Welcome to (yet another) astronomy blog, yup! It’s another
blog that waffles on about how great astronomy is. Except, this one is
different. Or, at least, I hope it is. There will be regular updates on what
can be seen in the night sky and highlights for the month. There is also a
gallery of amateur images, some of which have been captured by me, and there’s
a section for those starting out in the hobby. From buying your first telescope
to taking part in your first Messier marathon.
Astronomy is a great hobby, whether you’re out on your own
or with a group of like minded mates, there’s always that “first”. The first
view of a particular object or observing a feature such as the Great Red Spot
on Jupiter for the first time. Personally, I get great enjoyment from sharing
my love of the science. Whether I’m chatting with friends or showing an
inquisitive passer-by, there’s something to be said for that moment when you
show someone Saturn for the first time, it’s one of the “Wow!” moments.
So, what got me started? I was a very young boy when I was
given a small spotting telescope by a family friend, if I’m honest I wasn’t
really sure what to do with it, the thing sat in my bedroom for a while until
one night I looked out of my bedroom window, the full moon was sitting in the
sky, suddenly it clicked. I took the scope out of it’s case, stood it on the
window sill and pointed it roughly in the direction of the moon. The sight was
glorious, even in that little 1.5-inch aperture 120mm focal length the moon was
astounding, and I was hooked.
Sadly, life got in the way and although I regularly studied
the night sky, learning the constellations and about the planets I didn’t do
much about learning more until my mid-twenties when I bought a second-hand pair
of 10x50 Helios binoculars. I knew there was more to the sky than just the
stars, constellations and Solar System planets. Those binoculars gave me an
insight of what was out there when I used them for the first time to view M31.
I Spent a good hour viewing the Andromeda Galaxy with them for the first time.
Fast forward another 5 years when I bought my first
astronomical telescope. A 3-inch aperture 900mm focal length alt-az Tasco
Luminova Newtonian. My first object with that was Saturn. That little scope pulled
the planet closer to me and I could clearly see the ring system and colour
bands in the planets upper atmosphere. I still have that telescope, compared to
my other ‘scopes it’s really not very good, but it has a special meaning for me,
it was, after all, my entry into the hobby.
I have 3 main telescopes now, two Skywatchers and a Meade.
My first Skywatcher is a 5-inch 1500mm Maksutov Cassegrain, the second is a 6-inch
750mm PDS Newtonian. The Meade is a, very, portable 80mm aperture 400mm focal
length refractor. There’s a lot to be said for manufacturer choice, similar to
the debate over apple or Android smart devices, obviously Android is the
better, and for me, I like Skywatcher astro kit. Celestron and Skywatcher are
both very nice, but Skywatcher seem to appeal to me, I don’t really know why.
Celestron have some excellent add-on kit, WI-Fi mods, GPS pods, and they now
produce a wide range of mounts that can be controlled via a Smartphone or
tablet.
This brings me to the next issue about ‘scope choice, Go-To
or manually pointed. There are those who feel that Go-To mounts are the lazy
mans way of doing things, ideally a Go-To mount gets switched on, aligned and
then you simply select an object from a list, after a short whirring and
grinding the telescope is pointing at the object and all you need to do is look
through the eyepiece. A manually targeted ‘scope require knowledge of the
location of that elusive object and hunting it down. The more you use a manual ‘scope
the better you get at finding things. The choice of mount is also very
important. I was once told that the best thing to do is buy the heaviest mount
that you can afford/carry, you’ll change your ‘scope more than you change your
mount. My first Skywatcher mount was an EQ3 that I upgraded with a motorised
drive kit. My main mount now is a very hefty HEQ5 pro SynScan, (SynScan simply
means it’s Go-To)
There will be more on mounts, ‘scopes and binoculars at later
dates.
The next step for me was to find a club or some sort of
group that would help me learn more. This a came along when a sterling chap
introduced me to what would eventually become Ashford Astronomical Society. We
scared the living daylights out of the then chairman on my first visit.
Membership of the society grew and I became much more
actively involved in the group, presenting talks and co hosting events.
Eventually my confidence grew, not only in my presenting style but also in my knowledge
of the night sky and I took on the job of presenting the monthly sky tour at
the meetings, it’s affectionately referred to as “Upstares” but I’ve never really
liked that title and I rarely use it in the presentations.
Two years ago, the existing Chairman and General Secretary
made the choice to step down as they both wished to move on to other projects,
the out going Chairman is, in fact, a rather good author and has written some sterling
books. A new committee was needed and I decided to stand for the position of
Assistant Chairman, a post that I am very proud of having and I am honoured
that I am starting my third year in the role. I am always on the look out for
new methods to introduce astronomy to the masses.
So that’s the first post for the blog, a bit meandering and
long winded, but I felt the need to “introduce” myself. I don’t claim to be all
knowledgeable, but I hope that readers will find the blog useful. Some of it
will change regularly whilst other sections will remain the same for a while.
The Gallery will be added to semi regularly, Object of the Month and the
monthly sky tour will be updated um… monthly, Other bits will be changed when I
find something interesting to add.
Over the next few weeks I’ll talk in detail about the
different types of mounts, telescope and binoculars and what can be expected
from them.
Thanks for reading, if this blog inspires you to look up
then great, it’s achieved exactly what I want it to do.
Please visit again
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