Great time for planetary observations right now. Venus is still shining down on us, still looking brilliant for an hour or so after dusk, Jupiter hangs overhead for most of the night, Mars and Saturn pop over the southern horizon in the early hours of the morning, and if you're lucky can just see Mercury as teh sky brightens before sunrise.
It's been too cold for me to sit out with my telescope, but I went for a 4am stroll in the hills last night and Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and the crescent Moon were all on show. It was magical.
Make sure you wear 2 pairs of pants if you go out tonight! -6 in central England, similar else wear.
Good for the mirrors in the telescopes though, or so I have been told.
Originally posted by 'Press Start To Begin'View Post
Make sure you wear 2 pairs of pants if you go out tonight! -6 in central England, similar else wear.
Good for the mirrors in the telescopes though, or so I have been told.
Yeah, the colder the air temperature the weaker the thermal currents inside the telescope tube and so the better the image. And it was f*cking cold last night, that's why I went for a stargazing walk, rather than sitting out with the scope. Slight typo in my original post though, I went for a 1am walk, not 4am. I was fast asleep with my hot water bottle by then.
Jesus, Nijo, that's a scary forecast. Are you in Scandinavia?
Munich. There's at least one Scando on here though - you can tell him from the "suicide" in his username.
Astronomy: too much light around here to see much, but out in the forest it's apparently pretty good (my mate just got a telescope). Is it possible to see Andromeda at this time of year?
It's not the legs you have to worry about but the toes. Spoilt an awesome night stargazing once as I couldn't concentrate or enjoy it because my toes were frozen. One pair of thermal shoes later and I'm all good.
I find it weird how we only see one side of the Moon. Normally Moon's orbit their planets and the surface of the planet will see all of the moon at some point.
I read with our Moon we only ever see 1 side. It is like someone trying to circle you and you turn to always face them at the same speed, so they never see your back.
Originally posted by 'Press Start To Begin'View Post
I find it weird how we only see one side of the Moon. Normally Moon's orbit their planets and the surface of the planet will see all of the moon at some point.
I read with our Moon we only ever see 1 side. It is like someone trying to circle you and you turn to always face them at the same speed, so they never see your back.
Amazing picture!
Thanks!
The Moon rotation thingy is weird, with it taking roughly 28 days to spin once on its axis and also roughly 28 days to orbit the Earth, so we always end up seeing the same side. Something to do with the pull of the Earth slowing down the rotation of the Moon over millions of years so so we've ended up in sync with it... something along those lines, I'm sure Brian Cox talked about it once but I can't remember the exact detail.
HumanEnergy you got the plain 5 inch or the Nexstar 5 inch?
I've got the Celestron NexStar 127 SLT Goto Telescope, so.... it's whatever 5 inch comes with that There's another 5 inch NexStar (the 5 SE) which is nearly twice the price of the one I got, so I assume the tube that comes with that one is a better one than mine.
I did buy it second hand to save money though and the Goto mount is now very erratic and on its last legs. Probably going to replace it with a Celestron CG5, if I can convince myself its worth the money! The optical tube is great though, good enough for me for a while yet.
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