New Hobby: Practical Astronomy

[bloodyrosemccoy]

You know, quite apart from any science, the idea of diamond seas on Neptune is just totally brilliant.

I’ve picked up a couple of books on stargazing. I’m terrific at armchair astronomy—I could tell you about binary star systems, how to get a supernova, the probable ages and classifications of various stars, and how black holes fuck up EVERYTHING.

But damned if I can find more than three constellations in the sky.* Hell, I only just recently realized just how the phase of the moon correlates to where it is in the sky at any given time. I couldn’t tell you Venus from an airplane.

And it occurred to me recently that, since I tend to stay awake all night anyway, astronomy’s a perfect hobby.

So I’m studying sky maps, waiting for the sky to clear up,** and looking up astronomical clubs or societies in Salt Lake. I’m also probably going to check out the Bad Astronomer’s guide to telescopes, see if I can’t find a good one.

It’s one way to get me out of the bat cave.


*Four, if you count the Southern Cross, but that hasn’t come up much since I got back from below the equator.

**At least it’s just cloud cover now. We had an inversion here for two weeks, and good god it was awful—I really hate looking down at a valley that’s invisible under a puddle of smog. And it was creepy at night, when you’d see this backlit cloud below you.

Comments

[cougarfang.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to find the Big Dipper/North Star from Orion? Because I can never find either of the former, but I can always find Orion's Belt (which, incidentally, is the only constellation I can identify in the night sky.) T_T

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

There you go: further proof DeBeers is evil. They must be behind the systematic underfunding of space programs.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

... Actually, I seem to recall hearing something years ago about how the revelation that Neptune could contain diamonds apparently had a measurable effect on the diamond industry. But citation is needed ...

[hrhleia.livejournal.com]

I loved the book "Maria Mitchell: Girl Astronomer" but despite the many times of reading it and the number of stargazing sessions it inspired, the only constellations I can find are Orion, Cassiopeia, one of the dippers (I've never found both at once, so I never know which one I'm looking at) and sometimes the Pleiades. But check out this cool star chart - it will show you what the sky looks like from where you are at any time and identify what you're looking at!

[beccastareyes]

If it makes you feel any better, most professional astronomers couldn't point out constellations either. It's a different view of the sky when you're working in a different wavelength, or at a telescope that points by typing in coordinates, or when you're essentially a field geologist whose tools are the Mars Rovers.

I just ordered a Galileoscope -- basically a tiny telescope that is about the caliber that Galileo used. Mostly because it was $35 (with shipping, but not including a tripod) and I can take it traveling, and it's good enough for open clusters and planets, and is supposed to be several steps above the optical quality of the toy telescopes. In high school, I owned a larger telescope, but it took two trips to get it outside -- the base is broken and it needs a lot of care, but it still exists.

(I know most of the bright stars/constellations, but a lot of the faint ones I've never seen. And don't ask me about the southern sky.)

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

I'd love to star gaze, but here it's always either cloudy, too cold, or too mosquito-ey. Any of those kind of kill it for me.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, the comments on that article are great! And that's rarer than diamonds.

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

Start following iridium flares! They're awesome! It's like your own manmade scheduled shooting stars!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

And in an unironic sense of "great," no less! Mind-blowing.

If you'd like I could probably locate an article with comments like "that many dimans means soon the fat cats in charge will get EVAN RiCHER!!!!!!another coverpu by the obama adminstration!!!!!!WAKE UP PEEPUL!!!!!!!!" "omg ur stupid" and the ROFLcopter and such ...

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Cool!

Unfortunately at the moment the sky looks like the bottoms of clouds, so I'm SOL there. BUT FOR THE FUTURE, this will be awesome!

Totally OT

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I was playing Fallout3 today and quite startled to be confronted by someone who bore an uncanny resemblance to you.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I have no interest in reading Little Green Footballs today.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

let me know if you're ever out this way-- we've got some great stargazing spots in SoCal, and it's always more fun with a friend!