Any of You Speedy Freaks into Telescopes or Astronomy?

JohnnyRocket · Oct 2, 2019

Just wondering if any of the Moonwatch owners or collectors have a Telescope or an interest in Observational Astronomy ? All my life I had been keenly interested in things that were in the night time sky.
Watching the Planets , and of course the moon was always a favourite activity. That led to acquiring Several telescopes of various quality over the years. It naturally follows that an interest in timepieces
Would follow. Hence the Speedy Pro Moonwatch And the Apollo 8 DSOTM.
Being somewhat old school my Telescope setup is a newly rebuilt Questar with advanced optics
And the new p.g. 3 drive system. Razor sharp optics combined with superb American Craftsmanship.
Built in PA. Since 1954. Sets up ready to use in less than 10 minutes. Very fortunate to have one, this built
Originally in 1986.
No plastic anywhere...built to last generations, with a service every 10 years.
About the price of a new Speedy Moon Watch Pro. (To start).

budgewink · Oct 4, 2019

Yeah, got s 10" dobsonian in my kitchen that gets wheeled out into the garden from time to time for events. It's a nice hobby.

JohnnyRocket · Oct 4, 2019

Hey there... dobs are great scopes for dark viewing sights away from city glare and light pollution. Great big light buckets! I was fortunate to work in a couple of Planetariums in my former career. We had I think - was a 17inch That one of our theatre techs had built. Wow...at zenith you were standing on one tall ladder looking into the eyepiece. Its’ size kind of reminded me of the big cannon from the Road Runner cartoon.
Awesome deep sky scopes. Pain to move around though.

Hduck · Oct 4, 2019

I had a Celestron 5 inch for a while and a Meade LX90 8 inch for a few years. When I moved I sold them on consignment and put the money in a CD for when I decide to get back into it. I kept all the accessories (eye pieces, etc) for when
I get the next one

Ebuster · Oct 5, 2019

Hi, whilst I have no personal experience with astronomy to date (something I might like to investigate)
I was taken by a chair mounted telescope which I use as my avatar from a museum in Strasbourg France

jsducote · Oct 5, 2019

I bought my dad a Celestron NexStar 130SLT last xmas to use at his getaway in the central TX hills. He hasn't invited me to look through it yet.

Stufflers Mom · Oct 5, 2019

The Star tracker app on my iphone is a great place to start.

JohnnyRocket · Oct 7, 2019

The celestron 5 was too a favourite of mine years ago. I was able to get one from our stock at our local planetarium where I worked at the time. I outfitted it as a sky camera and a general use scope. Easy to move and setup. Also before the advent
Of the go-to craze, you had to get to know how to use your scopes setting circles. That led to knowing how to read star charts and Sky atlases. You can’t play the piano if you can’t read the music so to speak. So I say to anybody starting out...learn to do things the old fashioned way! Your rewards in learning the Sky will be many fold. Computer scopes are just like smart phones. Easy to use...but what do you really learn...after the thrill is gone?
Try this amazing book to start out... Night Watch by Terry Dickenson!
Grab a comfy lawn chair and binoculars and become a backyard Astronaut!

Wryfox · Oct 7, 2019

I had a 5" reflector for awhile in Texas..nice views in clear dry air. Now here in Florida it's hard to find clear air, but being on the Embry Riddle University board I have private access to their new 1meter telescope...stunning clarity, even in adverse conditions...
https://observatory.db.erau.edu/index.php/2-uncategorised

JohnnyRocket · Oct 7, 2019

Well You dirty dog! Good for you. I too for a brief time was spoiled by large equipment in the planetariums that I had worked. Though...not to this scale.
Absolutely beautiful instrument! I can just imagine the imaging that it will do!
Bravo! Ever consider private tours or sessions?

Hduck · Oct 7, 2019

JohnnyRocket
The celestron 5 was too a favourite of mine years ago. I was able to get one from our stock at our local planetarium where I worked at the time. I outfitted it as a sky camera and a general use scope. Easy to move and setup. Also before the advent
Of the go-to craze, you had to get to know how to use your scopes setting circles. That led to knowing how to read star charts and Sky atlases. You can’t play the piano if you can’t read the music so to speak. So I say to anybody starting out...learn to do things the old fashioned way! Your rewards in learning the Sky will be many fold. Computer scopes are just like smart phones. Easy to use...but what do you really learn...after the thrill is gone?
Try this amazing book to start out... Night Watch by Terry Dickenson!
Grab a comfy lawn chair and binoculars and become a backyard Astronaut!

Agreed. I did use atlases including the one you mentioned as well as Turn Right at Orion amongst others. I even tried the old Burwell(?) atlas books as well

time flies · Oct 7, 2019

Tomorrow night, Tuesday October 8 is a peak night in the northeast United States for viewing shooting stars/meteors originating in the constellation Draco. 40-50 per hour.

have fun
kfw

kkt · Oct 7, 2019

From home, between the clouds and the bright city lights, I can see pretty much nothing. So I have smallish refractors that fit in the car to take observing. A 130 mm refractor is my main scope, plus a dedicated solar scope and a couple of smaller ones.

Great observing events:

Transit of Venus, June 2012, took the kid on a roadtrip to Yellowknife from which the whole transit was visible. 5 days of driving each way, but lots of fun along the way. Bison, bears, waterfalls. And a great transit, well observed, and a great bunch of observers from all over western Canada.

Transit of Mercury, 2015, flew to Tucson and had a great view of the whole transit, and got to observe visually through their 0.8 meter scope. The Mirror Lab at the U of A was amazing too.

Total eclipse of the Moon from here (well, not here-here, Issaquah).

Total eclipse of the Sun from central Oregon. Fantastic experience, the red rim with highlights where sunlight shown between mountain peaks on the moon, I can describe but it loses the impact. Also a star party there, with several nights of excellent dark skies.

JohnnyRocket · Oct 8, 2019

If anybody ever gets the opportunity, One of the best sites I ever did an Astronomy outreach program in was Waterton Lakes National Park.
It’s on the border with a Glacier National Park on the Montana/ Alberta border.
It’s High, very dry and the darkest clearest sky I ever had the chance to do
Some observing in. An amazing place, full of natural wonders both Earthly
And in the Cosmos. Really recommend it.

Thanx for the meteor shower reminders! Hope for clear skies to you all! Enjoy!

SpeedyPhill · Oct 8, 2019

In the good old days... visiting Sir Patrick Moore The Sky At Night
.

MCC · Oct 8, 2019

Although lack of dark skies is an issue in SE England I have a SkyWatcher Maksutov Cassegrain. This has been good enough to get a clear view Jupiter including the storm, Neptune with reasonable definition of the rings, Andromeda, Orion Nebula etc but I really envy people that can get to dark skies easily.

I really enjoyed visiting the observatory at Flagstaff a few years ago, they had telescopes trained on the sun to see the flares during the day (appropriately shielded) and some great views at night. Just amazing that this was all set up by volunteers.

SpeedyPhill · Oct 15, 2019

@MCC
You meant " Saturn " with the rings... although Neptune also has rings, as all the outer gas giants have 😉

JohnnyRocket · Oct 15, 2019

And just when You might have thought that Your Wife had the “Ring Market”
All sewed Up! Mine Does!

MCC · Oct 15, 2019

SpeedyPhill
@MCC
You meant " Saturn " with the rings... although Neptune also has rings, as all the outer gas giants have 😉

Indeed I did , engage brain and type more slowly in future 😀 :whipped:

JohnnyRocket · Oct 15, 2019

The Jovian system also has a small Ring plane system. Though quite small
In comparison to Saturn.