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Hello from the New Forest

kiloran

By kiloran
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kiloran

kiloran

Posted
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Hello - just wanted to say thanks for all the advice I've been able to read here whilst starting my son's astronomy journey. I've learnt an awful lot very quickly and pleased to report I have a complete astronomy nut of a 7yo on my hands now. Slightly frustrating to find that 7yo eyes are better than mine at finding and locating all sorts of interesting objects!

I guess I'm busy living the dream through my son - a telescope was something I always wanted growing up and then when I finally had the paper round to afford one the whole computer boom happened (early 80s) and that consumed my hobby budget and then became my career.

We're blessed here with relatively dark and easily accessible skies - either by heading to the coast, trekking a mile or so into the centre of the New Forest, or heading up to Cranborne Chase. At the moment we just have a simple 70/700 refractor and are doing all the usual newbie stuff. Highlight so far undoubtedly seeing the ISS transit just above Jupiter one morning - and the "woah" factor of seeing the Galilean moons for the first time. Next steps will be a bit of imaging (I come from a hobby photography background so I'm really interested in using those skills to image the sky) and more visual exploration of the sky. 

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Floater

Floater

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Welcome to SGL.

Sounds like you're all set up for having fun. Don't let the lack of young eyes bother you - just enjoy vicariously (which you seem to be doing). ?

Hope you and your lad have great times together. 

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kiloran

kiloran

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Blimey, you're a friendly lot :) - normally Hello posts to forums get ignored. A refreshing change!

Really loving the father-son time. I'm of the age when the Voyager missions were king and Hubble was just going up and so going through the history of those has been really cool. The anthropomorphising they do with probes (e.g. Philae and Curiosity) has got him completely hooked and he just seems to get the concepts really quickly. Not sure a 7yo should even be able to comprehend how a gravity assist planetary flyby helps you get out to Jupiter and beyond but he does. He's just worried that the probes will get so good they won't need astronauts by the time he leaves school.

Our first observing session we went after planets (benefitting from the close alignment of Mars, Venus, and Neptune at the start of the year) and he was the first to (a) spot Mars, and (b) get it lined up in the scope. Normally such a short attention span like most 7yos but he's happy to be out in the garden for hours playing around with the scope. Just a cheap Bresser Lidl special so I feel safe giving him free rein to explore on his own and learn from mistakes.

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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Hi there, kiloran, very nice of you to join us!

As you may already have caught on, we love and encourge questions about this magnificent past-time & life-style we all share, so please don't hesitate asking - we truly love helping to find their anwers. :cool:

Starry skies to you & yours,

Dave

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Stu1976j

Stu1976j

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Hi and welcome to SGL you have chosen wisely :) it's a great place to hang out when the viewing is not so good. And there's always someone willing to share some of there knowledge with you. There are a great bunch of people here and we enjoy helping each other.

 

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Charic

Charic

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Welcome to the SGL.
I have a photographic interest, started way back in late 70's with my first Zenith TTL, then moved to Olympus for a few Years, learnt the art of developing, had by own darkroom and all the kit ( all gone now, just a PC ?) and now have  a Nikon system.
Its  more of a background hobby now, just  when I need it, especially when we all carry fairly decent cameras on our phones these days! but astrophotography is quite different to the norm, due to the lower light levels, longer exposures and ammount of exposures that are required to get that final print.
I  look at the skies visually with my setup, taking snap shots as/when, just for fun, but it was recommended I purchase this guide book.  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html
There is a big outlay when it comes to astrophotography, so consider the scope last, and the capabilities of the support system first. Without a rock steady, and accurate guiding system, everything else will fail, and surprisingly, you only need a smallish scope (aperture) in order to get some stunning images. There are other guide books available, maybe try a local library or a local club, but keep asking here.

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