Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff Mc
I'd like to endorse the comments made earlier by Dave about the reasons for bothering to look at Mars or anything else in the night sky. John Dobson years ago took it to an extreme when he commented at a public forum in Sydney that astrophotographers have some kind of disease: there are far better photos available from HST and so on that are far superior to anything they could produce (he said, not me!). But he had a point: people want to see things for themselves, otherwise tourism would be a thing of the past now the internet is here.
About 15 years ago I was running an evening Astronomy course and the members of the group wanted to see Uranus through my 8" Dob. I told them they'd see little more than a small dot, but that wasn't the point. They wanted to be able to say they'd seen it with their own eyes and it gave me a thrill to be able to show them. It's a very human, very valid perspective (no pun intended). I am absolutely hooked on exploring the Moon telescopically and buy books (such as Charles Wood's for example) to help me do so. I do not simply sit in a chair and look at photos and I doubt many of you do either. While I don't share Deep Sky observers' interest, I do appreciate their motives and applaud all those sketches louder than the technological triumph of electronic images (although they're extraordinary too!).
Geoff Mc
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Well said Geoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy Parker
Viewed Mar two nights ago on my 8" sct at 225x.
Just a red blob and could not discern the ice caps.
This is my first view of the Red and I am excited, simply because this is truly my first and at least I know where it is in the night sky.
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Congrats on your first view Jeremy!
Cheers -