Binoculars
I ordered a pair of binoculars, Celestron 10 X 50. They arrived yesterday, and I tried them out last night. I read that 12 magnification is about as high as anyone can go and hold them steady, so I thought I would be okay with 10. But it was lousy, my hands are not very steady I guess. It gave me greater appreciation for my digital camera which somehow manages to take good pictures in spite of me being unsteady.
Anyway the binoculars seemed fine otherwise but I decided to get the 7 X 50 "cometron" from Celestron instead. Both binoculars cost around $35, not expensive, but recommended by astronomers.
It was pretty hazy last night, so probably not ideal for skywatching. But in spite of my unsteadiness I could tell that stars showed up in the binoculars that I couldn't see at all with the naked eye.
I did see something kind of cool: When I looked at the moon there must have been a really big crater right where sunrise was happening on the moon. In the dark area where the sun hadn't quite reached yet, there was a rough semi-circle ridge of light. I assume it is a crater where the moon has been dented and so the light was able to reach the far side of the crater a little bit early. Anyway totally not something I could see with a naked eye.
Cornell University has a clock tower, a couple miles away. I can see the clock tower, but I can't see it well enough to read the clock. With the binoculars I could see that I should be able to see the clock well enough to read it pretty easily, except because of my unsteadiness it took a couple minutes to figure out what the clock said. So if a lower magnification will reduce the problem of a wiggling image, then that should be worth giving up some magnification.
Sort of like what I saw on the moon, but more just a shadow I guess because of a smaller scale and maybe deeper depth: This morning I went hiking. Sunrise was officially at a few minutes after 6 am, but the gorge didn't get sun until like 45 minutes later, because the sun has to rise high enough to exceed the angle of the hill. By that time it's hardly even orange anymore. I guess we just don't really have a proper dawn here (the town is inside three converging gorges). Not quite as good photo opportunities as I was hoping, but still a nice time to go hiking. I'm rarely up early enough to know these things, until recently since I'm trying this new schedule where I get up at 10pm. Often I'm late though, like today.
Anyway the binoculars seemed fine otherwise but I decided to get the 7 X 50 "cometron" from Celestron instead. Both binoculars cost around $35, not expensive, but recommended by astronomers.
It was pretty hazy last night, so probably not ideal for skywatching. But in spite of my unsteadiness I could tell that stars showed up in the binoculars that I couldn't see at all with the naked eye.
I did see something kind of cool: When I looked at the moon there must have been a really big crater right where sunrise was happening on the moon. In the dark area where the sun hadn't quite reached yet, there was a rough semi-circle ridge of light. I assume it is a crater where the moon has been dented and so the light was able to reach the far side of the crater a little bit early. Anyway totally not something I could see with a naked eye.
Cornell University has a clock tower, a couple miles away. I can see the clock tower, but I can't see it well enough to read the clock. With the binoculars I could see that I should be able to see the clock well enough to read it pretty easily, except because of my unsteadiness it took a couple minutes to figure out what the clock said. So if a lower magnification will reduce the problem of a wiggling image, then that should be worth giving up some magnification.
Sort of like what I saw on the moon, but more just a shadow I guess because of a smaller scale and maybe deeper depth: This morning I went hiking. Sunrise was officially at a few minutes after 6 am, but the gorge didn't get sun until like 45 minutes later, because the sun has to rise high enough to exceed the angle of the hill. By that time it's hardly even orange anymore. I guess we just don't really have a proper dawn here (the town is inside three converging gorges). Not quite as good photo opportunities as I was hoping, but still a nice time to go hiking. I'm rarely up early enough to know these things, until recently since I'm trying this new schedule where I get up at 10pm. Often I'm late though, like today.