What a great hobby this is!

[steppenwolf]

For the first time in months, last night I was outside just to observe and not a camera in sight (reviewing a beginner's telescope) and I can't tell you just how therapeutic and fun it was too. Because it was for a review, I observed a wide range of objects from double stars, clusters, globs, planetary nebulae and galaxies through to Jupiter and Saturn and I was reminded of what it was like when I first started out in astronomy - the pure delight of a clear sky, a swathe of Milky Way ribbon across the heavens, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's bands and the attendant pin-prick moons. What a great hobby this is!

[Knighty2112]

Yeah, I was the same last night. For the 1st hour out from 10 to 11pm I wasn’t having a great time as my 2 star align on my Heq5 eq goto mount wasn’t performing well, with most things not been in the FOV of my EP. After getting cheesed off with it  I did a 3 star align, and managed also to get the new version of Skysafari Pro working with my mount on Wifi to use rather than using the handset. Everything I wanted to view was pretty much bang in the middle of my EP when my mount slewed to it after this. I was like a kid in a candy shop skipping from one thing to another viewing globulars, open clusters, planetary nebulas etc. Saturn was very good last night, but Jupiter was even more so in my Omni 120mm ‘frac with my Celestron Duo 5mm EP. Was easy to see GRS and the belts on Jupiter, and the moons looked like moons and not just points of light. Even distant Neptune was easy to pick out. Was a joy to observe and only cut it short at just gone 1:15am after starting to get tired. Was the best session I have had in 2022 so far & hoping for clear skies again soon to try to repeat it again! 😀

Edited August 20, 2022 by Knighty2112

[JeremyS]

20 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

For the first time in months, last night I was outside just to observe and not a camera in sight (reviewing a beginner's telescope) and I can't tell you just how therapeutic and fun it was too. Because it was for a review, I observed a wide range of objects from double stars, clusters, globs, planetary nebulae and galaxies through to Jupiter and Saturn and I was reminded of what it was like when I first started out in astronomy - the pure delight of a clear sky, a swathe of Milky Way ribbon across the heavens, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's bands and the attendant pin-prick moons. What a great hobby this is!

 Great summary of why we love this hobby 👍🏻

[RobertI]

38 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

For the first time in months, last night I was outside just to observe and not a camera in sight (reviewing a beginner's telescope) and I can't tell you just how therapeutic and fun it was too. Because it was for a review, I observed a wide range of objects from double stars, clusters, globs, planetary nebulae and galaxies through to Jupiter and Saturn and I was reminded of what it was like when I first started out in astronomy - the pure delight of a clear sky, a swathe of Milky Way ribbon across the heavens, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's bands and the attendant pin-prick moons. What a great hobby this is!

Totally agree, I love simple, tech free observing. Sometimes I re-live the excitement that I felt when I first viewed objects like the Ring nebula, Orion nebula, Hercules cluster and Jupiter and Saturn, over forty years ago. It’s also good for your mental health!