed never a Galaxy, at least not that I recall anyway.
A gap of many years went by with little observing until a year or two back when my lovely wife expressed interest in the stars and I had set up with a second hand 8" Meade SCT on a Super Polaris mount with Autostar on a relocatable Pier I made and we have have enjoyed many nights just playing around with this and not getting too serious.
As a very keen photographer I just loved the images that some of the guys and girls produce here and I have managed a bit of video of Jupiter and the moon but I longed to see, I mean physically see my first Galaxy.
Well the other night over the Easter week the sky was not too bad but a bit heavy with dew, anyway with the aid of that magic program Stellarium and a bit of perseverance to locate star groups beyond visual magnitudes I managed to locate the Sombrero Galaxy and although I was a little underwhelmed by what I saw in my 8" 25 year old SCT I was so pleased to be able to say to my wife who is also my best mate, have a look at this.
She, as was I so amazed that we could point the telescope at what seemed to be a black bit of sky with nothing it and look at this elongated fuzzy blur in the eye piece and be able to say for sure that we were looking at the Sombrero Galaxy just makes it all worth the effort and makes me more determined to get my guiding system working better.
How much did you say that 16" mirror was? Only kidding ;)
Ken.
Having been introduced to astronomy in the early seventies by a friend with a 12" I think f4 home made newt and that included the mirror grind as well in the home made I was fortunate to have many nights of observing in Horsham.
We, that is Carol and I, then having moved to Geelong were lucky enough to find a new friend with very similar talents when it came to building telescopes and again spent many hours viewing and photographing the stars but it seemed never a Galaxy, at least not that I recall anyway.
A gap of many years went by with little observing until a year or two back when my lovely wife expressed interest in the stars and I had set up with a second hand 8" Meade SCT on a Super Polaris mount with Autostar on a relocatable Pier I made and we have have enjoyed many nights just playing around with this and not getting too serious.
As a very keen photographer I just loved the images that some of the guys and girls produce here and I have managed a bit of video of Jupiter and the moon but I longed to see, I mean physically see my first Galaxy.
Well the other night over the Easter week the sky was not too bad but a bit heavy with dew, anyway with the aid of that magic program Stellarium and a bit of perseverance to locate star groups beyond visual magnitudes I managed to locate the Sombrero Galaxy and although I was a little underwhelmed by what I saw in my 8" 25 year old SCT I was so pleased to be able to say to my wife who is also my best mate, have a look at this.
She, as was I so amazed that we could point the telescope at what seemed to be a black bit of sky with nothing it and look at this elongated fuzzy blur in the eye piece and be able to say for sure that we were looking at the Sombrero Galaxy just makes it all worth the effort and makes me more determined to get my guiding system working better.
How much did you say that 16" mirror was? Only kidding ;)
Ken.