First Light

Typically, when a person gets a new telescope, they do a quick write-up of their first impressions and first time out under the night sky.  This is called "First Light".  Since I bought a new telescope a few months back and have had the chance to try it out a few times, I thought I should do my First Light!

I will try not to bore you with the telescope details too much, but I would like to share what kind of telescope it is, the size, and why I chose this particular telescope.

It is a Dobsonian telescope which are usually large and inexpensive compared to other types of telescopes.  It has a large, primary mirror (the one for collecting the light) housed at the bottom of the telescope and a smaller secondary mirror which reflects the collected light into the eyepiece.  The eyepiece is at the top of the telescope.

My particular telescope stands about 6 feet tall when pointed straight up.  The primary mirror is 12 inches in diameter so it is able to collect quite a bit of light from whatever it's pointed at.  When fully assembled, it weighs about 130 pounds, but when disassembled, the heaviest piece only weighs 50 pounds.  It was important to me that the telescope and base were able to break down into smaller pieces so that I could fit it in my smallish car.  This way, if I wanted to get away from the light pollution of the city, I could.

This telescope is also able to locate and track objects in the sky.  I thought this would be a good idea so I could tell the telescope to find an object, like Saturn, and be able to have my friends and family be able to see it without having to make sure it was still visible in the eyepiece.

I have taken the telescope out a total of 4 times and have seen some amazing sights!  I am extremely impressed with my telescope!

Here is a short list of the objects I've looked at:

Venus:  Venus has phases much like the moon, so I was able to see that for the first time, although I have tried other times with binoculars.

Jupiter: Jupiter was amazing!  I could see the four Galilean Moons, which wasn't surprising since I'm able to see those with binoculars.  What was amazing?  The coloring and cloud bands of Jupiter! Reds, browns, and white shades.  I was also able to see the shadow of one moon on the surface of Jupiter!

Saturn:  Saturn was also amazing!  I have seen the rings a few times before, but they couldn't compare to my new telescope!  I could even see the yellows and browns of the cloud bands.  I enjoy looking at all the planets so far, but Saturn is currently my favorite.

Ring Nebula M57:  The Ring Nebula looked awesome through my mid and high power eyepieces.  I could detect a little bit of the red and blueish color. Click here for a picture of the Ring Nebula!

Beehive Star Cluster:  This is an open cluster of stars and looked very cool through the telescope as well. Click here for a picture of the Beehive Cluster!

Hercules Star Cluster: This is one of my favorite star clusters to look at so far.  This is a globular cluster of stars so they appear to be all centered around a central point.  Very bright and lots of stars with high power eyepiece. Click here for a picture of the Hercules Star Cluster!

Moon:  Really, really bright!  It was a half moon, but when someone would look through the eyepiece, their whole face would light up with moon light!  I could see mountain ranges and even inside of craters!  I really need a moon filter!

I have tried looking at a few other objects like galaxies and a nebulae, but from the light pollution of the city, I wasn't able to see them through the eyepiece.  Hopefully, in the near future I will be able to take my new telescope to a darker sky and really see what it can do!

I have a few accessories so far for the telescope.  They include: padded carrying cases, light shroud to block stray light, a high power eyepiece, and a small rechargeable battery to power the tracking motors.  I'm planning on the next accessory to be a laser collimator to make the collimation (aligning the telescope mirrors) easier and more precise.  I could have all the eyepieces in the world but they wouldn't do me any good if the mirrors aren't properly aligned!

When looking through a telescope, the image you are seeing won't look as bright or as nice as the pictures you see in books, magazines, or on the Internet.  However, seeing the object with your own eyes is a very gratifying experience to me.  It's amazing to be looking at something that is hundreds to millions of light years away.

Help me name the telescope!  Please leave a comment with some name ideas and your reason why!

Standing Tall in Little Black Dress

Telescope Posing

Missing the Little Black Dress!

My Telescope next to a baby telescope

Astrophotography in Hawaii

Recently, I was able to take a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.  Of course I packed up my camera to take some pictures of the night sky!  My goal was to be able to capture the constellation of the Southern Cross and our closest neighboring star system, Centauri.  Both of these targets were visible just before sunrise, with the Southern Cross rising before the Centauri system.  I was able to capture a few decent shots.

Both the Southern Cross and Centauri are located on the southern end of the Milky Way band that we can see at night.  Unfortunately, from the northern hemisphere, we cannot see either of these.  Neither of these are visible while the constellation of Cassiopeia is in the sky.  For those of us in the northern hemisphere, Cassiopeia is visible year round.

I was also able to travel up to the Keck Observatory which is where many of these pictures will be from.  It was decently dark up there, but very crowded with people.  I wasn't able to drive right up to the actual observatories, but to the visitors center where they had about a dozen or so telescopes set up pointing at different targets in the sky.  Four-wheel-drive vehicles are required to make it all the way to the summit, which I didn't have.  Maybe next time!  I was able to get a few decent pictures of the Keck Observatory from the place where I stayed.

I traveled to one of the active volcanoes on this particular Hawaiian island as well.  Many people, including me, stayed until after sunset to see the glow of the lava from this volcano.  I have several pictures which I have included just a few since it's not really astronomy related.  Of course, I took some astronomy pictures from this location also.

Volcano Caldera

Lava Glow

Lava Glow and a few Stars

Orion at Volcano

Volcano Glow, Stars, and Meteor

Pleiades at Volcano

Lava Glow Close-up

Lava Glow Close-up

Above the Clouds at Keck Observatory

People Watching Sunset at Keck Observatory

Meade LX200GPS Telescope at Keck Observatory

Celestron Telescope at Keck Observatory

Pleiades from Keck

Stars and Descending Cars

ISS, Stars, and Lava Glow

Orion from Keck  Observatory

Stars at Keck Observatory

Stars and Cars at Keck Observatory

Orion and Sirius at Keck Observatory

Pleiades Through Clouds and Palms

Moon glow, Palm Trees, Stars, and Keck Observatory in the Distance

Keck Observatory and Star spin

Southern Cross and Centauri

Southern Cross and Centauri

Moon and Stars

Big Dipper Between the Palm Trees

Southern Cross and Centauri

 If you need help finding the Southern Cross in these pictures, it is the four stars just above the hill in the distance.  It's leaning slightly to the left.  If you follow the two stars that form the horizontal part of the cross to the left, you will see a fairly bright star just above the palm trees.  This is Centauri.

If you are having trouble finding anything in any of the pictures, please let me know!