Any other stargazers here ?

[Mikey]

I've gotten out of it lately but in my younger days I really loved stargazing.

I had a subscription to Astronomy magazine, used to watch Star Hustler on PBS

My methods of gazing wasn't great though ...

I had a cheap K-mart refractor ... I then moved up to a set of Orion night binocs ...

I kind of gave it up when I moved into an apartment because of too much light polution in the area

Anybody else watch the stars ?

[rche]

We do some stargazing, tho I have slacked off a bit waiting for my kids to get old enough to not grab onto the scope when they look into it. We have an Orion 130mm reflector. We don't have too many lenses, 25, 10, and 6; but we can get a pretty good view of Saturns rings and can see the stripes on Jupiter with this rig. Anything more powerful than this should probably have some sort of tracking motor on it anyway, at least for planet viewing. The movement of the earth is very noticeable when you mag things up that high. Objects only stay in the viewer for a couple of seconds and the lens apature is pretty tiny, which makes for a pretty narrow view angle for the eye. I also like to just stare out with the longer lens sometimes. It is amazing how many stars you don't see without just a little bit of magnification. Oh my god, it's full of stars.

I posted up a pic of the moon that I took with a cheapo digital camera through the 130 once. You popped me for forgetting to flip it back around, since reflectors show you images upside down.

[kingdom warrior]

Somehow I'm thinking Mike's days of Star gazing ended when his binoculars happened to fall on his sexy neighbor sun tanning in her bikini in her back yard.....after that it was what stars?....lol

[Mikey]

Somehow I'm thinking Mike's days of Star gazing ended when his binoculars happened to fall on his sexy neighbor sun tanning in her bikini in her back yard.....after that it was what stars?....lol

Boing-oing-oing-oing

[HardyGirl]

I remember my older brother used to be into it. He had a telescope, and then my parents gave him a better one for his birthday. Sometimes all of us would go on the roof of our apartment building in NYC and look through it. I was pretty little then, so I didn't see much, maybe the moon sometimes, and yell out "Apollo of the moon!" But I can't imagine it being very easy to see much w/ all the pollution in the air. When I went to camp when I was 11, it was the first time I saw the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper and the Little Bear that wasn't in the Hayden Planetarium.

[Hector]

Oakland has a world class Planetarium Space & Science Center...

http://www.chabotspace.org/index.htm

http://www.chabotspace.org/visit-chabot.htm

For anyone visiting Oakland...I HIGHLY recommend you stop by there...especially if you have kids...it's awesome...

[HardyGirl]

Yeah, Chabot Space and Science Center is pretty cool. I do miss the Mars display though. That was cool. And sometimes, they even show sci-fi movies. They did when the Mars display was up, but I missed those. But last year, they showed Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. It was pretty cool. Some folks showed up in costume.

Oakland has a world class Planetarium Space & Science Center...

http://www.chabotspace.org/index.htm

http://www.chabotspace.org/visit-chabot.htm

For anyone visiting Oakland...I HIGHLY recommend you stop by there...especially if you have kids...it's awesome...

[KosmiCKennY]

I am going to be in Oakland August 4-8 and would love to do some sightseeing since I have never been to the west coast before, I have all day sunday the 5th and most of the day on the 6th to do what I want and would love some suggestions. My company is flying me out there to the main offices to celebrate my 30th anniversary with them. Would like to meet any fellow megoheads in the area too, if they have time, as I have never met another mego lover like myself in person before. Going to the Chabot Space and Science Center would be great as I have always loved looking at the stars. I have 2 telescopes and it has been a while since I have gotten them out and done any star gazing.

[bobws]

I have a great night sky at my home, but since i work 3rd shift i'm usually in ahurry at night and don't get to enjoy the view. But once in awhile.........

[Gorn Captain]

I love watching the stars. When I let my dogs out for their last "business", I always stare up and look at stars for about ten minutes. It's so peaceful, it gives me a feeling that everything will be ok. That the world is a beautiful place.

Last year, when it was a great summer here, I put my CD player out on the patio at night, dragged my wife out of her comfy chair, and we danced to "Claire de lune" by Debussy with the stars and full moon above us.