After a watching a few episodes of the BBC’s “The Sky At Night” and registering an account with Galaxy Zoo, my interest in all things galactic was perked again. This week I’ve been thinking (not for the first time) that at some stage I’d like to get my hands on a decent telescope and give ameture astronomy a shot. A telescope is pretty low on the list of priorities now, so I put the thought to one side, content for the moment to keep clicking away at Galaxy Zoo. Yesterday morning I go upstairs to discover a Meade DS-2130ATS-LNT in a box. Things are, you could say, looking up! Dad’s just retired and as a parting gift the company had this sent from ol Salt Lake City. However cliche, a telescope actually makes a fair bit of sense, I think. And then there’s the unintended beneficiary, yours truly.
So last night, we had what i’m told astronomers call “first light” through the device and saw the moon closer than I’ve ever seen it before (or expected to see, from our front yard!). Heavy cloud and a lot of light pollution meant the moon was all we could investigate, and it means I’ve not been able to configure the fancy AutoStar feature. This telescope is motorised and has an onboard computer that will do fancy things like suggesting the best celestial objects to see on any given night, automatically track stars, it can even take photos.
I suspect this is the beginning of an ameture astronomy fascet to buzzmoo.com. Let’s see what we can see tonight..