Stargazing

robgreen

robgreen

no face
...or rather planetgazing. Venus and Jupiter have been huge in the sky and visible to the naked eye round here recently.

Don't often get to see much in the city between light pollution, clouds and buildings so it's been pretty great gazing out every night. I don't have a telescope for the reasons above, but this was the view from my driveway last night:

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Pretty cool huh?
 

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Now you have the bug, look around the web and you'll find some astronomy clubs near you.

Every one has 'star nights' where you can go and look through THEIR expensive gear.
Some clubs, like the one I used to belong to before I moved, have their own observatories filled
with gear you can use.
 
I've been watching this on clear nights and a few nights ago the moon was right in line with them!
As they start to set you'll see mars rising in the east.

On June 5th you'll see the planet Venus cross in front of the sun! A very rare occurrence!!! So mark it on your calendar. ;)

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will make various appearances on the same night-time stage which will climax with a tight clustering of all five planets in the second week of May. Mark that on your calendar as well!!! ;)

And don't forget to move your clock on Sunday the 11th forward 1 hour @ 2AM
 
Funny you should post this. The wife and I were just checking out Jupiter with my telescope out in the front yard about a week ago. It's the first time she'd ever seen it through one and she was jazzed about it. It is pretty cool.
 
Yeah, the bug's been growing for a while but kept in check really by the limitations listed. Might start looking into some options to see a little more - I know you can get some pretty good photos linking your digital slr to a telescope, which would be really cool.

We've got Jodrell Bank observatory near us too, and looking on their site, seems like March is generally a good month for planet spotting

I'll definitely look out for Venus crossing the sun. Ace :D
 
Cheap military surplus night vision goggles are cool to look up into the night sky - you wouldn't believe the amount junk entering our atmosphere not visible without the night vision goggles.
 
This is actually a hobby of mine.
Light pollution doesn't affect the view of bright objects through lenses.
Faint objects (like galaxies) appear washed out due to lack of contrast with the background sky glow (they get lost in the mix :p).
If you can see it with your naked eye, you can magnify it and see it better in a telescope.
Many city dwellers own telescopes exclusively for observing the Moon, stars and Planets.
Observing them does require steady seeing (calm atmosphere) to be viewed well, but light pollution doesn't affect their visibility.
Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon are simply incredible when viewed through a quality small telescope.

SF
 
I need to get my telescope out, but I got so many damn trees around me it's usually pretty fruitless...

Google Sky is an awesome free android app, if you don't have it - get it
 
arcadeko said:
I need to get my telescope out, but I got so many damn trees around me it's usually pretty fruitless...

Google Sky is an awesome free android app, if you don't have it - get it
Click to expand...



I think it's a cool app. Think it funny though that you have to hold your phone up to the sky.
 
Yeah, Ive got that app on my android too. It's great, if a little difficult sometimes to match map and sky. Having a large international airport nearby does prompt a lot of is that a star or easyjet discussions here as well.
 
I was grilling on the back deck tonight and sure enough Mars was up there in the sky. I called the girlfriend outside so that she could see. She asked, "Which one is it?" I answered, "The RED one!!!!!!" lol
 
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