Pardon me kind gentlefolk, thoust educate mineself on the new science known as "backyard astronomy"?

I've always loved the stars, sci-fi, and our pathetic species' (/Morbo) own space exploration. SWMBO and I watch all of the celestial events that come through our slice of sky (meteoroid showers, eclipses, comets, etc). I've realized that I spend hours staring at photos of other stars, galaxies, etc.

I want to start "backyard astronomy..ing?" now. I have no equipment (*) and basically no budget. I picked up a nice periodical on the subject but I figured somebody here must do it as well.

Where should I start? To make the goals clear, would like to take photos as opposed to just observations.

(*) I do have a selection of digital point-and-shoot cameras (3, no DSLR's), a Droid RAZR (with the Google SkyMap app), a GoPro HD, and access to very close, elevated, limited-light area in addition to the typical backyard deck.

Step one. Download google sky map if you have an android. Neat program. Then listen to the kind folk that know what their talking about.

A great way to start is a blanket in a dark secluded place on a clear night. Lie on your back and learn the stars' and constellations' names. Binoculars are good for studying close objects like the moon and the moons of Jupiter.

For budget gear start with the largest aperture binoculars you can find in your price range. $50-100 worth of binocular will be better than a scope in that price range. And it is multi-purpose.

As far as telescopes, aperture is your best friend, far more than magnification. Skip Tasco. Reflector is typically better than refractor

telescopes.com is supposed to be a good site to shop, good deals on decent entry level gear.

Nice Celestron, on sale $149

In reply to neon4891:

Oh man, that's some good info. That Celestron is mighty tempting...

We bought a big Dob, 8", and are very happy with it. I can see planets with ease, and can interchange lenses to magnify more/less. As is the moon covers the entire view.

http://www.buy.com/prod/orion-xt8-classic-dobsonian-telescope-beginner-barlow-kit/241871759.html

The kids love it, and since it has a base rather than a tripod, it sits very sturdy and level.

As far as gazing goes, there are lots of websites devoted to this. For planets, what my kids seem to be interested, it's easy. There is a star chart included in that link, you put in day and time, it shows you what the sky looks like. You go online and find out where Jupiter is supposed to be, see if it's in the night sky, hold the star chart up, match up the stars, aim telescope, BAM, come on, 3 year old son, look at Jupiter.

We haven't tried to see galaxies or nebula yet, but we have seen clusters quite by accident. It's a nice piece.

bad link, sorry, buy.com sold out:

http://www.telescope.com/Orion-XT8-Classic-Dobsonian-Telescope-Beginner-Barlow-Kit/p/102029.uts?keyword=xt8%20dobsonian

Google Sky Map let me identify planets in the sky for the first time in my life. Swing the phone around to find the planets and line things up, and poof, I know that tiny dot is Mars, or Jupiter, or whatever. First time ever for me.

This directly let to my son aiming his telescope correctly at Saturn and Jupiter, so he could actually see the rings and the spot and one of the moons.

Add the app space junk lite, and you can admire satellites, the space station, and other things humans have thrown up into the sky.

The most important thing is to get away from light pollution. You will see more with your naked eye if you are well away from civilization, than you will with the fanciest telescope in the world in the middle of a big city.

SWMBO has only lived in cities and did not realize what the night sky was like until we first went backpacking.

This sounds AWESOME!

A good place to learn the names of the stars and consteleations is a planetarium. Many have classes in identification. I like the cell phone point at it and it identifies it thing. The night sky is fascinating.

I've been playing with the Google SkyMap for years, and have a Satellite tracker app, too. I read through the periodical and learned that NASA is sponsoring some small telescopes you can order to take photos with for free!

Check it: http://mo-www.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/OWN/Own.pl

They are hobby-level things, but you can dial up what you want pictured, it's exposure, and any filters. I ordered a few various things just to see what it would do. They'll supposedly be in my inbox within a day or so.

It's not as much fun as a real telescope/camera, but it's cool!

Browsing CL for used 'scopes tells me they have depreciation about on par with a 7-series or S-class (ie - really bad), so I may have to watch for a good one to come up local in a few days.

The high school in my town builds a telescope occassionally. They use one of those cardboard concrete form tubes (sonitube?) for the body. I think they get convex mirrors that are unpolished and the students polish them.

I like StarWalk for iOS devices and would like to learn more on what is a "good one" for similar C-list trolling.

In reply to tuna55:

I have a cheesy old refractor I've had since I was a kid, and I was considering a nicer scope for my kids. I do have a predisposition to favor the reflectors. The one thing I considered essential was a motor drive and an equatorial mount to keep objects like planets in the field of view. How does the Dobsonian you linked fare in that regard?

I ran across this blog article about the topic of amateur telescopes a few weeks ago -- seems to have some good info in it:

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2012/12/04/science_gifts_telescopes.php

In reply to 1988RedT2:

Motor drives are a recent development on Dobsonian telescopes as historically, they were chosen when maximizing the collecting area to cost ratio was the prime objective.

The cost of motor drives has come down astronomically (I crack me up) so they are now starting to appear.

However, I’m not sure you can get an equatorial mount for a Dobsonian as they’re so bulky…they’d probably only use altazimuth mounts which aren’t compatible with astrophotography unless you have an additional counter rotator.

1988RedT2 wrote: In reply to tuna55: I have a cheesy old refractor I've had since I was a kid, and I was considering a nicer scope for my kids. I do have a predisposition to favor the reflectors. The one thing I considered essential was a motor drive and an equatorial mount to keep objects like planets in the field of view. How does the Dobsonian you linked fare in that regard?

The one I liked it just a plain old telescope. We have four kids, all under five, so I am not doing anything fancy. Honestly, I get Jupiter in the scope, I can keep it there very easily. I can just grab the scope and move it as Jupiter moves, no problem. I didn't want anything fancy. I think the same line has the type of thing you're looking for, though:

http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Dobsonian-Telescopes/IntelliScope-Dobsonians/Orion-SkyQuest-XT8i-IntelliScope-Dobsonian-Telescope/pc/1/c/12/sc/27/p/102012.uts?refineByCategoryId=27

I do like to dobs. I am not a cheap tripod fan, and expensive tripods are expensive. I don't know much more than that about the motor controlled units. They exist. Not sure how well they work.

The diameter also makes it nice for a relatively nice view, even in relatively light polluted area. A negative though is that the thing is huge. It's like 5 feet tall and eight inches in diameter. Can't just throw it in the attic. It isn't too bad, though, and it is light and pretty durable. With the dobsonian mount, the kids would have to work really hard to knock it over.

The dobs look great for live viewing, but I want to dabble into the astrophotography part. Unfortunately for me, the article linked above has this to say:

Smart Man said: Astrophotography is an expensive word, although thanks to webcams and the like, getting into it is not quite as bad as it used to be. As you'd imagine, all astrophotography these days is digital, with equipment ranging from simple webcams all the way up to stuff that easily costs as much as a new car, or perhaps a small house.

Then dabble. Even a pair of binocs lets you see things, especially sats and such. A cheap Tasco telescope has enough power to let you see the rings of Saturn.

Pictures worthy of National Geographic are irrelivant, so don't worry about that. That would be like not becoming a car guy because you can't afford a Porsche. Pfft.

foxtrapper wrote: Then dabble. Even a pair of binocs lets you see things, especially sats and such. A cheap Tasco telescope has enough power to let you see the rings of Saturn. Pictures worthy of National Geographic are irrelivant, so don't worry about that. That would be like not becoming a car guy because you can't afford a Porsche. Pfft.

I agree. The Orion catalog is filled with photography options ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, which attach to any type of telescope equally expensively. Go peruse their website. I can mail you my catalog if you're unhappy with their website or whatever. I am not that interested in it, but there are good options out there.

In reply to tuna55:

Yes, that is my plan. Once the rain/clouds lift I plan on doing some simple binocular observances. I'll grab a tripod for the camera & GoPro (as I need one anyway for other purposes) and dabble with that as well. The stop-motion feature on the GoPro combined with the free astro photo-layering software has me intrigued for neat things like showing star movement across the sky. If I'm really getting into it by then, I'll keep an eye out for a gently used scope. I'm not expecting anything spectacular, but to take a picture of Saturn where you can see the rings from my backyard just sounds way too cool to pass up.

foxtrapper wrote: Pictures worthy of National Geographic are irrelivant, so don't worry about that. That would be like not becoming a car guy because you can't afford a Porsche. Pfft.

I don't think the article is saying "don't do it", merely warning you that it's the kind of thing that can very easily turn into a very expensive hobby.

When I took my Miata to its first track day back in 1999, I had no idea how much money was going to go down that particular hole. :)

My back deck was a great place to look at the stars on cold nights. Then they built an elementary school across the road and the light pollution ruined it.

Update! We watched the Jupiter pass on the moon last night and I tried some pics with ye old point-and-shoot camera. Nothing spectacular, but you can see Jupiter at about 11-o'clock from the moon.