Anyone else like to Stargaze?

I always wanted to get a telescope so I did ($150). :cool: Now I'm hooked. Last night I was able to see Jupiter clear as day. The brown cloud bands were cool to see and the moons all perfectly aligned was awsome. It all made me feel really small. No Great Red Spot though :( Maybe tonight. I tried hard to focus in on Saturn but it was nearly straight up in the sky so I'll have to catch it earlier when there's a better angle. I can't wait to see the rings. Should be pretty sweet. The moon was cool but it's something I've seen before so I wasn't to excited about that. My older son (4) was though. He liked how the moon had "all kinds of holes" as he put it. Venus this morning was quite colorful. It was half vivid blue, half orange and seemed at times to have a bright green streak inbetween them. So that's what I did last night actually confirmed with my own eyes that this stuff was out there. So is anybody else into this kind of thing or am I alone on this one?

I don't really have to worry about that here so much. You live near the big city or what? Surely theres some country land a few miles from your bed. Looking into space is one of those things everyone should do before they croak.

Yeah, stargazing is pretty fun. Cool Stuff out there! Like Minor planets with some very familiar names, read up on this!...haha

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/special/rocknroll/RockAndRoll.html

I would be into stargazing except for light polution. I literally don't see stars at night on this campus.

Terrible. I couldn't live where I couldn't see the stars or mountains. If you guys can get out into the country it's something you have to do someday.

I love to stargaze. I don't have a telescope, but I don't really care, it's still one of my favourite things to do. In the summer, I just lie out on my front lawn almost every night and look at stars. I almost go into a trance doing it, they're so beautiful.

I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, so I see stars all the time. I'm probably desensitised to it because they don't really affect me now, although I still think they are beautiful.

If you ever get a chance to look through a telescope do it. It's literally out of this world. Ha ha! FYI Jupiter is the brightest "star" after 9 p.m. It's in the southern sky. Saturn is the second brightest, yellow and nearly straight up in the sky. In Early morning when the Sun is rising that one "star" that hangs out in the Eastern sky is Venus. That's what I've spotted so far. Apparantly there's a meteor shower on the 22nd of this month too.

Try following a passenger jet with a good telescope sometime. It's much harder than it sounds. They don't look very fast to the naked eye, but they often cruise at around 540-600 mph.

How can a person not enjoy stargazing? That's like hating puppies. It just doesn't happen that often.

last year i was on holiday in france sat on beech with the sun slowly setting behind the see leaving the orange glow, fading into stars with the sky perfectly clear and the sound of the see and waves, it was truly beutiful

I love stargazing aswell. I don't have a telescope at the moment, but I am in the market for one. Any suggestions on a sub $200 telescope?

I love stargazing, I have a nice little (not so little) telescope myself.: this one . But the best viewing is when the object is at the top of the sky, its when its clearest and brightest. Something you can look for thats easy to find though Majic, The Orion Nebula.... If you look at the Constellation Orion and at his belt, I believe its either near the end where the "sword is" or on the tip of the "sword" itself. If you look in that general area you'll be sure to find it. I know Rusty is into star gazing, he showed me some pointers a few months ago, but I don't know where he's been lately. Oh, try telescope.com Eric, and go here as well : click me

The Orion nebula is at the bottom of the swords sheath, which is to the bottom left of the belt.

Thanks for the links!

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/orion.html

There we go, yea its on the tip on the sword at his side :o . Forgot there were 2.

EDit: You beat me to it, but pictoral aid is always good. :)

That's probably one of the worst drawings of Orion I've seen :p . Not trying to rip on you... everything just seems a bit off in that pic. I was alway's tought that where the nebula was, is the swords sheath/scabbard, not another sword.

I wanna see the Great Red Spot and the Rings of Saturn tonight. There's a forum at www.astronomy.com that has alot of cool stuff like starcharts and weather reports. I wanna get some filters so I can check out the Sun. Some of these filters help you see the planets better too so I'll definatly check it out.

Here's a subject with which I have had fairly extensive experience on. Yep, it's hard to beat the planets, at first. The Orion Nebula was already mentioned, but up next on yer list should be the Andromeda Galaxy ; as it is best seen in Autumn skies, you'll have to catch it almost immediately after sundown before it sets (if it's even up where you are at all?). But the summertime constellations generally have the most objects in both quantity and quality. I highly recommend a book called, Turn Left at Orion, that highlights the best objects for small to medium scopes, and shows you how to find them.
Someone mentioned tracking a plane...that might be pretty hard, obviously. But I have tracked several satellites. They can be pretty quick too.
I too have wanted a solar filter for a long time, but haven't ever gotten around to getting one. Someone linked to Orion (the telescope company) above...I've ordered several times from them without problems.
But overall I guess I'm just a gazer more often than scoping anymore, using just binoculars or naked eyes. And of all the objects I've seen, nothing beats a killer meteor shower. Any other questions or tips, just ask. Have fun! :cool:

i have seen jupter's moons through a friends telescope.....did you know that there are more stars in the universe than all the grains of sand on earth......we are micro...yet we rock :cool:

i sail.

and when i do- its out in the carribien. (acutally more like the florida keys... oh well.) the sky at night is truely something to behold. no light pollution, no clouds. you can see everything with just a naked eye.

the cool thing to look out for is satalites. like you'll be looking at this one star or something and it just randomly starts to move in a strait line away from you at a certain rate. it weirds you out at first but after awhile you get used to it.