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This is wonderful!!! Generalizing here but we really do take the moon for granted. I bought a 'big ass telescope' a few years ago in an effort to bootstrap a
by jcims 2y ago
This is wonderful!!! Generalizing here but we really do take the moon for granted.
I bought a 'big ass telescope' a few years ago in an effort to bootstrap a hobby that I'd flirted with for decades but never really committed to. It's a Celestron 11" SCT and I really had no idea what I was getting into. When I think of space I think of things that are really small in the night sky, planets, galaxies, nebula...(turns out most of them aren't *that* small and I overshot the targets I had in mind)
I kept trying to photo galaxies and star clusters and all of these exotic things but had a bunch of trouble with tracking with long exposures. Out of frustration I ended up just pointing it at the boring ol' moon to at least get used to the equipment and workflows.
I fell in love with Luna.
The magnification of this scope really allowed me to explore the surface in a way I never had before. I got to know the 'map' and suddenly related to our celestial neighbor in a whole new way. It was also the very first image I was actually not embarrassed to share - https://imgur.com/a/t9b1Uug https://imgur.com/a/t9b1Uug
I since then improved my knowledge and technical skill but the month of the moon at the end of 2021 was really pretty spectacular for me.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- PUSH_AX 2y agoIt’s a lovely shot.
- swifthesitation 2y agoIt really is a great shot. I always daydream of showing today's technology to the great the great minds from centuries ago. Not sure why, but I do.
- mettamage 2y agoAnd I'm here for it! :D
- jcims 2y agoI’m sure it’s different for everyone but I think it would just be the unbridled enthusiasm and love for the subject that they would show, the tidal dopamine surge of all the mysteries that have been unlocked, the validation of all the mysteries that remain. It would be amazing.
- arnarbi 2y agoI have the same fantasy. I think it’s appealing because I imagine they’d be able to appreciate all the amazing things behind it more than most people, dead or alive.
- yard2010 2y agoMe too. Sometimes in big concerts I can't help but think about what would the avg roman say if he would just appear here? "Wow so many lights" is the first answer I can think about right away
- js2 2y agoAn 11" SCT is a commitment to use. Do you have it on a permanent mount?
- jcims 2y agoNo, but i did just get a wedge so I could start tinkering with polar alignment. I also bought a Seestar S50 last year and have been having an absolute blast with it. Feels like a renaissance in astronomy is upon us.
- dylan604 2y agoWelcome to the hobby (even if a few years late). Pretty much everyone has the same experience as you. You buy the telescope, and then realize you need to buy a telescope for your telescope to use as a guide scope for accurate tracking for longer exposures. However, those long exposures are much more likely to get photobombed by an airplane or satellite. So you're really better off taking shorter exposures with the highest ISO you can get away with, and then just stacking them. I have a much wider scope that I can do 30s exposures unguided before trailing starts to become noticeable. If you can get away with 15s, you'd be amazed at what you can achieve with newer sensors. Just some hints to help the disappointment at bay and maybe get you playing with the toys
- amelius 2y ago[flagged]
- pavel_lishin 2y agoDon't do their work for them.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoIt is not yet time for subsidized time.
- yard2010 2y agoYes. But then again, when advertisers can make the moon look like a Pepsi to you, you can use an adblocker and use a Mars theme on it or something.
- gowld 2y agoIs there an information resource to find local telescope owners who give access to the public for viewing? (startup/app idea!)
- dylan604 2y agoJust search for local star parties in your area. Although, be willing to bend the definition of local depending on how light polluted your area is. My local is 4 hours away. Also, some colleges have viewing nights available. Even in light polluted areas, you can still see things for public viewings. They just suck for anyone wanting to image. There are tons of sites listing them, but I doubt there's an absolute exhaustive list as it's all self-reporting to each of the sites. Your app idea would just be another in a list of places, sort of like the xkcd app about yet another standard. https://www.go-astronomy.com/star-parties.htm https://www.go-astronomy.com/star-parties.htm https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/annual-stargazing-events/ https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/annual-starg...
- groby_b 2y agoGood God, no. Pretty much every telescope owner will happily show you the sky - after you've made an effort finding out where they gather, or if you just happen to walk by. The instagrammification of astronomy, with hordes of influencers rolling by without concern for the subject matter, just to insert themselves everywhere, is too horrible to consider. It's not hard to find. Type "<city> astronomical society" into your search box. They have public websites, horribly outdated. Reach out to them, join the group, and you're more than welcome. But may there never be "an app for that"
- ghxst 2y agoHere in the EU you can look for "dark sky parks" which are basically parks or areas in nature designated for night sky viewing because of the low amount of light pollution and they are great spots to meet people, I'm pretty sure you have these in the US as well. I advise bringing a red light if you have to do some walking. Another recommendation would be to see if you have any actual observatories near you, some of them have events for the public every now and then. The people in this community are some of the friendliest I ever met and love sharing their interest and enthusiasm.
- yread 2y ago> turns out most of them aren't that small I haven't realized Andromeda is 4x bigger than the Moon until I tried to take a picture of it https://mikkolaine.blogspot.com/2014/01/size-of-deep-sky-objects-compared-to.html https://mikkolaine.blogspot.com/2014/01/size-of-deep-sky-obj... (not my picture)
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> just imagine if you could see all those galaxies and nebulae with your naked eye I think I’d wind up buying the Vision Pro if it can realistically portray seeing the world in a wider spectrum than our eyes can. I don’t want cartoonish images of objects pasted into the sky. I want to see what I would perceive if we e.g. gene therapied a few extra cones into our eyes to see more of the EM spectrum.
- ghxst 2y agoOh boy if you're willing to spend money to look at the night sky - but feel like AR falls short currently - I highly recommend looking into NODs, something like a PVS-14, you might be able to pick one up second hand for the price of a new vision pro. Unfortunately photomultiplier are still quite expensive even if they are only gen2 :( some really cool tech though.
- veunes 2y agoHmm, spending that much on seeing the stars vs. augmented reality... I might lean toward the stars
- ghxst 2y agoDefinitely not arguing with you! Though I have a soft spot for analog tech in this area. I think AR might still have a very bright future, especially if you're learning about the night sky. I've spent many hours scanning the sky with an app I found that had an AR feature that allows you to point your camera at the sky and get an overlay on everything (including sattelites!).
- JKCalhoun 2y agoSimilarly, I came to learn some selenography writing a "voxel" (well, ray-casting) web game ... where you shuttle about the moon from crater base to crater base. I became kind of fascinated with the craters, names of the craters (and history of those names), the "dark-side" and all the wild topology there. (Although I think I have tiles for the entire Moon, you don't have the fuel to get there.
- haltcatchfire 2y agoDid you publish it? Can we see?
- ddejohn 2y agoI was curious too. GP's github is in their profile and it looks like this is what they were talking about: https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Mooncraft2000 https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Mooncraft2000
- 4ggr0 2y agoWhat a cute game, loved trying it out! if y'all only care about the game: https://mooncraft2000.com/ https://mooncraft2000.com/
- GloucesterBoy 2y agoIf you're curious about the naming of the Lunar craters, the first full English translation of the Almagestum Novum is being worked on here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1739314565?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1739314565?ref_=pe_3052080_3975148...
- Moru 2y agoI really like that one, so sad that the framerate tanks after one or two flights. Tried all the settings on the debug menu but only reload helps as you stated in the documentation. Happens both in firefox, firefox developer without plugins and in chrome. I remember playing another moon lander 35 years ago in school on the swedish computers "Compis". Was a very basic version but I still loved it, it's something with slow heavy objects where you need to plan ahead what, when and how much you need to do.
- typeofhuman 2y agoCan you see Saturn in good detail? I'm interested in picking up a telescope.
- malfist 2y agoAn SCT11 should have no problem making out the rings of Saturn and maybe a band or two. But it's not a good beginner scope. Long focal lengths are hard to manage if you don't know what you're doing
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- leeoniya 2y agoi have the 6" celestron sct, and on a clear night this is pretty much the amount of detail i can make out directly: https://www.reddit.com/r/telescopes/comments/pmlbne/jupiter_saturn_and_maybe_neptune/ https://www.reddit.com/r/telescopes/comments/pmlbne/jupiter_... i'm sure with tracking and stacking it would be much more.
- ghxst 2y agoJust to clarify is that the detail you can make out with the naked eye or a digital censor? If you meant digital censor, how much of a difference with the naked eye would you say it is? I've had this telescope on my list for some time but am not sure if my expectations are realistic.
- carl_dr 2y agoYeah, naked eye, although with a 6” telescope, I’d expect it to be a bit fainter - certainly that is the case through my 9.25” scope. I can often see a band in its rings. It also depends a lot on atmospherics, if there is a lot of turbulence in the atmosphere it makes things less crisp (well, “dancey”, like looking through a heat haze.) Look up your local astronomy group and go along one night, and see for yourself before buying anything. Saturn isn’t great at the moment (assuming London-ish latitudes) but Jupiter is around all night and you should be able to see it through a variety of scopes and eyepieces if you went along to a sky party. Honestly, the first time I saw Saturn through a telescope I nearly cried. Truly amazing.
- Stratoscope 2y agoWhat a beautiful photo! You have a good eye. I really like the way you caught the craters along the terminator, including the one at the bottom where you see sunlight on one rim and the rest is visible only because of Earthshine. The Moon is such a great subject that you can also get some nice shots with just a camera and a telephoto lens. Here are a couple of mine. Moon over Menlo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/geary/24118398766/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/geary/24118398766/ Moon, Mars, Venus: https://www.flickr.com/photos/geary/16598905865/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/geary/16598905865/
- jcims 2y agoThank you! You as well! The shadows are very much my favorite part of this kind of shot. It provides so much visual texture to the surface, showing not only how rough it is but how smooth it is. the 'scar' to the bottom right (aka Alpine Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallis_Alpes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallis_Alpes) is always one of my favorites. Thanks again!
- drcwpl 2y agoFantastic photo - you made me think about getting a telescope
- wraptile 2y agoFor people thinking of getting into moon gazing try binoculars first! Laying down on your back, plopping a nice pair on your eyes and just looking at the moon is a fantastic experience. Aside from much better UX, binoculars also have depth-perception which makes the visuals all that more engaging. If you have really nice clear sky in your area you can easily do that with stars and some planets as well.
- 0_____0 2y agoIf you got good bins try looking at Jupiter as well. Typically on a clear night you can see several of the moons.
- cogogo 2y agoThis blew my mind a few years ago when I got some decent binoculars. Depending on their positions you can see all four of the Galilean moons - even from a vantage point in a major city.
- 0_____0 2y agoI saw them entirely accidentally. I was looking at the moon through bins and checked out The Other Bright Thing nearby and was shocked to see what looks like little dots next to the big one. As Galileo himself would have done, I immediately went on the internet and consulted a sky chart, which confirmed that I was seeing the moons of Jupiter. I still occasionally drag my friends out to look at the moons on a clear night. It's my favorite bit of practical astronomy to share.
- agos 2y agoI was able to take pictures of them with a DSLR with a decent zoom lens! I used Stellarium to check the positions, waited for a very clear night, and was able to get a very nice photograph of that and of the Pleiades.
- ghxst 2y agoThis is great advice! It's really amazing how much more you can see with a regular decent pair of binoculars. I treasure the memory of being able to see some of the star clusters that I could only vaguely make out with the naked eye for the first time, now I basically bring them every night walk :).
- veunes 2y agoSometimes the most meaningful connections are with what’s been right in front of us all along
- UpgradeToMan 2y ago[dead]
- varispeed 2y agoWhy everyone is taking black and white pictures of the Moon? It's 2024!