Atheist Ireland Forum

Mars is shining brilliantly tonight in the south sky, peering at it through the telescope does not do it justice, looking at it through the naked eye is far better, it is even very very slightly illuminating the night sky.

Venus on the other hand is better looked at with the telescope and even though my own one just shows a pale disc, it is simply beautiful.

Don't know why I wrote this, but isn't science amazing....

The night skies are beautiful.

Sadly light pollution has spoiled a great deal of our ability to star-gaze. I've had the good fortune to see the Milky Way in the southern hemisphere where there was little to no light pollution or water vapour to obscure the view. And what you see is absolutely breath-taking. The night sky is white with stars, its awe-inspiring and majestic.

Of course, my mother tried to convince me that this was "obviously" because of God.

I can't see mars. No light polution here but clouds

And yes science is amazing that is why I am studing it. I love microbiology myself, purely amazing and I'm just starting the subject.

I'd love to say that this pic is of Mars, but it's not. I took a picture of the Moon tonight and even though the quality of it may not be the best due to the camera I was using, it nevertheless highlights the brilliance of the Suns rays on our closest neighbour.

Munsterdevil
What kind of scope do you have?
I have a Dob 12'' it's 6' long and too hard to manually track a distant object, always wanted a 14'' nextstar, one day.
I must wipe the dust off the primary and get it out for November.

Ah I'm not really sure, I just looked at it there and it says nothing on the side of it , it's an old one a TASCO make (made in China), it's grand for looking at the moon, Mars, Venus but that's about it, also the stand is way too wobbly. A number of lens came with it, but me being the ultimate amateur astronomer never know which is the right one to use. However, I was talking to a regular star gazer one day and he laughed at me when I told him what I bought, he (and numerous others after that) told me that the majority of times you are better off with a powerful pair of binoculars! I'm sure there are a few here in Atheist ireland that will also support this method, also, I've tried it and I think they are right. I'm a useless star gazer, mainly because I don't do it enough, my expertise on telescopes probably gave that away already!

My favourite spot to look at is the reflection nebula NGC1977. It's in Orion and very clearly visible without a nebula filter.

This is how it looks on film, when observed directly however, it appears as a bright green colour.

I am not too hot on telescopes myself, but I was advised to use a pair of binoculars, and I got the chance to see the Galilean moons of Jupiter, well actually only Ganymede, Europa and Callisto (Io was obscured by the brightness of Jupiter); hey, but three outta four ain't bad!

I think it's amazing that I can peer at the same objects that Galileo looked at, it's kinda corny, but I do feel a kind of connection. I imagine what it would of been like to observe the orbiting moons of Jupiter six-hundred and twenty-eight million kilometres away. The first member of the human species to glimpse a view of the dance of matter. Hunks of rock orbiting the immense Jupiter for innumerable millennia; almost destined to be discovered by a curious mind. Waiting to be discovered, explored and experienced. Nature is beautiful, and science gives us the chance to observe a glimpse of this beauty and intricacy. How depressing it would be if we stagnated in our churches worshiping an alter when the universe is filled with breathtaking, uncomprehendable awesomeness.

People criticise investment in space as a waste of money, although we've gained more money than we've spent, I would not be bothered at all if we didn't earn back a penny because what we've gained is perspective; we are simultaneously insignificant and irrelevant and extremely unique and valuable. The universe doesn't end at the edge of our atmosphere, it only begins.

My first scope was one of these. A 12.5" Meade Starfinder Dob.



I had it on layby for about a year as I paid it off with the AUD$8.65/hr I was earning pumping petrol into cars. Everyone I knew thought I was crazy but it was the best thing I ever bought.

I just missed the shoemaker-Leavy collision with Jupiter, but had it in time to see the comet Hale-Bopp.

If I'd known what I know now I would have bought a smaller one with an equatorial mount and electronic tracking. You can see way more with film than you can with the naked eye, so it would be my preference to have a good tracking system over a large aperture.

Also, when I packed this thing into the car, there was no room for anyone except me. I used to fold down the front seat as far as I could and lay the scope from the front to back. Then the dobsononian stand wouldn't fit in the boot, so that went on the back seat on the drivers side.

A smaller scope and an equatorial stand would have been far more compact.

Big binoculars are excellent but heavy on the arms, the car roof is usefull for support.

Best is a tracking scope, those goto-scopes that Lidl have for christmas are Tasco, which Meade have taken over, so the scopes have greatly improved.

Mars in all its glory, well kind of

Just bought a starter telescope for the little fella (and me!) from Santa. I'll be back to ask basic questions, like where do I look? Where's the best place to go in Dublin to star gaze etc? I'm very much looking forward to it. Now the hard part is to get the telescope home and set up before christmas so that I can have a goo, without the little fella seeing it and spoiling the illusion. Or maybe I should just wait until the 25th!