Moon and Mars

[Jim727]

Take a look at the moon and you will see Mars very nearby. Beautiful sight. Earth/Mars will be closest in March, I think.

[RWebb]

thx!

[enzo1]

[motion]

Thanks.... gonna check that out tonight!

[vash]

sweet..i hope i have a clear night!!

[Jim727]

I was beginning to think I was the only one here with an astronomy interest.

Jupiter and Venus are also very bright. About two weeks ago the moon, Jupiter, and Venus were almost equidistant and in a straight line. Beautiful.

Have a Saturn pic, but that will go in another thread.

Jim

[bell]

Awesome..........unfortunately its raining here.....
First time in months.......figures lol...

[masraum]

I was beginning to think I was the only one here with an astronomy.
Jim

Nope. It's been too long since I had my scope out, but I still look up fairly often. I've got an 8" Newtonian on a Dobsonian base. We've got a few others here and Pazazu has worked on some really big scopes.

I love interesting conjunctions.

[enzo1]

the moon is yellow, bark at the moon type. Can't see Mars yet...

[chocolatelab]

Theres an Iphone ap called StarMap 3D

It shows all the stars and planets. The other day I could see mars and venus.

[Joe Bob]

Does the confluence make redheadsmorebatschitcrazY? If so, I needs more foil for my helmet....

If not, nice pic and I'll go out and look with just my usual armament....

[RWebb]

I used to know a woman who got real crazy during a full moon - one time, she wanted to do a night climb on a heavily crevassed peak in the Cascades where we were camping. Not even a red head - a blonde.

[masraum]

I'm sure I've posted this before. If you want to see the sky as it should look from where you live, and zoom in and out and change the time ahead or back minutes, hours, days, years, there is a free program that's REALLY cool. You can even add in satellites, asteroids, etc.... You can click on items and get info/details, etc.... It models the correct locations of the moons of planets (like Saturn and Jupiter) and even the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is in the correct location at any time.

Did I mention it's free?

I'm not affiliated, just an enthusiastic user. I've used this when using my scope to find hard to find objects, or when I can't get outside to just browse the sky.

Stellarium.
They've got it for Windows, OSX and Linux.
Stellarium

A few screen shots.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by chocolatelab

Theres an Iphone ap called StarMap 3D

It shows all the stars and planets. The other day I could see mars and venus.

I don't know if this is available for iPhone or just Android, but google makes an app called "Google Sky Map" that's also very good.

[ronster]

Uh oh!

[Jim Richards]

[TimT]

Stellarium is the schiznits

[Jim727]

Steve - thanks for the Stellarium link. Looks excellent! May have to get a 'scope - have wanted one since forever but I'm afraid I'll shell out for a good one then not have enough time to enjoy it. May have to wait until real retirement.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with astronomy. Ok, anything about space or science, really. My folks would often find my head buried in a Unitron or Questar catalog. They finally took me on a 'field trip' to New Hope where I met Larry Braymer and spend a fair amount of time with him in the shop seeing how the scopes were built and tested. Terrific guy to spend so much time with an unknown kid. I really lusted after a Questar (quartz optics, of course) but they were a tad over $1K at a time when $15K would buy a tract house (late '50s).

I'll stop - I'm lusting again.
\

[masraum]

Just to torture you a bit more, my 8" scope was only $350. The main reason for the low cost is the mount. A Dobson mount is really cheap compared to an equatorial mount, and really well suited to visual observation.

[Jim727]

You are cruel.

The Dob definitely saves a bunch on mount costs, but sacrifices photography. I'm amazed at how much more you can get for a $$ now with the Celestron and Meade units.