First Year in Amateur Astronomy (early spring 2007-2008)
So, I’ve been at it for more than year now, and what I have seen and learned is astounding. From a historical account I have always been interested in the cosmos since I was a single digit old, and took the boyhood dream of wanting to become an astronaut. Now, I may be no astronaut but I do have a decent income. It then hit me in the head, “Why don’t I put some hard earned money into a telescope!”
After about a month of research, I went for a 10” Dobsonian design and took it to the sky. Taking this cost effective approach, I bought a five magnitude star atlas by comet hunter David Levy and just looked at the layout of the constellations from my magnitude ~3.5 skies in urban Raleigh, North Carolina.
First, I looked at the well-known brightest stars in the sky starting with the brightest Taurus member, Aldebaran. Satisfied with finding a few stellar targets, I looked at the layout of the constellation Leo with its backwards question mark for the head of the lion. I then saw one bright “star” that was not labeled on the atlas. Using my only eyepiece at the time (a 2” 27mm) I took a look-see and said, “Holy (fill in the blank)! There’s Saturn! I must have looked at the ringed beauty for an hour before calling it a night. HOLDING my point-and-shoot digital camera, I was able to get a crude snapshot of the planet and then later, some nice looks of our neighboring lunar landscapes.
The next outings, I began my hunt for deep sky objects. Most people would look at objects like the Orion Nebula or the Pleiades Cluster as first time targets. I don’t know why I did this, but my first object was a not so well known globular M53 in Coma Berencies constellation. Next were the galaxies M81 and its disturbed neighbor, M82.
As summer drew near, I looked at the absolute monster, Jupiter and took a decent snapshot. By the looks of the belts, it was as if the Solar System had created a giant marble to roll around the Sun. New deep sky objects started to reveal themselves to me such as the Andromeda galaxy and the Ring and Dumbbell nebulas. By this time I had bought two additional eyepieces and a 2x Barlow and had created a camera adapter using duct tape.
As summer started to come to a close, I found my astronomy experience had become downright addictive. I bought another telescope on an equatorial mount and began to learn the patient art of polar alignment and counterweight balancing. My future fiancé did not understand this fascination but thought I could be spending money on more wasteful things. She liked some of the objects I looked at, but in the end, it didn’t really interest her and said that “dot-looking” wasn’t for her. Because of this, I had to look for other people who shared my interests. That was when I looked to the Raleigh Astronomy Club.
The members of the Raleigh Astronomy Club embraced their interest in the heavens as much as I did. I liked astronomy, through touring the sky visually and on occasion, photographically. These people had vast experiences in both. The outings and fellowship they provided have been invaluable. It was with this club that made me fully understand the value of dark skies and how urban lighting has become terribly inefficient. When I visited their dark sky site at Jordan Lake, about 30 miles from urban Raleigh, Some of the deep sky objects that I would had to use averted vision in the city, were so much more obvious and others were much brighter. For example, I could almost see the dust lanes of the Andromeda Galaxy and a bigger explosion of stars from the M13 globular. With the other club members, I took advantage of peering through their optical toys and learning tips to make my experiences more enjoyable.
Fortuitously, I learned that getting into this hobby in the 2007 was also a time when Mars would be on one of its closest approaches to Earth and wouldn’t be back for another 26 months. I was also beginning to see that the astrophotography aspect of the hobby was taking grasp of my astronomy addiction. This gave me an excuse to buy a little more sophisticated camera for the Mars opposition and to also take pictures for long exposure photographs of the deep sky. “Be prepared” as the boy scouts would say. As a result, some of the more obvious Martian landscapes showed up nicely in my photos and later, deep sky objects like the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades Cluster looked magnificent. Also of note that winter, I observed my first brightest comet, Holmes 17P.
In January of 2008, the Raleigh Astronomy Club co-sponsored the “Astronomy Days” event at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It was here that I helped with the solar observing exhibit and helped the public understand the nature of light in “The Speed of Light” exhibit. The next public event I had the joy of participating in was the lunar eclipse of February 2008. I think one individual said it best by the moon looking like a giant Mandarin orange.
As for the rest of 2008, I continued merely surveying the sky and photographing the less notable galaxies in the NGC catalog. I feel my most memorable photo this year was the 2008ax supernova in NGC4490. I also acquired my third telescope, a 6” Maksutov Cassegrain along with a more heavy duty mount for astrophotography.
So far, my favorite planet is Uranus and my favorite deep sky object is M82. My future plans are to continue taking photos of other NGCs, chase an asteroid, and maybe buy a webcam setup for better planetary photos.
In closing, for those thinking of entering amateur astronomy and wish to buy a telescope, as has been stated on this site and elsewhere, spend your money on a reputable brand telescope that you WILL USE. Understand that astrophotography is only one category of amateur astronomy and demands a high price. But before you buy anything, reach deep down and ask yourself why you wish to explore the universe. I have two reasons. One is I do amateur astronomy because I never have. Secondly, the universe helps me to understand how we’re all connected in every form of existence. Whatever your beliefs are, religious, philosophical or scientific; I think astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson puts it into perspective best:
“Understand that the very molecules in your body can be traced back to the center of high mass stars that exploded their stellar guts and enriched the cosmos with the chemistry for life. We’re all connected to each other biologically, to the Earth chemically, and to the rest of the universe atomically…that’s pretty cool.”
Thanks RAC,
D. Chris Cole
10”Meade LightBridge, $$$
Meade LXD75 SN-8, $$$$
Orion 150mm Maksutov-Cassegrain, $$$
Orion Atlas GoTo Mount, $$$$
Too many eyepieces, $$$
Canon 350D, $$$
Past year and a half, PRICELESS
