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RhetoricCamel

By RhetoricCamel
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RhetoricCamel

RhetoricCamel

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Hello everyone, my name is Mike, I'm 27, and I'm new to astronomy and telescopes. I'm located in Plattsburgh, NY.

For Christmas my amazing girlfriend got me a telescope (listed in my signature) thinking it would be fun for me to look at the Moon. What she didn't know is how much I have ALWAYS wanted a telescope! Now I'm addicted. Heck I've only used it to look at the moon once or twice now, but I've gazed at M41 and Jupiter with it quite a few time. Along with Sirius.

When I was in elementary school I had joined the "space club" learning about NASA, the stars, and building those rockets that we got to launch in a huge field. Great fun, and great memories. After which I had kind of drifted away from astronomy, but I have always been amazed by the stars in the sky and what is up there. During the summer I've been known to just lay on the ground and stare into the sky at night and just gaze at it's beauty. Unfortunately I never took the time to learn where all the constellations are or names of stars. I would just look and be amazed.

Now I have a telescope and I'm taking in so much information I can feel my brain wrinkling :) I've learned quite a bit about our solar system (which was more of a refresher from my younger years in the space club). Bought a book called "All Of Astronomy" but found that the title of it online is "Astronomica" which I've read a bit of. It's been pretty helpful in identifying what I'm looking at. I've also been using Stallarium for a couple years now but now that I have a scope it's almost always open and I'm constantly searching for what to look up next.

So far I have tackled learning how to polar align my EQ mount, which for some reason it didn't click how to look in the southern direction after polar aligning until someone on another astronomy board basically slapped it into me, after which I felt pretty dumb for not realizing it. But hey, that's what learning's all about right? I just (today) received my motor drive for my mount so I can't wait for the next clear night to give it a go. I have found out that at the moment my favorite eyepieces are my 32mm and my 12.5mm. Unfortunately since I got the scope I've only had about 5 decent nights of viewing, all of which were very cold so I didn't spend great amount of time outside due to shivering and wobbling my scope while looking through my EP.

At the moment I've only found one place near me which has star parties which is about 1.5 hours away from where I live. Wish I could find something closer but I will be joining them at the next available get together to hopefully learn more from other amateur and professional astronomers.

Sorry for the long winded introduction, I was trying to not leave anything out. Thanks for reading if you did.

I'll leave you with my first moon photograph hand held camera through my EP. Couldn't resist the urge to give it a try.

post-24171-133877524154_thumb.jpg

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MorningMajor

MorningMajor

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Hey Mike, welcome

love the image - especially as it's just a point and click - hope you find a decent viewing point closer to home - are there any clubs in your area? Also, check out some of the articles in the primer and Tutorials section - really interesting

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.

As generous as your girlfriend is, she might come to regret buying you the scope because the only thing that is keeping you in is the cloudy skies - should could turn into an astro widow before long!:):D

Glad you could join us, I did read all of your essay as to why you enjoy astronomy and will be testing you on its contents later!:(:D

Clear skies (but not too many)

James

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RhetoricCamel

RhetoricCamel

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Hey Mike, welcome

love the image - especially as it's just a point and click - hope you find a decent viewing point closer to home - are there any clubs in your area? Also, check out some of the articles in the primer and Tutorials section - really interesting

Thank you, there is a park down the road from me, about 3 or 4 minute walk where I could go. There are some street lights around but hopefully it won't be too bad. I watched the Perseid's there last year so I'm guessing it will be a decent place to view.

There is one club about an hour and a half away, well actually it's an observatory which also holds star parties from what I was told by one of the guys that runs or works at the place. He told me he'd keep me informed on any star parties that are put together.

I have been checking out the articles in that section, some good stuff in there.

Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.

As generous as your girlfriend is, she might come to regret buying you the scope because the only thing that is keeping you in is the cloudy skies - should could turn into an astro widow before long!:):D

Glad you could join us, I did read all of your essay as to why you enjoy astronomy and will be testing you on its contents later!:(:D

Clear skies (but not too many)

James

She's happy that I enjoy it as much as I do. A couple times I have called her out to look, she would have been a lot more interested if it wasn't so cold out this time of year. Spring, Summer, and Fall she'll love it... or hate me? hahahha.

Uh-oh I better get studying if I'm going to pass the test.

Clear skies.

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MorningMajor

MorningMajor

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A couple times I have called her out to look, she would have been a lot more interested if it wasn't so cold out this time of year

Know the feeling - I called my wife and kids out first time I found Jupiter - they all coo-ed politely and went back into the warm - I thought "I'm on my own here!"

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RhetoricCamel

RhetoricCamel

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Know the feeling - I called my wife and kids out first time I found Jupiter - they all coo-ed politely and went back into the warm - I thought "I'm on my own here!"

haha I know the feeling all too well. I wasn't thinking about her night vision not being adjusted properly when I called her out from her computer to look at the Orion Nebula. She saw it faintly but not nearly as beautifully as I saw it.

I'm sure in the summer time she'll be pushing me out of the way so she can take a look.

Thanks again for all the warm welcomes. It's always nice finding a message board filled with nice people.

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