Amateur Astronomy and the Pipe Smoker

[Streeper541]

Over the past couple months I've enjoyed being part of a few threads which have discussed Star Trek as well as the James Webb Space Telescope. That got me thinking... are any of the other forum members amateur astronomers? If so, what kind of equipment do you have? How long have you been enjoying the hobby? Do you belong to a local club?

My local club cancelled public observation due to the cold weather & sky condition here in NE Ohio so I'm homebound tonight. Instead of going out, I tapped into a remote viewing session with a KAS scope located at the Arizona Sky Village. Kinda nice actually... inside, with a glass of whiskey & a good pipe.

 

[telescopes]

40 years of astronomy. I have a Meade DS 10 on an equatorial mount. I am a bit old to haul it around now.

 

[telescopes]

By the way Joshua Tree National park is 30 minutes up the road.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

One of my good friends was always in to stargazing. When the conditions are pleasant we would frequently set up his scopes and check out the moon.. Mars.. Saturn.. all kinds of stuff. Always loved focusing on the rings of Saturn, mind blowing.

I'm no expert on the hardware but I know he had two dobsonian scopes, one white and one black.

 

[STP]

I had little interest in Astronomy, but took a course as a general elective requirement in college and it blew my mind. Trying to comprehend the infinite vastness gave me headaches. Most courses you soon forget about, but this was certainly not one of them?

 

[cornedbeef]

Astronomy is mind expanding. Pipesmoking is meditative and mind expanding. They go together very well.??

 

[Streeper541]

I was a member of the local astronomy club while I was growing up in SE Texas. Used to do a lot of sky watching while I was in scouts as well. Never had any good viewing areas while I was moving around the country during my time in the service, but I joined the local club here in my area when I got settled down here in Ohio.

I've only got a small 5" Celestron refractor right now, but am in the process of purchasing a 12" Dob and some more equipment. I'll probably be building a backyard observatory on my property over the next year.

 

[Kiteflyer]

I've been an amateur astronomer off and on since the late 90's. Really started getting into nightly observing around 2013. I've just got an old 114mm Meade reflector, but its a bit bigger than the department store scope I grew up with and does quite well out here in the country. I've started keeping a journal where I'm plotting all of the constellations and drawing and identifying their stars. It's been a lot of fun. I imagine when I'm done with that project I'll have the itch to upgrade to a nice dob.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I don't believe in astronomy, even though my daughter is a cosmetologist.

 

[Chasing Embers]

As much as I like science fiction, never really had much interest in the real thing.

 

[mso489]

I have no gear or cultivated knowledge, but enough interest to try to catch events visible to the naked eye or binoculars. However, my region of North Carolina has frequent cloud cover that obscures even the most conspicuous events like a lunar eclipse. I have observed a solar eclipse or two with a pinhole device made out of cardboard, but never a total eclipse, which is quite an experience I hear. I am excited by the James Webb telescope, as I was with the Hubble. Several major discoveries have been made by amateur astronomers who happened to see something unique, and had enough knowledge to know to point it out. The old stereotype was that professional astronomers got a little dreamy-headed from being so much involved with the cosmos, and I can believe that some did. Just reading about it kind of blows my mind. The idea that what we see in the night sky can be from millions of light years away, hence millions of years ago. It's a time machine. Just go out at night and look up.

 

[musicman]

I've been into amateur astronomy since I was a kid, and as an adult, I find that it matches well with pipe smoking. I used to have an 18" Dob with setting circles and tracking homebuilt by a master craftsman, as well as a 10" Dob that was my first scope, and two 80mm refractors (one a triplet Apo, and one a nice Acro doublet), but about 5 months ago I moved from Tucson to Cincinnati, and I sold/gave away everything but the refractors. My plan is to pick up another medium aperture Dob (maybe 12-15") once my wife and I buy a house here in Ohio. My primary interest has always been visual rather than astrophotography, and I tend to focus (pardon the pun) on deep sky rather than planetary observing.

Some of my best memories of the five years I lived in Arizona involve being out in the desert under Bortle 2 skies, looking at the summer Milky Way in shorts and a tee shirt, all the while puffing on a nice Va or VaPer. Ugh...now I miss Southern AZ yet again. SW Ohio is a pretty nice place, but there's just something about the desert and the dark, clear skies down there...

 

[stevecourtright]

I live in the worst possible place for using a telescope (2 blocks north of Chicago) yet there are plenty of interesting things to see with my C-8, my 10" dob, or my 4" refractor. When I do get to a dark site. I like finding galaxies - to think that the light hitting my eyes has been traveling through space for thousands or millions of years is pleasantly humbling. The best thing for me is when a friend or neighbor sees Jupiter or Saturn for the first time through a good scope - that part is fun to share.

 

[kcghost]

Never actively searched the skies myself but have greatly enjoyed TV shows on astronomy. Both the Hubble telescope and the JWST have been amazing.

 

[Kiteflyer]

I live in the worst possible place for using a telescope (2 blocks north of Chicago) yet there are plenty of interesting things to see with my C-8, my 10" dob, or my 4" refractor. When I do get to a dark site. I like finding galaxies - to think that the light hitting my eyes has been traveling through space for thousands or millions of years is pleasantly humbling. The best thing for me is when a friend or neighbor sees Jupiter or Saturn for the first time through a good scope - that part is fun to share.

How far out do you have to go to get a decently dark sky?

 

[Laurent]

I love learning and reading astronomy but don’t own a scope, which is a goal for me to gain someday. All my info comes from online articles, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a few star cast podcasts.

 

[stevecourtright]

I love learning and reading astronomy but don’t own a scope, which is a goal for me to gain someday. All my info comes from online articles, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a few star cast podcasts.

If you can find a nearby club, they often have meetings where members bring out their scopes and everyone is invited to observe. Now, in the age of COVID, it may be less common to have public events...

 

[Laurent]

If you can find a nearby club, they often have meetings where members bring out their scopes and everyone is invited to observe. Now, in the age of COVID, it may be less common to have public events...

You know, I never thought about even looking into something like that lol. I have gone to observation stations when Mars was close to earth, that was fun.

 

[stevecourtright]

How far out do you have to go to get a decently dark sky?

From where I live if you get south of Kankakee (1.5 hours) you can see the southern sky pretty nicely. On the other hand, if you can get up to Door County Wisconsin (Washington Island) you can see stuff with Binoculars that my telescope can't resolve from the suburb where I live.

 

[Akousticplyr]

Carl Sagan is one of my personal heroes.

I periodically reread his books. Epiphany after epiphany.