Re: Beginner requesting information about Amateur Astronomy

In article <63038eb4-2626-4723-8b96-0742434a5289@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
<wsnell01@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


madscientist wrote:
Hi everyone. I am very interested in getting into the field of amateur
astronomy. I am a computer scientist and systems engineer. I am simply
looking for something to do in my spare time other than writing code
and designing computer components. Other than the two courses I took
back in college, I have no experience watching the heavens. I am
hoping to start getting into it.

You could combne your interests and start writing code which predicts
future celestial events such as eclipses/occultations, conjunctions,
appulses, etc. It would probably be a quite different way to write
code compared to what you've done before. And it also feels quite
satisfying to watch a celestial event you predicted yourself instead
of just having looked it up in some almanac.

Of course you should be observing too! But you cannot observe on cloudy
nights.....


One of my neighbors recently moved abroad and he let me have his
telescopes. I now own the following models

Meade Backpack Observatory ETX-60 Refractor
Zhumell Dobsonian 10 Inch Reflector

They are almost brand new in boxes. In fact, the Zhumell Dobsonian has
never been opened. It's never been used.

Are these enough to get me started into this fascinating field? Or do
I need something fancier?

As I mentioned, I am a complete novice. I have only used a telescope
once or twice in my life when I was in college almost 20 years ago.

I would appreciate any help you guys can provide in getting me started
in this hobby. Thank you.

If the 10-inch includes a 32mm wide field eyepiece, then you should be
able to get a 1.5 degree field of view with that scope. The ETX-60
might have a 3 degree field with the 25mm MA eyepiece, but obviously
much less light-gathering power.

I would suggest a good quality 15mm Plossl eyepiece and a quality 3x
Barlow and a pair of 40-50mm binoculars that have at least a 7 degree
field of view, preferably 8 degrees or even more.




--
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Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://stjarnhimlen.se/
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