For years, I've occasionally thought about buying a telescope. A year or so ago, I did some reasearch online and chose $350 reflector, but didn't buy. Last week, I picked up my first telescope at a local auction for $14. It's one that used to sell at Walmart for $99, so it's obviously not for the serious astronomer. But it's not a bad start.<\/p>\n
It was used, and was missing several screws. I got it put together Saturday and looked at a few nearby terrestrial objects, but the sky was overcast, so no ET.<\/p>\n
Last night was clear, so I installed the software that came with it to find out what I'd be able to see. It looked like the Orion nebula would be an easy find overhead, but when I went outside, the only thing I could see that looked like Orion was much farther over toward the horizon than expected, and I couldn't see a thing where the Nebula was supposed to be.<\/p>\n
So I went back inside and figured out how to get the software to show the sky with the zenith in the middle (why this isn't the default I don't know), and it showed Orion perhaps even closer to the horizon than what I'd thought might have been Orion. So the nebula was out.<\/p>\n
But Saturn was in, pretty close to directly overhead. I figured out that by sighting a little to the left of the line made by the two stars on the end of the big dipper's dipper, I should be able to see it. I don't think I'd known before last night that Saturn is visible to the naked eye, and is actually quite bright.<\/p>\n
I spent a few minutes trying to find it, looking a little too low in the sky. Then I decided to look at a pair of fairly bright objects a little higher than I thought I should be looking. I aimed the telescope toward them, used the sighting scope to center on one, an focused in on it with my 25mm eyepiece.<\/p>\n
As the telescope stopped shaking (the mount isn't the sturdiest available by a long shot), I thought I noticed two little bulges on the site of the dot I was looking at. That's when things started to get alittle exciting. I swapped out eyepieces, putting my 9mm in, refocused, and it was still just a dot with some bulges tot eh sides, but sure enough, there was Saturn with it's rings!<\/p>\n
I ran inside and told my wife, figuring she'd come out, but it was pretty cold last night, and she said she'd like to see it sometime when it's warmer. So I wnet back out, added the barlow to get a little more magnifcation, and about the time I'd found and focused in again, my wife came out (she'd had to let the dog out, and decided to come out then).<\/p>\n
With the Barlow in, the focus wasn't nearly so sharp, and in the end, I took it back out. Wiht a little tweaking, I got it focused well enough that I could see two little holes between the planet and the rings to either side (between where the ring runs in front of and behind the planet).<\/p>\n
Before going inside, I took a look at the moon at a few different magnifications. The coolest part is right along the line where it's going into shadow, where you can see the most depth in the craters. Pretty cool.<\/p>\n
Once it gets warmer, I'll have to keep my son up late one night and show him a few things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For years, I've occasionally thought about buying a telescope. A year or so ago, I did some reasearch online and chose $350 reflector, but didn't buy. Last week, I picked up my first telescope at a local auction for $14. It's one that used to sell at Walmart for $99, so it's obviously not for...
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