Any telescope/ sky watchers here?

[fortyshooter]

Well with the family going thru my deceased brother's things to clear out his home I take the things nobody wants. This latest item is a very large
Meade Lightbridge 16 inch mirror telescope. Sitting in my garage in 3 pieces you would need a step ladder to look in the eye piece if straight up.
I ordered a roll around buggy for it so I can move it around easy, weighs around 130 lbs., like out in the flat driveway this year to look at the night sky.
Maybe I will see him looking back down! Anyway it will be fun to learn how to use it and I think he only used it couple times with his two grandsons.

[North Country Gal]

I'm an amateur astronomer from way, way back. I have at least 5 telescopes at last count, maybe 6. My largest is a 12.5" Dobsonian (same type of scope as your Meade).

[daytime dave]

That's a pretty decent telescope forty. Once you get the hang of it, keep us posted on all the discoveries you make.

[fortyshooter]

I'm an amateur astronomer from way, way back. I have at least 5 telescopes at last count, maybe 6. My largest is a 12.5" Dobsonian (same type of scope as your Meade).

GREAT! When the weather gets into Spring/ Summer mode I will get it out and share my findings! How often to you have to realign the mirrors and how difficult is that? I have the owners manual that gives the info on the process. Do you use the laser sight tool to do it?

[North Country Gal]

Not too often, as long as you don't transport the scope a lot. I do it once a year or so, since I just use the scope at home. My refractors and Maks and Schmidts don't need alignment, of course. I also do a lot of binocular astronomy with special astronomy binoculars. Great way to step out under the night sky for quick looks.

[Jdl447]

Last night I looked out my window and saw Uranus.

[CT_Shooter]

Astronomy is fascinating.

My house (and living room) faces due East and the far horizon is at about eye level with my couch. When they catch my attention, I use the SkyMap app on my phone to ID the planets and stars as they rise in my picture window on clear evenings.

You should really enjoy that instrument, Forty. I look forward to the discussions you'll have with NCG and others here. Should be fun.

[rickhem]

Your equipment sure looks like a couple steps past a hobby telescope Forty. Very cool!
I have a Celestron PowerSeeker that my GF bought as a Christmas present a few years ago. Prior to that, I used to take my 27x Kowa spotting scope out and look at things in the sky. You really don't need much magnification to see things like the moons around Jupiter or the rings around Saturn. The Celestron is unfortunately not as clear as the Kowa though. And just finding things in the sky can get quite frustrating. There is a cell tower about 5 miles across the valley from the apartment we had, and I'd set up on that with the lowest magnification optics installed on the Celestron, and while I could see it with added detail it was never really clear. There is a very strong possibility that I'm not doing everything correctly though.

I remember a coworker that I worked with in the mid 1990s bought a Meade telescope that had a motorized drive and he said you could align it, then tell it where to go to view different things. That sounded pretty neat.

I still have the SkyView app on my phone, the free version, and I'd suggest that to anyone interested in astronomy. We also do one called "Spot The Station", which will tell you when the space station will pass overhead. You give that your location, and it will tell you when, and for how long the station will be visible. It just looks like a white dot moving across the sky, and you might think it's a plane, but no other lights like a plane would have, and the timeframes given are amazingly accurate.

[fortyshooter]

Anxiously waiting for the Scope Buggy to get here so I can assemble and roll this thing around. Maybe sometime next week I hope. Note that is not my scope but what the buggy looks like. Right now the only spot I have for storage is right behind my Mustang and you know the weather will be warming up soon!