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samalex

By samalex
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samalex

samalex

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HI everyone.  This is my first post to the forum, and from what I've read thus far it looks like a wonderful place to explore astronomy.  For the most part I'm new to the hobby, but I've loved everything about astronomy since I was a kid.  Growing up I surrounded myself with science and astronomy books, I was about 5 years old when Carl Sagan's Cosmos originally aired, and I remember being drawn to it then watching it in reruns whenever I could.  I had a couple of small refracting telescopes as a kid, you know those cheap ones you'd get at Service Merchandise, but other than seeing the moon and when lucky the occasional planet they were more useful watching terrestrial objects instead.  I even stayed up all night to watch Neptune All Night on PBS when Voyager 2 passed Neptune in 1989 ... still have some of it on VHS somewhere.  

At any rate my love of all things astronomy has been there ever since I can remember.  I even considered going into astrophysics in high school.  But alas when college came I went into computers, which has also been a hobby/passion since I was a kid, and that soon overshadowed all else.  

Now I'm a dad in my late 30's, two young kids, 40-50 hour/week job, wonderful wife, mortgage, bills, well you know.  I've wanted to get astronomy back into my life for years, but I've just never found how.  THen this last week we took a vacation to Phoenix (we live in Waco, Tx), and driving there at night (wonderful way to travel with kids by the way) I had a few chances to stop and just watch the stars.  Then we passed the McDonald Observatory in west Texas and when Phoenix we did a wonderful planetarium show.  All of this has started to rekindle that spark.  Well that and watching the new Cosmos I guess replanted the seed.

So now a question, if permitted.  Where to begin?  I want to do more than just stargaze.  I want to be part of astronomy, whether that be trying to make new discoveries, maybe astrometry, astrophotography, heck even just learning it enough to teach it to others or write articles.  I guess the first step is to get a good telescope?  I won't ask what kind since that's a very open end question.  Our local astronomical society also maintains an observatory not far from where I live, so I'm planning on taking to them and getting involved  there too.  

Bottom line is I want to make astronomy in some form or fashion part of my life, so hopefully with what time I can find, resources like this site, and our local astronomy group I can make that happen :)

Thanks for thoughts, ideas, antidotes, etc.

Sam

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Sam and welcome to the forum. One of the biggest decisions with regards to the question, "which scope" is deciding on how big the budget is going to be. The next decision is then what do you want to do (...If you're like me you'll say everything!) but its important to remember that the technical demands on a scope for observing are quite different to those for astrophotography and can explains why many astronomers have more than one scope - not that we need much of an excuse! :grin:  In general terms for observational work a 'dobsonian' type of scope represents best value for money per inch of aperture, remembering that more aperture equals more light and therefore more detail at the eyepiece. For astrophotograpy, thoughts on gear must first start not with the scope but with an accurate mount, as it is from here that precise tracking of an object can be achieved which itself allows for longer exposures in order that you will be in a postion to collect enough data to create an image. Perhaps a question or two over on the equipment sections might help you get started but I'm sure you will want to ask more when the replies start coming in.  :smiley:

Clear skies in the meantime and hope you enjoy your stay here.

James

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swag72

swag72

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Hi Sam and welcome to SGL - I guess that teaching the young will start with your kids and with your enthusiasm I'm sure that you can go a long way to get them interested. Take it one step at a time though, Imaging is a fickle beast as many of us on here know!!! :grin:

Look forward to seeing you around :smiley:

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laudropb

laudropb

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Hi Sam and welcome to the lounge. I think the best advice is just to go out there and enjoy yourself. Learn the night sky. Develop your understanding and then decide on equipment.

A pair of binoculars will take you a long way and help you decide  what you hope to achieve

Clear skies

John

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samalex

samalex

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Hi everyone,

Thanks for the warm welcome and great replies!  I agree with not biting off more than I can chew to start with.  For now I'm going through some of the old astronomy books I've collected over the years to get reacquainted with the night sky.  Also I am starting to do some homework on a telescope.  Unfortunately the budget will be my biggest limitation as I can only drop maybe $300-$500 on something now, then maybe in a year or so if I'm still as active as I hope to be maybe move up from there.  One scope I'm eyeing is the Celestron S11700 Sky-Watcher 8-Inch Dobsonian Telescope which is about $450 on Amazon.  It has good reviews, so we'll see if my wife is okay with me dropping the cash on this soon.

Thanks again, and I definitely hope to get active both on the forum and in our local club.  Then hopefully more to come :)

Take care - Sam

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cutepetgroomer

cutepetgroomer

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Welcome, I know where Waco is, given that I'm in El Paso. Hope you enjoy being here on this forum, I have learned lots so far. I took an astronomy course this past spring and that caused me to become reinterested in stargazing. I have in the past few months gotten new scopes and eyepieces. I haven't gotten the scope I really want yet, mainly saving up for it andi want the right eyepieces first, a good site to shop for telescopes is telescopes.com, you can look at scopes in your budget there.

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Jim Steele

Jim Steele

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Hello Sam, welcome to SGL. You ceartanly have come to the right place to start learning about Astronomy and they are plenty more knowledgeable people than I here, that will help you on your journy to the 'dark side'

All the best,

Ben

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samalex

samalex

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Welcome to SGL, Sam!

Rangers or Astros?

Dana

Dana,

Actually I'm not much of a baseball fan, hockey is more my sport so Stars all the way :)  But if I had to pick one I'd say Rangers just because I've actually seen them play... I've never been to an Astros game.  

Sam

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