Viewing the Moon with Sheila
Last night, I quickly assembled my good telescope on the deck so Sheila and I could get some quick views of the moon and Jupiter. Sheila hasn't had an opportunity to view anything at all through my good and bigger telescope until now so last night was a first for her. Her only reference to a quality telescope was her few views through the little cheap telescope I rebuilt in recent weeks.
First, we checked out the moon... we started by observing the entire moon in the field of view... this elicited the first of many WOW's from Sheila. Compared to the views she has seen before through the small rebuilt telescope, this better telescope provides stunningly crisp and bright views. The views of the moon are so bright, in fact, that we need to use a filter to cut the light down to only 13%.
Then we moved to more powerful combinations of eyepieces and barlows. She got to see very closeup views of various craters as well as closeup views of the Montes Apenninus mountain range and the Apollo 15 landing site.
We also attempted to view Jupiter but we had very little time before Jupiter was hidden behind trees. Sheila did get a brief glimpse of Jupiter and four moons last night. The view, although slightly masked by tree branches, was far better through this good telescope last night compared to her only other views of Jupiter through our small rebuilt telescope about a month ago. It would have been nice to show her more though... especially more closeup views. We'll just have to get to that on another night.
I like having mature trees around our house but, as far as backyard astronomy goes, we have far too many trees around our house at this point. Unfortunately, we can only see a very small patch of the southern sky from our property and although the view to the north is more open than the view to the south, that northern view is ruined by light pollution (neighbors) and utility lines.
Last night, Saturn was obscured by trees... Mars was obscured by trees... Neptune was obscured by trees... and Venus was obscured by trees. One of these nights, I'll need to load up my telescope and laptop/tablet in the car and drive to a large open field. Fortunately, we have two such sites within about five minutes of the house.
Anyway, I think it is safe to say that Sheila was impressed with the few views she had through my better telescope last night.
First, we checked out the moon... we started by observing the entire moon in the field of view... this elicited the first of many WOW's from Sheila. Compared to the views she has seen before through the small rebuilt telescope, this better telescope provides stunningly crisp and bright views. The views of the moon are so bright, in fact, that we need to use a filter to cut the light down to only 13%.
Then we moved to more powerful combinations of eyepieces and barlows. She got to see very closeup views of various craters as well as closeup views of the Montes Apenninus mountain range and the Apollo 15 landing site.
We also attempted to view Jupiter but we had very little time before Jupiter was hidden behind trees. Sheila did get a brief glimpse of Jupiter and four moons last night. The view, although slightly masked by tree branches, was far better through this good telescope last night compared to her only other views of Jupiter through our small rebuilt telescope about a month ago. It would have been nice to show her more though... especially more closeup views. We'll just have to get to that on another night.
I like having mature trees around our house but, as far as backyard astronomy goes, we have far too many trees around our house at this point. Unfortunately, we can only see a very small patch of the southern sky from our property and although the view to the north is more open than the view to the south, that northern view is ruined by light pollution (neighbors) and utility lines.
Last night, Saturn was obscured by trees... Mars was obscured by trees... Neptune was obscured by trees... and Venus was obscured by trees. One of these nights, I'll need to load up my telescope and laptop/tablet in the car and drive to a large open field. Fortunately, we have two such sites within about five minutes of the house.
Anyway, I think it is safe to say that Sheila was impressed with the few views she had through my better telescope last night.
Comments
Post a Comment