Got a backyard telescope?

[Radio]

FAKE MOON OF JUPITER:

Got a backyard telescope? Tonight, point it at Jupiter. The giant planet is passing mere arcminutes from a 6th magnitude star in Sagittarius, creating the illusion of an extra moon. See if you can distinguish the genuine satellites from the doppelganger.

More info:

http://spaceweather.com/

[aintgotnun]

Ment to comment on this yesterday.......

I was out both Friday and Saturday nights and saw this. Of course seeing Jupiter in and of itself through a telescope is amazing whether it has 4 or "5" moons. The pictures on that site don't do Jupiter any justice. Even using my small 4" dob I can make out her rings. Using my 10" dob...... wow. Through some colored filters on and they really snap out at ya. I have a few favorites in the sky that I can just look at for hours and Jupiter and her moons are one of them. Saturn, the Pleadies cluster, and of course our own moon.

I will sometimes just sit outside for hours crusing the night sky trying to find as many Messier objects as I can. For the longest time I didn't know what I was looking for trying to find the Andromeda galaxies M31 and M32 from my back yard. While out in West Texas where the skies are very dark these 2 can be seen without the aide of a telescope but elluded me for the longest time even with my scope. I'm now sorta computerized and use a pointer and a book to help me identify various objects.

A really neat site for what you can see in your back yard and not just Saturn........ go here.

Enough rambling for now....

here's some more great sites for software and charts
http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm#hnsky
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/
and this one ROCKS! http://www.stellarium.org/

I've used all and they are all FREE!!

[NDJollyMon]

I remember when I first found Andromeda. You really can make it out with the naked eye. Looks cooler in a scope though. I love Jupiter and it's moons as well. I haven't dragged out my scope in quite some time, however. Mosquitoes are just too dang bad right now. I love the night sky in the Fall! (winter too...but it's DANG COLD up here!)

My favorite place to see the night sky?
On a ship out in the sea. It's so dark out there! (providing you get away from the ships lights) I got to see the Southern Cross once while at sea.

[acadianbob]

It's great to run into other telescope hobbyists!! I'm currently using a 8" Celestron Newtonian; equatorial mount; totally manual. The best places I've ever viewed from were Fish Lake National Forest in Utah and Bryce Canyon National Park. At Fish Lake, I was able to see 3 different planets at one time; naked eye. It was fun to use the 3 planets to "see" the plane of our solar system and how it "intersects" our Milky Way Galaxy at quite an angle. Very fun to visually be able to see that.

Another favorite moment was a day trip to the top of Muana Kea (sp?) on the Big Island Hawaii. Got to see the Keck interferometer (from the inside) and you could actually visually see the curvature of the earth from up there. AWESOME!

When I retire, hopefully in the next year or two, the plan is to move up to something like a computerized 12" Schmidt-Cassegrain or similar.

[NDJollyMon]

I have a 4 1/2" reflector I use mostly in the backyard. It's me Vs. light pollution around here. I was hoping to get a new 6 or 8 inch Orion light bucket...but with all the vacations I've got to pay for this year...prolly no deal.

[aintgotnun]

We have a trip planned for the Davis Mountains this coming spring break. WHOOOO HOOOOO!!! I LOVE the McDonald Observatory and the desert during full bloom is beutiful!

I can hardly wait! I'll prolly take my lil 4" Dob with me as we will be making a couple of sandy desert stops there and back to break the trip up. I'd love to take my 10" but sand and mirrors don't mix to well..