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First Light
Apr. 20th, 2010 08:54 pmSo, last month I got a telescope. I finally got to test it out.
First off, it was a Galileoscope, which meant it cost $30 and I had to assemble it myself. It's also tiny -- as in, I can carry it and my tripod bag in one arm. This is a change from my telescope in high school, which was a 6" Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount*, which took two people to carry outside (one to take the telescope tube, and one to take its mount). It's a good telescope for travel, though, since I could probably stick it in my checked bag. Maybe even my carry-on. (First I need to get a lens cap. Or possibly just a sock).
The other downside is that anything high in the sky involves me kneeling and craning my neck to see it. I need a star diagonal, really. (A star diagonal is pretty much a L-shaped tube with a flat mirror in it, to let you change the viewing angle by 90°.) My old telescope spoiled me, since Newtonians have their eyepieces sticking out from the side of the tube, so they are usually less awkward when looking up. (A bit more awkward near the horizon, though.)
On the other hand, the Moon looked gorgeous both under low and high power. Venus was pretty, but it's small and nearly full right now. I didn't try Mars, since Mars is tiny right now, or Saturn -- I could definitely resolve Saturn, but the rings are nearly invisible from Earth this year, and I wasn't sure if it was dark enough to see Titan yet.
Tomorrow the Moon will be near the Beehive cluster, so I might try again -- take a break from Crafty Chat to look up. And I got the hang of pointing it, though I'd want a more stable mount for real star-hopping. (I'm not allowed to get a bigger telescope until I have somewhere better than my apartment to keep it. At least a porch and a backdoor.)
* Which is pretty much a plywood box on a turntable. Dobs are designed to be the type of thing that are large and unwieldy, but robust and as idiot-proof as you can get when dealing with telescopes.
First off, it was a Galileoscope, which meant it cost $30 and I had to assemble it myself. It's also tiny -- as in, I can carry it and my tripod bag in one arm. This is a change from my telescope in high school, which was a 6" Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount*, which took two people to carry outside (one to take the telescope tube, and one to take its mount). It's a good telescope for travel, though, since I could probably stick it in my checked bag. Maybe even my carry-on. (First I need to get a lens cap. Or possibly just a sock).
The other downside is that anything high in the sky involves me kneeling and craning my neck to see it. I need a star diagonal, really. (A star diagonal is pretty much a L-shaped tube with a flat mirror in it, to let you change the viewing angle by 90°.) My old telescope spoiled me, since Newtonians have their eyepieces sticking out from the side of the tube, so they are usually less awkward when looking up. (A bit more awkward near the horizon, though.)
On the other hand, the Moon looked gorgeous both under low and high power. Venus was pretty, but it's small and nearly full right now. I didn't try Mars, since Mars is tiny right now, or Saturn -- I could definitely resolve Saturn, but the rings are nearly invisible from Earth this year, and I wasn't sure if it was dark enough to see Titan yet.
Tomorrow the Moon will be near the Beehive cluster, so I might try again -- take a break from Crafty Chat to look up. And I got the hang of pointing it, though I'd want a more stable mount for real star-hopping. (I'm not allowed to get a bigger telescope until I have somewhere better than my apartment to keep it. At least a porch and a backdoor.)
* Which is pretty much a plywood box on a turntable. Dobs are designed to be the type of thing that are large and unwieldy, but robust and as idiot-proof as you can get when dealing with telescopes.
