Saturn from last night with my telescope

I am not a great expert in astronomy, quite the opposite; I have basic high school and university knowledge regarding the basic physical laws that govern the motion of celestial bodies, but... What a spectacle!! I find there is great emotion in being able to peer at these wonders of nature. I imagine that looking at them with one's own eyes through a telescope is something completely different from observing a photo in a book. Knowing that you are observing that planet approximately at this moment, or actually a few seconds ago. It's strange for me to watch the video you made, probably because I still have a way to interact with the source... I can only imagine what your state of mind must be when you sit down to observe the sky through a telescope.

Hi Simone, if you perceive this, it means you are one of the few with this sensitivity towards astronomy.

I sometimes have the public observe through my equipment and not everyone perceives this emotion.

And it has nothing to do with degrees, culture, etc., etc. It is a matter of sensitivity, period. I know astrophysicists and astronomers who don't even have an idea of what it means to observe with a telescope and they aren't even interested.

I, on the other hand, will never forget as a child when I pointed my 6cm semi-toy refractor towards Saturn and saw the rings.

An unforgettable miniature. Unforgettable even though currently I observe with a telescope 24cm in diameter, which is an abyss of difference.

Today we live in a happy era for astronomy. A good telescope for planetary observations of a certain level can cost about a hundred euros.

This, for example, is an image of Saturn that I obtained with a Chinese little telescope as large as a beer bottle, extremely portable and costing about 140 euros (http://xoomer.virgilio.it/astronomia3/mc90.jpg).

http://www.trekportal.it/coelestis/showthread.php?t=38348

And yet, visually it is even more engaging.

I leave you with the website of this English guy, if you are interested, who owns a Celestron C14 (a telescope 35cm in diameter).

They say these are the best images obtained by an amateur. Some surpass the images obtained with the Hubble telescope at the beginning of the 2000s.

http://damianpeach.com/best.htm

http://damianpeach.com/sat13.htm

His secret is observing from Barbados, an area particularly happy for astronomers and amateur astronomers.

And this regarding the planets...

Something else entirely is observing objects outside our solar system. For example, other remote galaxies...

http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/images/NJP/m51LRGB.jpg (galaxy M51 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/M51_(astronomia) 31 million light years )

The first time that with my telescope I saw the faint spiral arms of the galaxy in a photograph, I had a startle...

Tante times during public observations I have heard people say "What is this blurry stuff?"

Look, honestly, rather than being a lover of astronomy, I am generically a lover of nature. Sometimes I get emotional watching a sunset; it's the things that make you feel truly alive. Speaking of astronomical objects outside the solar system, the Helix Nebula particularly had an effect on me, renamed "The Eye of God," so much so that I printed an A4 copy which I attached to the wall full of photos in my study, as you can see in the photo...

PS. On the left, the photos of Mussolini and Hitler actually represent a funny photomontage of two elderly gentlemen I know who have similarities; then there are also photos of my mother and a photo of my girlfriend. Anyway, let's focus on the nature photos, as I was saying...

PPS. A link you posted isn't working.

The day before yesterday evening Simò, as I was telling you, I happened to see the moon with a spectacular red reflection, only that as usual one doesn't have the adequate equipment and the photos are laughable, if not pitiful; moreover, the lights from the quarries and not only those make everything less appreciable, though it is still something. The recording of Saturn feels a bit strange to me too, because there is silence; usually one is used to seeing images accompanied by noises, sounds, and music, so it really has a strange effect, and gives the idea of something that goes on despite everything we live through.

Nebulae are basically clusters of gas and solid materials of various sizes, which together constitute the colors we see? But is what I read a while ago in an article accurate?

Basically, it said that (I don't remember exactly what it was about) we see color photographs, when in reality they are effects emphasized by telescopes which, through subsequent modifications,

return images that are originally in grayscale; however, as I mentioned, I don't remember exactly what the article was about, and I don't think it meant planets in general, because the sun would already debunk this, to give a trivial example.

Pardon! Is this the link http://xoomer.virgilio.it/astronomia3/mc90.jpg

Piccinesco wrote:

Nebulae are basically clusters of gas, solid materials of various sizes, which together constitute the colors we see? But is what I read a while ago in an article accurate?

In practice, it was said that (I don't remember exactly what it was about) we see color photographs, when in reality they are effects emphasized by telescopes which, through subsequent modifications,

return images that are originally in grayscale, but again I don't remember exactly what the article was about; I don't think it meant planets in general, because the sun would already debunk this, to give a trivial example.

Hi Piccinesco! You hit the nail on the head. This is the reason why many are disappointed when observing nebulae and galaxies with their own eyes. The beautiful color photos we see do not actually reproduce what our eye would see.

For example, M51 through a telescope (a telescope of at least 25cm under a very dark sky) looks much like the last image on the left of the three http://www.amarmur.com/rick/m51-3-4-05-123-4.jpg

Whereas with a CCD camera, one can easily obtain things like this http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/m51rolfe.jpg

foster12 wrote:

Hi Piccinesco! You hit the nail on the head. This is the reason why many are disappointed when observing nebulae and galaxies with their own eyes. The beautiful color photos we see do not actually reproduce what our eye would see

For example, M51 through a telescope (a telescope of at least 25cm under a very dark sky) looks much like the last image on the left of the three http://www.amarmur.c...-4-05-123-4.jpg

Mientras with a CCD camera, one can easily obtain things like this http://www.noao.edu/...rs/m51rolfe.jpg

I've seen it; the perception changes quite a bit, and do you know what comes to mind?

The fact that there is a tendency to seek perfection in every aspect (as reassurance), and especially the point of reference with the life we live,
that is, a continuous flow of perfect, sharp images, practically without defects, both from the perspective of processing and of the subject or subjects (whether they are people or objects found in nature), has literally been lost (at least by the majority of people, myself included, who over time have lost part of that sensitivity to the "imperfect")

the propensity to evaluate things for what they are, and behind it (for me) there is almost exclusively the need to have certainties, securities, which in reality do not exist in any field (except for certain ones unknown to me and for which I regret not having the mind to delve into, because it takes—and they are mathematics, physics, and not just those), like right now, as I am writing, but I could have a stroke in 2 minutes, and then what is the use of the perfection of an object that I possess, or that I would want to "invent"?

In recent years I have been experiencing an immense crisis, stemming from a sense of uselessness of being a man in general; I am speaking about myself anyway, I am not speaking about others.

If I think about music (a thought that comes to mind very often these months) I tell myself "but if I am not able to write music without having to lay hands on an instrument, with only the capacity of the mind to help me, therefore not bound to something tangible, since then you don't know what is there, if there is something, and what you think, if you think, when you die, what you are doing now and what you have done, you lose it anyway, and in a certain sense this "bond" with the tangible makes the relationship "defective," even with that something we like to do; I have at least been experiencing it this way for a few years.

In reality, what I want to say is more complex, but said like this it seems banal and obvious.

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Thank you Foster12 for sharing this passion of yours with all of us. The images you gave us are truly beautiful, so much so that I felt like buying a telescope right away.

Sometimes during the summer at my country house, I go outside at night to look at the stars and I often get moved….

(p.s. I would also like to thank Simone for sharing part of his bedroom with us!)

I made this one yesterday evening instead. This year the rings are much more spread out and give the planet, especially in small telescopes, an "eye" appearance

How wonderful...

look at that spectacle there, so far away but which, thinking about it, is still part of our reality. One of the countless wonderful things that surround us...

Saturn, then... with its very particular appearance!

How can one not be moved even by the mere thought of such immensity?

Compliments to the topic author and thank you for sharing these beautiful images ^__^

i too love observing the sky, i also love the "simple", for some so "obvious" stars together with the Moon.

Bye and thanks again for this beautiful material.

It really is a beautiful passion. I confess to you guys that a few months ago, while visiting a second-hand shop, I found one of these "gadgets" at a modest price and was strongly tempted to buy it, but since I didn't know how to use it, I gave up XD

Thank you Lapushka and Sisifo,

in effect, as I was saying, telescopes are not even that expensive nowadays.

To take similar photos, one does not use sophisticated DSLRs costing thousands of euros, but cameras like webcams which are not very expensive (about a hundred euros).

What makes the difference, however, are the wind conditions at high altitudes and atmospheric turbulence: what amateur astronomers and astronomers call "seeing"

Look at the difference between these two videos of Jupiter:

Open content (youtube)

Wonderful Foster12, I am also an astronomy enthusiast

Hi Giove! eh eh... now that I think about it, I copied your avatar without meaning to

Wait, let me change it.

But do you have a telescope?

This is my smallest telescope I was talking about, in "operational" mode.

It's a pity you are far away, I wouldn't mind an evening like that among friends at all...

Hi Simone,

i know that in Rimini there was a serious amateur astronomy group, which was also part of the UAI (Italian Union of Amateur Astronomers).

I saw on the internet that the Gruppo Astrofili del Dopolavoro Ferroviario di Rimini is located at Via Roma 70, Rimini, tel. 0541 703242.

I believe they usually organize free public observations, you just have to ask.

This is the second year that I have been part of an amateur astronomy group... I have always observed either alone or with friends.