Night Sky Astronomy

Posts Tagged ‘moon’

Finally, with the help of my wife, we managed to calibrate the telescope correctly so that the viewfinder was lined up almost perfectly with the telescope lens and pointed it at the moon.  The sky was clear so the moon showed up bright and crisp, with the craters showing in great detail.  It was an amazing view, but then is started going hazy due to the cold night.  We are hoping to catch it on a clear night again soon and use greater magnification to really see it in detail.

Earth’s Moon (source: Science On A Sphere)

Time: 18:30 – 18:45, Longitude: 50.435423, Latitude: -4.093217, Viewing: North East

Finally the skies cleared and I was able to use my new binoculars for the first time.  It also coincided with the moon coming into range outside of our back door, so it was excellent timing.

The view that greeted me was excellent.  The moon was crisp and bright and was magnified enough to almost fill the whole viewing area.  As the binoculars only have a magnification of 10, I wasn’t really expecting much more, but the view was a lot better than what I had with my other pair.

As Jupiter was still shining brightly in the sky, I decided to give looking at it a go as well.  Jupiter is much much farther away,  so I didn’t think for one minute that I would see anything bar a small ball of light in the sky.  And I didn’t.  But to my surprise, I could just about make out two bright dots slightly to the right of the planet, which I assumed to be two of Jupiter’s moons.  So if any one can clarify that the two dots were the moons, please leave a comment on this post, as I would very much like to know. 😉

So all in all, I was very pleased with the new binoculars, and for £15 it was a very good buy.

Time: 19:30 – 19:45, Longitude: 50.435423, Latitude: -4.093217, Viewing: North East

For my 30th birthday (17th October 2010) my wife gave me a telescope, which was something I have been after for years and years, but never really been able to afford it.  (for more info on the telescope, have a look at the equipment page).  Even my little boy who is 2 years old wanted to get it out straight away, but we waited until the evening.  Luckily, it was a clearish night with the moon being very bright and right over head.

We managed to get it together but, with it being my first ever telescope, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I didn’t really have a clue about the lenses to use as there was a few that came with the telescope.  I obviously new the basics, but didn’t know about the combinations to use.  It was also too late to line up the view finder with the actual telescope, so I had to go by eye. Luckily, the moon was full, large and bright so it was pretty easy to find it.

I looked through the telescope and was amazed to see the clearness of the craters on the moon and how bright it was.  It was really great and whet my appetite for more! My wife and I stared at it for a good hour or so, so I was very pleased with my first attempt.

On each of my posts, I am going to put the date and time of the observation from my back garden, and will also give the longitude and latitude of my house, as a point of reference for any other nearby astonomers. You never know, this may come in handy for someone.

Time: 20:00 – 21:00, Longitude: 50.435423, Latitude: -4.093217, Viewing: North East