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Any of You Speedy Freaks into Telescopes or Astronomy?

DaveCollins
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I have Takahashi, Astro-Physics, and LZOS refractors. The best of the bunch in my LZOS 175 which was one of the last produced. I also have a new LZOS 228 which hasn't been used. I have a one of a kind Astro-Physics 180 which was produced in 2015. And I have a GTX 130 which is a sort of one off by Roland where he figured the optics for me and is now a visual figure. My Takahashi 150 is a great scope.

I view from my balcony in Washington DC, and travel to dark sites when school is out of session.
 
JohnnyRocket
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DaveCollins DaveCollins
I have Takahashi, Astro-Physics, and LZOS refractors. The best of the bunch in my LZOS 175 which was one of the last produced. I also have a new LZOS 228 which hasn't been used. I have a one of a kind Astro-Physics 180 which was produced in 2015. And I have a GTX 130 which is a sort of one off by Roland where he figured the optics for me and is now a visual figure. My Takahashi 150 is a great scope.

I view from my balcony in Washington DC, and travel to dark sites when school is out of session.
Awesome. The Taks are great refractors. My little jewel is a rebuilt optically/mechanically Questar 3.5 standard. I’ve got 1/12 th wf Optics on it with
Custom coating package. Rebuilt this year in PA.
 
GarethS
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Living in Brighton on the south coast of England I'm lucky enough to be just 30mins from Herstmonceux where the optical telescopes from the Royal Greenwich observatory were moved in 1957 after losing the battle with London light pollution. There is a great science park there now alongside the various telescopes. Last visit we were treated to a fantastic view Neptune - a beautiful ultramarine globe 2.7m miles distant...

https://www.the-observatory.org/our-telescopes
 
JohnnyRocket
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GarethS GarethS
Living in Brighton on the south coast of England I'm lucky enough to be just 30mins from Herstmonceux where the optical telescopes from the Royal Greenwich observatory were moved in 1957 after losing the battle with London light pollution. There is a great science park there now alongside the various telescopes. Last visit we were treated to a fantastic view Neptune - a beautiful ultramarine globe 2.7m miles distant...

https://www.the-observatory.org/our-telescopes
Wow...I would love to visit that sometime. Perhaps in my looming retirement. Thankyou for the info.
 
SpeedyPhill
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345 years ago...
22 June 1675, a Royal Warrant issued by King Charles II authorised the construction of an astronomical observatory at Greenwich in London !
A few years ago, I was lucky & honored to conduct an observation session from the observatory with the 71 cm refractor in the onion dome...
An 1893 refractor, which was moved to Herstmonceux... and back to London in the 1970s.... Although only for Moon & Planets... What a place !
.
Moonwatchuniverse_London.jpg
 
S
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I have a Bresser D 80 F900 refractor on an EQ3 mount. I spend most time looking at the moon - I think that I have found Tranquility bay. I did get good views on Saturn,Jupiter and Venus. I have not gone down the Astrophotography route.

Being on the South Coast of the UK light pollution is quite bad
 
Dsloan
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I've got an 8" dob. Unfortunately, I live in a major city, so can't seem most of the really cool stuff. Hoping to travel to some darker sites after Covid resolves.
 
Professor
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I have a few telescopes of varied sizes. One is a entry level Galilean type suitable for planet watching. I got it dirt cheap at a surplus store because it was missing an extension tube (Bode ?).
It has enough power to see the moons of Jupiter but that's about it. I'd need the extension tube to use a higher powered eye piece.
I also have a couple of land telescopes, one a 50 power I use as a spotting scope when target shooting, the other a replica of a 19th century spyglass of brass and wood construction.
I have a compact starlight type monocular that I only yesterday thought of experimenting with to see if it could cut through air pollution, clouds and light pollution to reveal stars not normally visible here.
My older mini DVD camera has a 300 power zoom that I've experimented with to mixed results.
I once cleaned up a older reflector type for a friend that had enough power to see details of Mars including the ice caps.
 
Uniqez
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I have purchased the cheap telescope for my daughter, so she can play around during this quarantine times. But it ended up being so cool watching the moon, so I'm looking for the better one now.
P.S. sorry for the pictures' quality, they were taken with the cell phone.
 
20200503_195929.jpg 20200503_201331.jpg
Dsloan
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Uniqez Uniqez
I have purchased the cheap telescope for my daughter, so she can play around during this quarantine times. But it ended up being so cool watching the moon, so I'm looking for the better one now.
P.S. sorry for the pictures' quality, they were taken with the cell phone.

Glad your daughter is into telescopes. I've got a toddler who likes to play with mine. Hoping it turns into genuine interest later on. I think this is a really fun, affordable option for kids and for travel: https://shop.astronomerswithoutborders.org/products/awb-onesky-reflector-telescope. 5" is a pretty decent light bucket for $200. That said, a fully manual scope is a great to learn the sky, but also can be a PIA depending on her level of interest in the hobby.
Edited:
 
pdxleaf
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Jupiter and Saturn tonight. Cloudy last two nights but cleared up tonight thankfully.. Much better in person naturally. Fun time.

Resized_DSC02055_2985104701047.jpeg DSC02046_3007579972757.jpg DSC02027_3025517920927.jpg
 
Perre
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Would these telescopes work in a city environment or is there just too much light pollution?
 
SpeedyPhill
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Perre Perre
Would these telescopes work in a city environment or is there just too much light pollution?
Telescopes work in a city environment, but don't buy those " city light filters " as mostly there isn't much difference 🤔
Non-observers often don't realise that the planets can be observed during daylight... a mount with astronomical software will do the job to find the heavenly bodies during the day...
On the other hand, once You start observing our Star, the Sun , you'll get hooked and observe it for hours on end !
Warning: never directly observe the Sun without a proper Solar filter !!!
(Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)
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Solar_MoonwatchUniverse.jpg
 
STANDY
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Mrs STANDY got this for her Birthday this year.

Do have the luxury of living remote and can be out of city lights in less than a few kms.
Have the enjoyment of sleeping under the stars a lot when fishing and sleeping on the boat hundreds of kilometres from any lights

E8AD9DE7-0748-4701-952B-F57BB1440F71.jpeg
 
Wryfox
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Talk about lucky....a clear night here in Florida is as rare as this conjunction...every 400yrs.
Zeiss 65x80 spotting scope and Canon G7X MKII camera (crazy combination, I know). Taken from my upstairs window.

My wife was positively giddy, she had never shared my love of space before but when she saw this she exclaimed "I've never seen anything so cool in my life" (except me of course...ya know)

20201223_084302.jpg
 
Dsloan
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Wryfox Wryfox
Talk about lucky....a clear night here in Florida is as rare as this conjunction...every 400yrs.
Zeiss 65x80 spotting scope and Canon G7X MKII camera (crazy combination, I know). Taken from my upstairs window.

My wife was positively giddy, she had never shared my love of space before but when she saw this she exclaimed "I've never seen anything so cool in my life" (except me of course...ya know)

20201223_084302.jpg

Nice! Sure beats my shaky cell phone snapshot. Was really fun to see, but the air was very turbulent for us, unfortunately.

IMG_20201220_180936.jpg
 
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