Star tracking as a hobby

[Viker]

When I was very young I fell for the stars. My uncle introduced me to astronomy and star tracking. I wanted to be a space explorer, too. I still imagine when I am tracking stars that I will journey to them.
Things came up in life that would make being an astronaut not possible.

I currently have a star tracker on my phone. On a night like tonight it's not possible to see the stars. So tech is where it's at.

Tonight I have my device propped on it's stand. I have it aimed at the Messier 45 cluster also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. The prominent star being Alcyone. I wish I could take off in a light warp starship and explore.

I find this hobby relaxing. I use it to meditate and even pray.

 

[Spirit of Light]

When I was very young I fell for the stars. My uncle introduced me to astronomy and star tracking. I wanted to be a space explorer, too. I still imagine when I am tracking stars that I will journey to them.
Things came up in life that would make being an astronaut not possible.

I currently have a star tracker on my phone. On a night like tonight it's not possible to see the stars. So tech is where it's at.

Tonight I have my device propped on it's stand. I have it aimed at the Messier 45 cluster also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. The prominent star being Alcyone. I wish I could take off in a light warp starship and explore.

I find this hobby relaxing. I use it to meditate and even pray.

When i was young i used to have a telescope to watch stars and the moon it was as you say both fun and relaxing. But here in norway it was winter when i used to watch, so often it was freezing cold

 

[The Hammer]

What's the star tracker that you use? I miss seeing views like this:

While I was deployed out in the Pacific Ocean.

 

[Viker]

What's the star tracker that you use? I miss seeing views like this:

View attachment 51150

While I was deployed out in the Pacific Ocean.

It's just called star tracker. I even checked it's accuracy with the old compass and sexton. It's not bad.

BTW. I wanted to join the Navy or Air Force. I couldn't.

 

[Viker]

When i was young i used to have a telescope to watch stars and the moon it was as you say both fun and relaxing. But here in norway it was winter when i used to watch, so often it was freezing cold

Winter is often the best time to observe. Vikings swore by the stars.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Winter is often the best time to observe. Vikings swore by the stars.

Yes, i heard the air is much more clear at winter, so there is less distortion through the lenses in the telescope

 

[The Hammer]

It's just called star tracker. I even checked it's accuracy with the old compass and sexton. It's not bad.

BTW. I wanted to join the Navy or Air Force. I couldn't.

Cool, maybe I'll check it out.

I've always been interested in the stars. Just never bothered to get a telescope. My grandfather introduced it to me when I was young. I distinctly remember seeing Mars with him.

The US military is tough as a whole to get in these days. Not many do qualify. Air Force turned me down, I went Navy, tried to go Air Force again after navy enlistment. Still got denied, lol.

 

[Heyo]

When I was very young I fell for the stars. My uncle introduced me to astronomy and star tracking. I wanted to be a space explorer, too. I still imagine when I am tracking stars that I will journey to them.
Things came up in life that would make being an astronaut not possible.

I currently have a star tracker on my phone. On a night like tonight it's not possible to see the stars. So tech is where it's at.

Tonight I have my device propped on it's stand. I have it aimed at the Messier 45 cluster also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. The prominent star being Alcyone. I wish I could take off in a light warp starship and explore.

I find this hobby relaxing. I use it to meditate and even pray.

I never was much into star gazing. I can locate maybe a dozen or two stars and constellations. But I'm interested in the science behind star gazing. While you watch the stars, I watch Anton Petrov, SciShow space, PBS SpaceTime and Dr. Becky on YouTube.

 

[Viker]

I never was much into star gazing. I can locate maybe a dozen or two stars and constellations. But I'm interested in the science behind star gazing. While you watch the stars, I watch Anton Petrov, SciShow space, PBS SpaceTime and Dr. Becky on YouTube.

I love this as well.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I had three telescopes as a youth - all not that powerful though - and made a tripod for them whilst at school. I did spend some time looking at the stars but this was in the suburbs of London, so not that many occasions for clear skies. The first time I saw the full extent of the Milky Way I was blown away. This I think occurred in North Wales whilst camping there but have seen the same in Scotland, where again it was far from city lights - and often in winter so the skies being much clearer. One can just imagine though how it was for our ancestors, where such sights would have been seen virtually every day, and how such might have impacted them.

 

[Twilight Hue]

When i was young i used to have a telescope to watch stars and the moon it was as you say both fun and relaxing. But here in norway it was winter when i used to watch, so often it was freezing cold

Strangely enough, cold areas are the absolute best for viewing where the atmosphere has less interference, in addition to places without light pollution.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I never was much into star gazing. I can locate maybe a dozen or two stars and constellations. But I'm interested in the science behind star gazing. While you watch the stars, I watch Anton Petrov, SciShow space, PBS SpaceTime and Dr. Becky on YouTube.

I like Anton. His passion for science, particularly astronomy comes across in his videos.

I kind of see him as a young Carl Sagon or Jack Stargazer. "Keep looking up"!

 

[Mock Turtle]

I had three telescopes as a youth - all not that powerful though - and made a tripod for them whilst at school. I did spend some time looking at the stars but this was in the suburbs of London, so not that many occasions for clear skies. The first time I saw the full extent of the Milky Way I was blown away. This I think occurred in North Wales whilst camping there but have seen the same in Scotland, where again it was far from city lights - and often in winter so the skies being much clearer. One can just imagine though how it was for our ancestors, where such sights would have been seen virtually every day, and how such might have impacted them.

And I've no doubt mentioned this before .... but I have a nice pair of Zeiss 12x50 binoculars with which I have seen the rings of Saturn and observed the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet hitting Jupiter in 1994. The bins were bought to observe birds, since I couldn't afford a spotting scope at the time, and I can recommend them, given that one can see birds not normally visible to the naked eye - so, an early warning system.

Star tracking across the universe.

 

[Heyo]

I like Anton. His passion for science, particularly astronomy comes across in his videos.

I kind of see him as a young Carl Sagon or Jack Stargazer. "Keep looking up"!

If you think Anton is passionate, you haven't seen Dr. Becky yet.

 

[Polymath257]

I've spent a lot of time outside with telescopes, learning not just the visible constellations, but many of the patterns of dimmer stars. I love watching the dance of the moons of Jupiter, or tracking down 'fuzzies' (galaxies, nebulae, etc).

Amateurs can still do relevant work by keeping track of variable stars, for example. Look up the AAVSO.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

I used to see the starts real good way up in the U.P... I saw some funny zigzagging ones too.. And I saw the northern lights once, or something like that.. The whole sky was abstract green waves and stuff, from end to end. But that was before camera phones

The mars photos are kind of neat to explore, the new ones they got in recent years

 

[amorphous_constellation]

The US military is tough as a whole to get in these days. Not many do qualify. Air Force turned me down, I went Navy, tried to go Air Force again after navy enlistment. Still got denied, lol.

Speaking of that.. and you don't have to answer this, but what do you make of all this recent talk about navy ships getting swarmed by ufos.. zig-zagging, diving in the water and all that.. the footage they had looked like a blinking green triangle. They must have better footage, I figure.. I thought they said it's been happening for a while too

 

[Polymath257]

One of my peak experiences was when I got the opportunity to look through the 40 inch telescope at Yerkes observatory. This is the largest refracting telescope in the world (there are larger reflectors).

The whirlpool galaxy showed wonderful spiral arms (you don't see those in amateur scopes, usually). I forget which globular cluster we looked at, but it filled up the whole field of view. And you could see the ice cap on Mars and a few black details.

The scope itself was so nicely balanced that you could move it by hand even though it was the length of the building and weighs tons.

I was buzzing for days.

 

[ChristineM]

I use google sky map to identify stars, it's quite accurate and identifies the planets, main stars, constellations, galaxies and nebula.

Going to give your star tracker a try

 

[Viker]

Anyone catching a glimpse of the alpha Capricornids meteor shower? I'm tracking them on my phone but can't see them in the sky.