Greetings from the Northern Great Plains!

[Astric Celestiustolls]

Hello all, my name is Joseph Cooper and my wife Katherine and I are new to the amateur astronomy hobby. Admittedly, we are "pandemic astronomers". We, along with our two cats, Chancellor and Duke, are currently living in Jamestown, North Dakota as I am a federal government soil scientist with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. My wife is a distance student with the University of North Dakota underway on her MA in Counseling after recently earning a BA in Psychology and a BS in Family and Human Development, simultaneously. I apologize for my username, but I hope that any fellow soil scientists appreciate the blend of astronomy and soil taxonomy! We are originally from the Seattle-Tacoma region, specifically Kitsap County across the Puget Sound. With the light from the city and the rainy weather, it was not until I enlisted into the US Army as a field artilleryman that I saw unadulterated views of the night sky in Colorado, and, of course, later in Iraq and Afghanistan when the desert haze was absent. After my military service, I used my veteran's educational benefits to earn a BS in Environmental Science and an MS in Agricultural and Life Sciences. I also have a Graduate Certificate in Horticultural Science. Besides Colorado Springs, Colorado, we have also lived in: Madison, Wisconsin; Fresno, California; Toledo, Ohio; and Aberdeen, South Dakota. It was the visit from Comet Neowise in 2020 while in South Dakota that we realized that we were wasting these pristine skies of the Northern Great Plains. The clear skies at night here are just fine for the naked eye, but our curiosity has gotten the best of us. Now that we are just up the road in North Dakota, we have prepared for skygazing in 2022. 2021 was a little too busy for us with yet another move, but we will be ready this time! In this post is a picture of a spot that we are prospecting for when the weather gets warmer, Beaver Lake State Park, in Logan County, North Dakota, up on the Coteau. You can see that it is a 1 on the Bortle scale. Our nearby go-to spot by the Jamestown Reservoir is on the border of a 7 and an 8. It was here that we saw the Aurora Borealis for our first time when it suddenly came alive in early October, 2021. We only had our eyes then, but it was enough. Many North Dakotans told us that they had not seen them come out like that for many, many years, so we are very fortunate and grateful. Indeed, the cold weather atmospheric optical phenomena here alone are enough to keep us entertained until it gets warmer. We have seen parhelia, or "sun dogs" as well as light pillars.

As we are beginners, our telescope equipment comprises only a Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain and a Zhumell Z114 Newtonian (Dobsonian). We have tested these out and although the apertures are smaller than preferred, I believe that we can get away with it due to the non-light polluted skies. We can just make out the Cassini Division with the C90! We even have a pair of Zhumell astronomy binoculars, and it is truly astonishing what we can see just with those alone. I understand that there is some resistance to eyepiece and filter kits and that it is highly recommended to only buy what you need, but after some research, I purchased kits from both Apertura and Celestron, with Plössl eyepieces and planetary filters. We also have an Orion 7–21mm zoom eyepiece. We also have a Zhumell O-III filter to hopefully bring out the nebulae a little bit more. Amusingly enough, I made the mistake of purchasing an Explore One Aurora II telescope (114mm Newtonian) from an online retailer without learning about the difference between parabolic and spheroid primary mirrors first. Regardless, the telescope arrived damaged. Before I was able to drop off the telescope at the local parcel service for a return, it’s replacement arrived, but it was also in rough shape. However, I cancelled the return because I learned that the Zhumell Z114, while its focuser feels somewhat cheap, has a reputable parabolic primary mirror that is easy to collimate. I was able to receive a refund from the retailer for the former telescope(s) and simply kept the alt-azimuth mount and tripod units which are not that bad. Thus, our Zhumell Z114 telescope can come off of its Dobsonian mount and be put on a decent alt-azimuth mount and tripod with the Explore One Aurora II's mounting rings. I could not be happier as a beginner, as my wife and I can have both telescopes mounted and enjoy either the same or separate views. I have included a picture of our stargazing gear, minus the accessories. At this time, we have a Bresser dedicated astronomy camera en route and I hope to use the C90 for lunar and planetary pictures and the Z114 for deep sky pictures, at least the Orion Nebula and other brighter deep sky objects.

We hope to make friends with folks on this platform far and wide, but hopefully with any fellow North Dakotans. People in these rural areas, contrary to popular belief, are as busy or busier than people in the urban areas, and I would certainly know as I was a grain inspector for the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service before finally getting into the Natural Resources Conservation Service. I have been introduced to walleye fishing since we moved out here. I went salmon and trout fishing with my father several times when I was younger at home in the Pacific Northwest, but fishing in the "Prairie Pothole Region" is just as rewarding. There is still plenty to do out here, including finding small vineyards and wineries, as I am a viticulture enthusiast. My wife became the best "pandemic baker", and I must say it is not bad being her test subject, as you may have noticed from our pictures! We are happy though and that is what counts. I succumbed to watching the Great British Bake Off with her and I found it rather wholesome, as we Americans tend to ruin shows with too much competition and manufactured drama. We also have fun going on rural drives and capturing pictures of the "ghosts" of the prairies, as there are many homesteads, farmsteads, and old grain elevators still standing. Despite Western Washington being an objectively desirable area, we really miss the so-called Rust Belt, and we use that term affectionately. Toledo, Ohio was a very interesting city, and it had many amenities and proximity to the Mid-Atlantic Region and the rest of the Great Lakes Region. It was truly affordable for a couple who are in their early thirties in this day in age. Ohio has a special place in our hearts, and we hope to eventually return there in the future. Of course, we will need to have much bigger apertures on our telescopes! As you can see, we are obviously not from the Midwest, otherwise this would have been a much shorter and humbler introduction, but I wanted to ensure that we made ourselves known since we are in the "middle of nowhere". Thank you!

Edited February 1, 2022 by Astric Celestiustolls

[barbulo]

A warm welcome to SGL. 
I hope you enjoy those enviable dark skies.

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome aboard SGL Joseph and Katherine, good to have you with us.

What a beautiful place to live and excellent skies to start your journey into astronomy. In such pristine skies it can be as difficult to find your way around as it can in poor skies, due to the overwhelming number of visible stars, but I'd be quite happy to have that "problem" myself 🙂

I'm sure you'll find out that SGL is one of the most friendly and helpful astronomy sites there is, and that there's no such thing as a silly question on here. So feel free to join in on the site and get stuck into this amazing hobby. Hopefully you'll find it as fascinating as most of us do.

Mark - N.E. England.

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to SGL, your dark skies will add so much more pleasure to your star gazing.

Edited February 2, 2022 by banjaxed

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL

[rwilkey]

Hi Joseph, Katherine, Chancellor and Duke, a warm welcome to SGL, what a great introduction you have written!  Good luck & clear skies!

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi there and welcome. 

[Greymouser]

Hi there and welcome. Good to see you are satisfied with the equipment you have, but I cannot help wondering how long it will be before aperture fever descends... ( Even with such pristine skies nearby. )

[maw lod qan]

Welcome. You have definitely joined an amazing group.

I'm your distant neighbor in Florida.

I watch the weather every day and know you're seeing it cold now.

Stay warm and enjoy those wonderful skies.

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi Joesph & Katherine, (plus the cats), and welcome to SGL. 

[bosun21]

Hi there 👋, welcome to SGL 

[Pitch Black Skies]

Cool post 😊

Welcome to SGL 👋

[Jimbo64]

Hi and welcome - great photos!

[Astric Celestiustolls]

Thank you all for the warm welcome! Greymouser, you totally called it! Through a little more research and by me not wanting to waste the opportunity of these skies, I now have an Apertura AD8 (203mm) Newtonian coming by the end of the week, hopefully! I will have to post a picture when it is all set up. I have aperture fever and a literal one as I unfortunately contracted COVID-19 last week out here in “North Dakovid”. 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Astric Celestiustolls

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire  🙂

[Astric Celestiustolls]

Hello all, I have not been on here in quite some time. The busy field season as a government soil scientist had begun after we visited our families at home in the Pacific Northwest in early spring. However, I have been able to get out and enjoy the night sky here and there. I quickly outgrew one of our smaller telescopes (Zhumell Z114) and sold it to another beginning amateur astronomer. One night my wife and I went south of town and the Milky Way core revealed itself more than it does in our usual stargazing spot, which is north of town. Anyway, we realized that we needed to capture better images and we invested in a tracking mount and a camera. My father, back in Washington State, let me borrow his camera so we can get double the data collection before it gets too cold out here again for months. I hope to improve my focusing and composing!

We saw the Northern Lights the other night (September 3, 2022) when they were out for many people around the world. We even saw STEVE! We definitely had to research just what it was that we were observing. I hope everyone has had some time this warm summer to get out and enjoy the stars!

[Astro Noodles]

I use an iOptron Skyguider Pro.

I think it is an excellent mount.

It is very important to make sure it is perfectly balanced.

What lenses are you using?

I find that I can easily get 60 sec exposures with a 61mm F5.9 scope and 90 sec with a 200mm camera lens.

[Astric Celestiustolls]

Noodles, 

I agree, I am happy with the mount so far. Unfortunately, I am using only camera lenses at the moment, although I got a Canon 55–250mm f/4–5.6 IS STM to accompany the Canon 18–55mm f/4–5.6 kit lens. I am actually pleased with it so far for a beginner. I ordered a 58mm-threaded Bahtinov mask for it to see if I cannot squeeze more focus out of it. The camera's metering as well as sensitivity of the focusing ring on the lens leaves a lot to be desired and can be a little frustrating. I am using the Canon EOS 1500D (Rebel T7 in the United States). The DSLR that my father let me borrow is a Canon Rebel T3i (also the 600D) and although I like the new T7, his is the workhorse at the moment due to the versality. It may be older, but it still has all the features and, with using the tracking mount, the articulated/flippable screen comes in handy!

I am currently eyeing Oceanside Photo & Telescope's TPO (Third Planet Optics) UltraWide 180 f/4.5 Astropohotography Lens & Guide Scope. I assume I will eventually graduate to a larger aperture scope, but being out here in North Dakota, I think that this thing would work wonders.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Astric Celestiustolls

[Astro Noodles]

I have been using a Canon 600D with the IR filter removed. I have found it to be very enjoyable to use, and the flip out screen is really useful. 

Having used camera lenses vs astrographs I would say that from my experience an astrograph would generally be better than a zoom lens or even a fixed focus length camera lens because astrographs are designed to focus at infinity.

I am not familiar with the TPO lens you are thinking of getting but a 180 f4.5 would work very well with the iOptron mount.

Oh - by the way, I like your collection of pipes. 😁

Edited September 10, 2022 by Astro Noodles

[Astro Noodles]

Just having a look at your light pollution map from the initial post tells me two things.

1. Your night skies must be amazing.

2. Just how big America is. 🙂

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL

[Guest]

Hello from Ohio 

[Guest]

On 10/09/2022 at 16:14, Astro Noodles said:

Just having a look at your light pollution map from the initial post tells me two things.

1. Your night skies must be amazing.

2. Just how big America is. 🙂

Just a size comparison of ND for you.  Not even one of the bigger States lol.  She has a bit of everything from farmland to the badlands.  Gave thought about moving there then I remembered that it gets cold there in the winter, not the wimpy Ohio cold but so stupid cold even the Scandinavians dont go out.  Beautiful State though.