Deep Space

[#juan]

Quoting Socrates the Greek I am buying a strong telescope.

Congratulations. Have you bought it yet or are you still looking? Btw, I haven't been purposely ignoring this topic. It is just that a few personal problems have been keeping me running around lately.
If you haven't yet bought it, Where are you located and what sort of budget are you looking at?

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Quoting Socrates the Greek I am buying a strong telescope.

Congratulations. Have you bought it yet or are you still looking? Btw, I haven't been purposely ignoring this topic. It is just that a few personal problems have been keeping me running around lately.
If you haven't yet bought it, Where are you located and what sort of budget are you looking at?

Good day juan I am still looking I want to end up with a scope that will take me out to meat the heavens. I am in BC, do you have a scope? The subject is soooo full of enigmas.

 

[#juan]

My son and I got into astronomy over thirty years ago when we bought him a small telescope for Christmas. That telescope was a 50 mm f14 refractor . It didn't have a motor drive...hell it didn't even have an equatorial mount. We played with that telescope for about a year. Surprisingly, with that little two inch scope, we could see the four big moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and we could see some surface detail on Mars. The Vancouver Telescope Center is not around anymore but that is where we bought our next telescope. It was an 8 inch classical cassigrain reflector. It was on a fork mount with a very basic right ascension motor drive and it cost $800.00. This meant we could track planets and stars for basic astrophotography. It weighed a hundred and fifty pounds but it was ours. We were happy with that telescope for a few years. The main complaint was that it took the two of us to move it around.
When I moved to the island I bought a Meade 5 inch cassigrain reflector on a Great Polarus equatorial mount.(about $1200,00 It has motor drive on both axis and I can lift it and carry it around by myself. My son has recently graduated to an 8 inch R /C
Smit Cass reflector on a fork mount with a goto computer drive. It will find any object within the limitations of the scope. (about $4000.00

 

[#juan]

"Out to meet the heavens"

Socrates the Greek

You've posted quite a few photos of deep sky images. One of the big disappointments when I was getting into astronomy was that the nebulas never looked as special through the telescope as they did in astronomy photos. The problem is the time exposures used to make those photos have a lot more colour in them than you see through the telescope. Andromeda through a modest telescope is not this big, beautiful, spiral image shown by a poster on this topic but more of a blurry smudge. If you want to take such pictures you will have to spend at least as much for the mount, drive, and camera as you did on the telescope. My son's digital astrophotography camera was about $1600.00.

 

[petros]

Juan. Today's images are computer composites of regular photography with EM, infrared and X-Ray images combined to give such impeccable detail.

 

[#juan]

Juan. Today's images are computer composites of regular photography with EM, infrared and X-Ray images combined to give such impeccable detail.

I know you can get computer generated images of just about every object in the galactic catalogue but that is not astronomy to my way of thinking. If I depend on computer images, I don't need a telescope....or a camera...The joy of amateur astronomy is finding, identifying, and photographing objects in space, in real time, by yourself. Who knows, maybe I'll find a comet...

 

[petros]

I enjoy the hell out of it too. It is one of my favourite thing about winter is the exceptionally clear skies.

I'm itching to head to Cypress Hills Prov Park again on SK/AB border. It's is one of very few light pollution free zones in Canada and is over 3/4 mile up (4800ft). All electric lighting in the park goes off at 10PM sharp specifically for astronomical enthusiasts.

On a new moon you can see galaxies with binoculars.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

"Out to meet the heavens"

Socrates the Greek

You've posted quite a few photos of deep sky images. One of the big disappointments when I was getting into astronomy was that the nebulas never looked as special through the telescope as they did in astronomy photos. The problem is the time exposures used to make those photos have a lot more colour in them than you see through the telescope. Andromeda through a modest telescope is not this big, beautiful, spiral image shown by a poster on this topic but more of a blurry smudge. If you want to take such pictures you will have to spend at least as much for the mount, drive, and camera as you did on the telescope. My son's digital astrophotography camera was about $1600.00.

Good day Juan, yes I agree and I have been informed that the quality of a telescope will determine what one is able to see with pleasure with out straining the eyes.

As for the colors it is disappointing as you say that Andromeda is completely deferent from a well enhanced photo.

The beauty is, that we are better able today with equipment to only see a glimpse of this magnificent cosmos. What is really astonishing also is the fact that astronomy was a big subject back between AD & BC with no telescope ability they are on record for precise mapping of many parts of the universe.

The Hubble Heritage color image of NGC 3314 was constructed from archival images taken with WFPC2 in April 1999 by Drs. William Keel and Ray White III (University of Alabama) in blue and infrared light, combined with new images obtained by the Heritage team in March 2000 using blue, green and red filters.
Object Name: NGC 3314




http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/hstexhibit/telescope/stat.shtml

 

[Socrates the Greek]

I enjoy the hell out of it too. It is one of my favourite thing about winter is the exceptionally clear skies.

I'm itching to head to Cypress Hills Prov Park again on SK/AB border. It's is one of very few light pollution free zones in Canada and is over 3/4 mile up (4800ft). All electric lighting in the park goes off at 10PM sharp specifically for astronomical enthusiasts.

On a new moon you can see galaxies with binoculars.

Good day Petros, Oh that would be the best place to beg the universe for a little visual feast. I am like a little kid when it comes to getting lost in this huge enigma called the endless universe.

 

[#juan]

Good day Juan, yes I agree and I have been informed that the quality of a telescope will determine what one is able to see with pleasure with out straining the eyes.

As for the colors it is disappointing as you say that Andromeda is completely deferent from a well enhanced photo.

The beauty is, that we are better able today with equipment to only see a glimpse of this magnificent cosmos. What is really astonishing also is the fact that astronomy was a big subject back between AD & BC with no telescope ability they are on record for precise mapping of many parts of the universe.

The Hubble Heritage color image of NGC 3314 was constructed from archival images taken with WFPC2 in April 1999 by Drs. William Keel and Ray White III (University of Alabama) in blue and infrared light, combined with new images obtained by the Heritage team in March 2000 using blue, green and red filters.
Object Name: NGC 3314




http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/hstexhibit/telescope/stat.shtml

Don't get me wrong. Some of the best astronomical photos are taken by amateur astronomers using relatively modest equipment. You can duplicate those brilliant pictures of Andromeda using a fairly small telescope. There are many ways of enhancing a photo. Time exposures and image stacking, are just two methods. I can turn out a pretty good picture but my son can enhance a photo to almost National Geographic standards.

 

[#juan]

We'll see how this turns out. It is Orion and the neighboring "Running man nebula. We used about 14 images and stacked them. Kind of interesting.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

We'll see how this turns out. It is Orion and the neighboring "Running man nebula. We used about 14 images and stacked them. Kind of interesting.

Hi Juan, that is so great thanks for sharing; it won’t be long before I will be looking out there the same way as you.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. Plato, The Republic
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC) Thank you LW

 

[#juan]

Have you decided what kind of telescope you want? Are you more interested in deep space or the planets? If it is deep space you want all the light gathering capability you can afford. I would suggest a Richie Chretien Schmidt cassigrain as big as your budget allows. For planetary work a smaller, say 4 inch, apochromatic refractor works best.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Have you decided what kind of telescope you want? Are you more interested in deep space or the planets? If it is deep space you want all the light gathering capability you can afford. I would suggest a Richie Chretien Schmidt cassigrain as big as your budget allows. For planetary work a smaller, say 4 inch, apochromatic refractor works best.

Thanks Juan, I Googled Richie Chretien Shmedt and this interesting bit of info came up, thanks to your suggestion,


Ritchie-Chretien
The Ritchie-Chretien is very popular among professional astronomers because of its optical properties. The Ritche-Creitien telescope consists of a hyperbolic primary and secondary. Both of these optical surfaces are difficult to fabricate which accounts for not being popular in the amateur community. Even though the Ritche-Creitien optics are harder to make the Ritche-Creitien has advantages over both the Classical Cassegrain and Dall-Kirkham. The Ritche-Creitien does not suffer from coma, thus it can be made in shorter focal ratios and is well suited to photography, (Rutten and VanVenrooij, 1988). However, the star images at the edges of the field are enlarged. The Ritchie-Chretien cannot be converted to another focus like the Classical Cassegrain.


I think for about a couple of thousand I should be able to play amateur humble astronomer.

I figure a journey should have nice scenery, interesting how this Astor journey presently, we are only able to travel the furthest in thought only, and some visual, through the telescope like the Hubble Space Telescope.

It would be interesting to se a web site where we can log on and view Hubble quality pictures in virtual real time, of course virtual maybe not, being that time in space is vast.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

A must see, kick back and put the video on full screen and enjoy we belong here.
YouTube - Welcome to the Hubble Universe: Nebula & Galaxies: A Cosmic Journey

 

[#juan]

My suggestion would be one of the Meade ETX models. Perhaps the 5" ETX.
This telescope comes with a goto computer drive. You align it with two known stars and it will find everything else. The cost is around $1100.00. After you've had it a while you can buy a dedicated camera and you can take pictures like Jason Ware.

Meade Instruments Corporation - ETX Premier Edition

 

[Socrates the Greek]

My suggestion would be one of the Meade ETX models. Perhaps the 5" ETX.
This telescope comes with a goto computer drive. You align it with two known stars and it will find everything else. The cost is around $1100.00. After you've had it a while you can buy a dedicated camera and you can take pictures like Jason Ware.

Meade Instruments Corporation - ETX Premier Edition

Good day Juan, many thanks you and Dexter have great suggestions, you both got me going on this subject. This is a great way to slip into retirement.

 

[#juan]

Btw, this is Jason Ware:

Galaxy Photography, Images by Jason Ware

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Btw, this is Jason Ware:

Galaxy Photography, Images by Jason Ware

Juan, what is really astonishing here to me is, as you know, our location in the Milky Way is on the forth arm called Orion, and as we look at the Milky Way on a horizontal view, we are located on the right edge, the question I have been looking for an answer to is, why not have a second solar system on the left edge of the Milky Way?
I know that from where we are located to visit the left side of our Galaxy is virtually imposable being the left side is 100 Million light years away. Why this cosmos was made so massive and yet, we are restricted from the method to be able to relocate the human body faster then light speed. Oh my God……………………. Great photos on your link….