I am relatively new to it, but I am an avid amateur. I got my first telescope in April,
this one here..
God, they're expensive. But I have learned a lot. I've recently been living in a house far from the city and I'm able to see a lot of stars.
Sad thing is, I'm only able to visit the house every other weekend.
But It's worth it. Although what you see is not exactly what you'll get in the book, seeing Saturn's Rings and looking at Andromeda is astounding.
I think the best place to look for on life in the Solar System is Europa. Titan, although it is like Earth how it was millions of years ago, that would mean that it would take a few million years for it to be like us, yes?
Europa we know has a high chance of liquid water underneath its surface. And if its concealed in all that ice; it is most likely warm in there and aquatic life would flourish.
Thanks for complimenting my avatar by the way, I like yours too!
The universe is a beautiful place. There's so many theories for physics that humans just can't comprehend. It's amazing to think that someone out there can utilize this vast wonderland.
Anyway, here's a conversation starter: Deep Sky Objects(and europa/titan!)
Most of us have heard constellations from when we were little. Like recognizing the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Polaris(north star), and all that mumbo jumbo. Although some freaks managed to fit 88 constellations in this sky. And those who have been studying for a bit longer then others will recognize other constellations and figurisms (Pegasus' square, summer triangle, etc.). But the thing is, when you look a the Big Dipper with your naked eye you see a connection of stars. But with a set of binoculars, its much more. But let's point your lens to Andromeda for a minute. It's a relatively faint constellation with a big secret; M31.
(i uploaded attachments)
The white one is what you should expect to see with a basic 4-6" telescope. Color is what you're not getting without some special lens (which Im lucky enough to have)!! I didn't take that picture, by the way. And the other one is layering of many many images that people from the Hubble Telescope have compiled.
It's amazing how this stuff exists. We can see a galaxy that is millions of light years away. We're looking at that galaxy how it looked millions of years ago.
Space is so mysterious. And its just so vast we'll have to advance our technology to the extreme to be able to explore all this up close.
Anyway, feel free to talk about anything you want here.
But just for a question you could answer; what are you favorite Deep sky objects? I personally like globular clusters because there is a lot of bright ones and its amazing all those stars can manage when they're so close together.
For those that are interested; if you want to grab your binoculars or telescope and look at your night sky.
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