have you done this?

Question

last night I got my telescope out and was thinking I was looking at one thing and checked to see what I was seeing and it was a binary star....well duh, that was dumb

have you ever set your telescope to look at one thing and been totally baffled when the image you saw did not equal what you were expecting. the seeing was excellant for the first time in weeks last night!

higgins, WAY TO GO!

vince, it would not give me an image of a planet, nice, round, not making light? it never was perfect like I have seen jupiter or saturn

laura, i was shooting the moon a few weeks ago and used a barlow lense with the camera. when using the magnify option on the computer i could see detail in the smallest craters and that blew me away and i started reading about the think in siberia and posted a question about it...i can't get over what is there that until now i have never seen

kyeri, when i saw the object it would not focus clearly. i made an adjustment for the eye peice that allows me to partially isolate the vibration of my hand (shakes) as I adjusted the image. it was always fuzzy as if i were seeing something that would not focus. i used stary night software to look over what were the bright points and figured out it had to be a binary star. there weren't any other bright ones close. thanks for the vote of confidence. i never got a good look at holmes 17p for bad weather or other obligations. I had to settle for the views I got at work through 7x35 binocs under the glare of security lamps....bummer

Answer 1

I don't think I could ever have another experience like I did when I was about 14. I went out with my cheap, department store refractor, determined to find Saturn. I had my H.A. Rey star book. I didn't realize Saturn was so bright. So I kept trying to find it by star hopping. Duh, it never occurred to me that this was bright, but not on the chart. I looked and strained my eyes trying desperately to see which of those tiny pinpoints was Saturn.

Then, out of frustration I turned the telescope toward the bright one to see what it looked like. Imagine! Here, I could see it, clear as a bell, with the highly inclined rings at that time. I had no idea that the brightest thing in that part of the sky was what I was looking for. I never dreamed it would be so big and bright. Flipped me right out.

As long as I have been observing the sky, I have never had another experience quite like that.

Sure, Vince. There are many binaries that can be seen with amateur scopes.

I'd like to add, that I had recently done a term paper on Galileo. That was one of the things that motivated me. After I found the planet, and was still in a head-spin, I wondered if he had had the same reaction that I did. It was almost like he was there.

Answer 2

Yup, it happens all the time. That's the reason why starhopping is a lot more fun than GoTo.

My friend Vance Petriew was looking for the Crab Nebula at a star party a few years ago, and asked his friend Rick to confirm what he had in the eyepiece, because it didn't look right. Rick took one look and said, "That isn't the Crab Nebula, but I've no idea _what_ it is." It turned out to be a previously undiscovered comet. Vance had started his starhop with the wrong star! Comet P/2001 Q2 Petriew.

Answer 3

With all the information available the main surprise for me is the feeling of seeing things live, with my own eyes. It never fails to be a delight.

IMHO, the best binaries are either cool colours (e.g. Albireo), or tight little pairs (e.g. Epsilon Lyrae, a pair of pairs).

Addendum: FWIW, the smallest craters I can see on the Moon are about 2km across (e.g. the craterlets on the floor of Plato). The Moon is a *world*, just waiting to be explored! You can see this in a telescope. Just as Galileo did, so long ago.

Answer 4

To Vince M, yes, you can even pick out some binary stars with a pair of 7x50 binoculars (the one in the big dipper, for instance).

To Magnetic_Azimuth, that's awesome! :-) Keep using that scope!

Answer 5

That's how I discovered my first Asteroid. I was reporting the position of a newly discovered NEO when the MPC reported that my data was 'off'. I rechecked my images and sure enough the NEO was 1/4 frame off to the left. Teh object I reported was a new Asteroid.

Answer 6

Thats exactly why I dont like go to.

I star hop manually and watch as I go. You see lots of great stuff that way.

Good job and I hope you find many more.

Answer 7

yup isnt it so COOL
i thought i was the only science geek around here
lolz

Answer 8

Sounds pretty cool, but I have never done that.

Answer 9

Binary star?

With an amateur scope.

Uh .... HUH!

Answer 10

never happened to me