Wow thats amazing. Clearly demonstrates the advantage of living away from the city for night sky viewing.

I took astronomy for a "guaranteed A" first year at U of T in the mid eighties. Was the only course that interested me but not much to offer career wise. Had a great prof, Philip Kronberg, who was a paid guest speaker at all kinds of events, including corporate back at that time.
A guy at the faculty was one of the original discoverers of Cygnus X1, the first Black Hole. Had a license plate that said Cygnus X1.

So I presume you are using some type of reference point (Polaris) and a computer program for Altitude/Azimuth?  I have seen simple telescopes tha were computer operated at Costco. Great hobby if you have the time/place. Love that celestial sphere.

The universe is truly a beautiful and awe inspiring place, thanks for sharing! Who needs Hubble when you've got the Loafer?

We are still wondering why you haven't posted those pics of your neighbour's heavenly body?

Quoted from wbradley

Wow thats amazing. Clearly demonstrates the advantage of living away from the city for night sky viewing.

I took astronomy for a "guaranteed A" first year at U of T in the mid eighties. Was the only course that interested me but not much to offer career wise. Had a great prof, Philip Kronberg, who was a paid guest speaker at all kinds of events, including corporate back at that time.
A guy at the faculty was one of the original discoverers of Cygnus X1, the first Black Hole. Had a license plate that said Cygnus X1.

So I presume you are using some type of reference point (Polaris) and a computer program for Altitude/Azimuth?  I have seen simple telescopes tha were computer operated at Costco. Great hobby if you have the time/place. Love that celestial sphere.

Celestron have a 3-star alignment process that basically does as it's name implies:  point and center to 3 different stars, the computer knowing your location (through GPS) takes that into account and figures out from it's database the targetted stars and that's it. Incidentally, one of my earlier scopes was the CElestron GTL(?) 80, a refractor that had outstanding optics for it's price and yeah, it had the 3 star alignment. the mount wasn't as accurate but it did the job and I found more stuff in one night than I did in years combined with that little $200 scope. Keep in mind, an 80mm refractor on a cheap mount isn't suitable for astro photography and it's underpowered for most observations, but the Ring nebula was very clear and easy to identify.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

We are still wondering why you haven't posted those pics of your neighbour's heavenly body?

That's on a private server

Quoted from jonny_eh

The universe is truly a beautiful and awe inspiring place, thanks for sharing! Who needs Hubble when you've got the Loafer?

I might add that until you've personally seen the Messier Objects and other "heavenly bodies" through a telescope (even Saturn which is easy with binoculors) then you really can have no idea how beautiful and humbling it is at the same time.  And those are not "video enhanced" views I am speaking of, but "still air" moments through even small aperatures or using averted vision, where suddenly the object you are searching for appears and you get a sense of its depth and structure.  There is an immediate feeling "wow" (shock and awe) and then that is immediately followed by the feelings of : "wow we are really an insignificant part of the entire universe" and "wow, isn't it a miracle that we even exist in this vast universe at this place and time at all".

Keep in mind that when you are looking at the stars or galaxies, you are looking at "the past" - millions of years and more time can have passed before the light we are perceiving has travelled through space and reached earth, and the object you see today may have long gone, its light extinguished, or existence obliterated by the various processes of time and space.

The best thrill of owning a scope (in particular a computerized scope that can immediately track to the object you are seeking (which makes it easier to find when the "seeing" isn't good, or its cloudy out)) is showing and sharing with others the objects (that the unpracticed eye can spot).  Some of my family members continue to talk about a time 14 years ago or so when I showed them Saturn and some other objects from the truely dark skies of our island in Temagammi.

I have to say that there were those who eschewed computerized scopes for the older methods of "star hopping" (which is an accomplishment that has a certain "thrill" attached to it too) - but I can say that I found and saw more objects in an hour of computerized sky touring than in a year or more of star hopping.  That is, in part due to the fact that the sky goes through differeing visibility or "seeing" levels as currents shift the air, and a computer can find and track an object during a cloudy night (for seeing the object during a break in the clouds) where most traditionalist non-computerized astronomers would give up due the poor visibility.

I've always wanted to see Uranus.





*snicker* *snicker*


Sorry, but someone HAD to say it eventually.

Quoted from OTTOgd

I've always wanted to see Uranus.

Well you can see a product of Uranus here....