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Skybird · 08-07-10, 05:58 PM

when I was a young boy, a microscope and a telescope were dreams of mine. The microscope, though a bad one, became true, and we had an according hobby course at school, too, which was cool. The telescope still is a dream, but I wonder if it makes sense for me to try to realise it now. I think not, although i could do it now:

I have a balcony, even a calm one, nevertheless my place is relatively close to the city, with unfavourable street and house entrance lights nearby. Transporting such a thing on bike is - probably it turns it into a medium sized expedition. And light pollution in general is a problem these days.

I also wonder in how far it makes sense, if you are not really after just the experience of tactile manipulation of a small telescope. the number of opbjects that are available in virtual sky simulations like WorldWideTelescope is so immense that you could browse, move and zoom the material like in Google Earth for hours and days, getting images from much more professional setups. If you compare that to what you can get with affordable hobby telescopes, even if they are 200/1000 Newtons for example, I think kind of dissapointment is kind of preprogrammed.

These sites below are in German, but the headlines of each section identify the telescope's type and focus, and you can easily get a good impression of what kind of image you can expect from Saturn, Jupiter and Deep Sky objects if you use the various optics. This material helped me tremendously to decide that maybe i must not try to turn every childhood dream into reality, just to risk that the dream bursts in dissappointment. I feel gifted indeed that there is this plenty of picture material available via the internet, so much of professional material is formed up and glued together to create virtual skies to explore where you get the fascinating images that make your eyes go wide in awe. I again recommend to check Microsoft'S WordWideTelescope. It works like Google Earth, just for the sky, and when you (smoothly) zoom in, you get dozens of different optics from different sources, observatories, satellites, and from different sensor types, whiczh you can combine in one pic. I am currently somewhat training to make best use of this extremely powerful and impressive tool. It is one of the biggest discoveries i ever made in the internet, and it really frees me of any desire to buy a telescope.

I have a good 9X63 night-bino for hunters, however.

Telescope comparisons:
Jupiter: http://www.binoviewer.at/beobachtung...ch_jupiter.htm
Saturn: http://www.binoviewer.at/beobachtung...ich_saturn.htm
Deep Sky: http://www.binoviewer.at/beobachtung...ch_deepsky.htm

Worldwide Telescope: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx (take one of their tours for introduction! try webclient first, if you mistrust the installation!)

I anyhow must admit, that live observation is not what I am after, anyway. My interest in astronomy is to fresh up the basics I have learned long time ago and partially have forgotten again, and then go a bit deeper into a more academic approach on things, it is not the image part I am so much interested in, but the learning-the-stuff side of things, and the I-just-want-to-know-and-I-want-to-know-it-reasonably-well. My self-study project will keep me busy for several months to come, judging by the size of the book, the ammount of online material for the book, and the time I see I need to work through the first 40 pages and making according notes and really learning the matter by repetitions. So far I enjoy it tremendously. Once i am finished i so far plan to focus even deeper on sub-branches like astro pohysics and cosmology, maybe, or to embark on an accoridng self study for physics, at least some branches of it. I want to go one level higher than the wide range of quite good popular science books that vare available (like Hawkins has published them, Peat or Davis, but I also depend on the mathematical formalisations not beeing exaggerated - much more than just school math I find difficult to follow. It is not easy to find books on quantum and particle physics or relativity that match these criterions. So far I have found just one, on relativity, and that was more a school-level book. I also need it in German - the last thing when struggling with math and new concepots is to fight a battle with scientific English at the sideline. After all, I do it as a hobby only and want to get at least a bit of fun from it.

The astronomy book, however, so far is fun pure.

My difficulty with higher maths has kept me away from ever considering to study physics at university seriously. More than the popular science books, but less than the university courses, math light, please, and as little as possible - that is what I need. Maybe the matter forbids that this criterion can be fulfilled. I found academical physics books to be awfully crowded with math.

Oh, I also have started to recapitulate school math, btw, and go a bit further than that. Just a bit.

08-07-10, 05:58 PM	#10
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,725 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	when I was a young boy, a microscope and a telescope were dreams of mine. The microscope, though a bad one, became true, and we had an according hobby course at school, too, which was cool. The telescope still is a dream, but I wonder if it makes sense for me to try to realise it now. I think not, although i could do it now: I have a balcony, even a calm one, nevertheless my place is relatively close to the city, with unfavourable street and house entrance lights nearby. Transporting such a thing on bike is - probably it turns it into a medium sized expedition. And light pollution in general is a problem these days. I also wonder in how far it makes sense, if you are not really after just the experience of tactile manipulation of a small telescope. the number of opbjects that are available in virtual sky simulations like WorldWideTelescope is so immense that you could browse, move and zoom the material like in Google Earth for hours and days, getting images from much more professional setups. If you compare that to what you can get with affordable hobby telescopes, even if they are 200/1000 Newtons for example, I think kind of dissapointment is kind of preprogrammed. These sites below are in German, but the headlines of each section identify the telescope's type and focus, and you can easily get a good impression of what kind of image you can expect from Saturn, Jupiter and Deep Sky objects if you use the various optics. This material helped me tremendously to decide that maybe i must not try to turn every childhood dream into reality, just to risk that the dream bursts in dissappointment. I feel gifted indeed that there is this plenty of picture material available via the internet, so much of professional material is formed up and glued together to create virtual skies to explore where you get the fascinating images that make your eyes go wide in awe. I again recommend to check Microsoft'S WordWideTelescope. It works like Google Earth, just for the sky, and when you (smoothly) zoom in, you get dozens of different optics from different sources, observatories, satellites, and from different sensor types, whiczh you can combine in one pic. I am currently somewhat training to make best use of this extremely powerful and impressive tool. It is one of the biggest discoveries i ever made in the internet, and it really frees me of any desire to buy a telescope. I have a good 9X63 night-bino for hunters, however. Telescope comparisons: Jupiter: http://www.binoviewer.at/beobachtung...ch_jupiter.htm Saturn: http://www.binoviewer.at/beobachtung...ich_saturn.htm Deep Sky: http://www.binoviewer.at/beobachtung...ch_deepsky.htm Worldwide Telescope: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx (take one of their tours for introduction! try webclient first, if you mistrust the installation!) I anyhow must admit, that live observation is not what I am after, anyway. My interest in astronomy is to fresh up the basics I have learned long time ago and partially have forgotten again, and then go a bit deeper into a more academic approach on things, it is not the image part I am so much interested in, but the learning-the-stuff side of things, and the I-just-want-to-know-and-I-want-to-know-it-reasonably-well. My self-study project will keep me busy for several months to come, judging by the size of the book, the ammount of online material for the book, and the time I see I need to work through the first 40 pages and making according notes and really learning the matter by repetitions. So far I enjoy it tremendously. Once i am finished i so far plan to focus even deeper on sub-branches like astro pohysics and cosmology, maybe, or to embark on an accoridng self study for physics, at least some branches of it. I want to go one level higher than the wide range of quite good popular science books that vare available (like Hawkins has published them, Peat or Davis, but I also depend on the mathematical formalisations not beeing exaggerated - much more than just school math I find difficult to follow. It is not easy to find books on quantum and particle physics or relativity that match these criterions. So far I have found just one, on relativity, and that was more a school-level book. I also need it in German - the last thing when struggling with math and new concepots is to fight a battle with scientific English at the sideline. After all, I do it as a hobby only and want to get at least a bit of fun from it. The astronomy book, however, so far is fun pure. My difficulty with higher maths has kept me away from ever considering to study physics at university seriously. More than the popular science books, but less than the university courses, math light, please, and as little as possible - that is what I need. Maybe the matter forbids that this criterion can be fulfilled. I found academical physics books to be awfully crowded with math. Oh, I also have started to recapitulate school math, btw, and go a bit further than that. Just a bit. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 08-07-10 at 06:33 PM.