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We bought a telescope and a set of eyepieces and filters a couple of years ago. It is a beautiful telescope. However, we were pretty much not able to use it at the old house because of the light pollution. We had street lights in the front and lights along the arroyo in the back. It was awful. So this poor, beautiful piece of equipment sat unused for many moons.
Now that we live somewhere without so much light pollution, I decided to put it all back together earlier in the week. I hadn't had a chance to use it until tonight. Jonathan got the Little Human all tucked into bed and we moved Capt. Picard outside to see what was what...
We looked at the moon. It was glorious. I put the moon filter on and it helped lessen the glare and brought out more detail, just like it was supposed to. Since I knew that Saturn was close to the moon, I got it in my head to look at Saturn too. That took a little more work but I finally got it into focus.
I SAW SATURN'S RINGS!!!
I have never seen Saturn's rings with my own eyes. It was just breathtaking. We will be using the telescope a lot now. I am hoping to get a camera mount for it, so that I can take some astronomy photos, but we'll see.
I did start an astronomy journal this evening. I am listing things: dates of stargazing, what I see, which eyepieces/filters I use, how well I see each thing with each combination. I think this will make things easier. I am also making a list in the journal of extra accessories I might want to purchase at a later date.
The first entry into this journal was the first shooting star I've seen in about 15 years while looking out my living room sliding glass doors. One of my friends pointed out that it was probably a leftover from the Lyrids meteor shower earlier in the week, but I don't count it as part of the shower since it was all alone and the shower was only supposed to last through the 22nd.
Tonight was a good night!
Now that we live somewhere without so much light pollution, I decided to put it all back together earlier in the week. I hadn't had a chance to use it until tonight. Jonathan got the Little Human all tucked into bed and we moved Capt. Picard outside to see what was what...
We looked at the moon. It was glorious. I put the moon filter on and it helped lessen the glare and brought out more detail, just like it was supposed to. Since I knew that Saturn was close to the moon, I got it in my head to look at Saturn too. That took a little more work but I finally got it into focus.
I SAW SATURN'S RINGS!!!
I have never seen Saturn's rings with my own eyes. It was just breathtaking. We will be using the telescope a lot now. I am hoping to get a camera mount for it, so that I can take some astronomy photos, but we'll see.
I did start an astronomy journal this evening. I am listing things: dates of stargazing, what I see, which eyepieces/filters I use, how well I see each thing with each combination. I think this will make things easier. I am also making a list in the journal of extra accessories I might want to purchase at a later date.
The first entry into this journal was the first shooting star I've seen in about 15 years while looking out my living room sliding glass doors. One of my friends pointed out that it was probably a leftover from the Lyrids meteor shower earlier in the week, but I don't count it as part of the shower since it was all alone and the shower was only supposed to last through the 22nd.
Tonight was a good night!
