JDMCQ's Garage

What kinda scope are you shooting through ?

 

Celestron 8" Edge HD 2x Power mate and using backyard EOS with a DSLR T2i

 

This was also from the other night...

 

Cool

I have a Vortex spotting scope that I can see Saturn and the moons of Jupiter with

 

Was always into astronomy and this last trip out to Moab I made my mind up to finally purchase a new scope.

 

Nice! Ive been wanting to get out and capture Jupiter but right now its rising in the East around 5am so thats not gonna happen right now. I just purchased an auto-guider so I should be able to start getting some good DSO shots in the near future. The seeing around here sucks as I'm in a white zone for light pollution being so close to Washington, DC but a 2 hour drive West puts me in the green zone. I just need to wait for winter and clear skies.

 

Yeah , Jupiter and it's moons are pretty cool , seeing them in different spots on consecutive nights really makes it real

The rings of Saturn are at the limit of my scope's power and focus , sometimes requiring averted vision but I was able to show them to my wife and she thought it was pretty cool

Light pollution in my area is not too bad but it's not black skies by any means but Jupiter's moons are visible to me through my 10x50 Vortex Viper HD binos and once located , I can usually pick out a couple naked eye

 

Thats impressive with 10x50! I like using the averted vision trick when going high mag with like a 8mm EP it helps a lot with all the dimming. I was able to spot Uranus last night but I didnt have all my camera gear out so no pics and plus pretty much just a pale bluish disc.

 

always good to follow a dream

 

Lots of ice cubes from the convenience store

Had to make a trip to hd for some prices for another project, now I'm eating Chinese food

 

We have friends that are both, husband and wife, into astronomy. The wife teaches a course at JMU and the husband is one of the higher up in the weather service.

As you have found out being in the DC area sucks for the hobby. If there is something they really want to look at they either drive to the eastern shore or the West Virginia. Both of their children are into it as well so it is usually a family camping trip.

 

We actually have a conservation area here that is supposed to be excellent for star gazing.

 

In DC and I would say Toronto as well, there is too much city light at night. The telescope our friends made is almost 6 feet long. You need a stepladder to look into the eyepiece.

 

The island I grew up on had a very good view of the night sky, anything within 200 Kms of Toronto is screwed for seeing the sky

 

That is one of the things I like about going to Michigan in the summer. We stay up in the thumb and you have a great view of the Perseid meteor shower in August.