 | |||
| The Wreath Nebula via NASA. |
Today I'm going to discuss a little bit about why and how I fell in love with astronomy. What brought me into this new hobby that I now seem to obsess over during every free moment, and non free moment I have? What makes it so interesting to me that makes me keep looking up?
Christmas of 2010 I got my first telescope, the Celestron Astromaster 114EQ from my wonderful girlfriend. She had got it for me expecting me to use it for the Moon and not expecting the astronomy bug to bite me as hard as it did. I was spending Christmas with my parents out of town and drove the 2.5 hour drive back home Christmas night to spend the last hour with her and to open each others presents. I was not expecting a telescope at all. Unfortunately as any astronomer will tell you, amateur or not, if you get a telescope expect clouds. So of course I was unable to bring it outside and use it right away. This was fine, as I did a bunch of research on my specific telescope, found some great astronomy messageboards that were extremely helpful to a newbie like myself. I started finding star charts, astronomy software for the computer, possible upgrades to get the most out of my viewing, and so much more.
I wont lie, the first few nights out with the telescope were a bit of a drag due to me not completely understanding the use of an Equatorial Mount, but I did just set it up, and aim it towards what I wanted to look at which of course was the full Moon. I didn't quite know where anything was in the sky at this time. Of course as a kid I would look up at the sky and enjoy the sites, but actually learning constellations, star names, locations of objects in the sky, and the understandings of the different constellations for different seasons were all new things to me. I basically took myself through a crash course of astronomy thanks to the internet, and my girlfriend buying me one of the greatest Christmas presents ever.
 |
| Snowflake Cluster via NASA. |
Now here I am a year later, so what keeps me so interested and looking up every clear night that I have a chance? Well first of all in the grand scheme of things I've hardly scraped the surface of this hobby with viewing what's available in the night sky. Learning the craters of the moon, viewing the planets of the solar system, seeing double stars, variable stars, nebula, galaxies, open star clusters, and globular star clusters. I can step outside on a beautifully clear night with a long list of visible objects to view and end up only viewing a couple of them within a few hours of time. When I view an object such as an open cluster I don't just point the telescope at it, look at it for a few seconds and move on. I get into the viewing of an object, I'll try to count the brighter stars that form the cluster, and/or I'll examine the shape of it.
Viewing a planet such as Jupiter can be quite interesting in a night due to it's 9.925 hour rotation speed, because within one night you can watch the Great Red Spot rise, transit, and then set, all within a matter of 5 hours of viewing! Also within this 5 hours of viewing Jupiter you could catch a transit of one of the four Galilean Moon's across the face of Jupiter. Watch as the shadow of one of it's Moon's lands on the surface then shortly after you see the Moon itself cross in front.
Not only is getting out with the telescope and viewing the vast sky above extremely rewarding and calming, but there is also the constant news of new things discovered all the time. Before I got into this hobby I had absolutely no idea how active this community of people is, or how many new and cool discoveries there were so often. From distant galaxies discovered near the edge of the visible universe, to asteroids and comets. This hobby will keep you learning new things day in and day out. At least once a week there seems to be some new and exciting discovery that seems so crazy you just can't believe it.
Now you might be thinking to yourself that you'd get sick of looking at the same thing over and over, but that's the fun part. There is so much up there you don't have to look at the same thing every night, even the moon is changing with different craters visible every day. Also, looking at the same thing could bring out new details to you that you haven't noticed before, or you could be one of the lucky individuals that spots a new supernova, or a comet or asteroid that hasn’t been discovered yet. This hobby is quite addictive and so amazing that you just can't help but think about some of the amazing wonders you are looking at. It makes you want to read up on it which causes you to learn and that can't be a bad thing!
Nothing like sitting back looking at an object 64 million light-years away and thinking to yourself how the light you're looking at took 64 million years to reach your eye. Meaning what you're looking at could have changed a vast amount or not even exist anymore, but you would never know because it will take another 64 million years for that light to reach Earth. The light from out sun takes 8 minutes to reach us which isn't that long, but if the sun were to just shut off one day you wouldn't know for 8 minutes.
 |
| One of the most distant galaxies known, called GN-108036, dating back to 750 million years after the big bang. The light from this galaxy took 12.9 billion years to reach us. Image via NASA. |
Our ever changing Universe is jaw-dropping, awe inspiring, and just down right awesome. If you haven't before, or you haven't in a while on the next clear night you have go outside and just look up at the stars.
If you are thinking of joining in this hobby and don't know where to start with buying a telescope there are two great communities online where you can ask all the questions you want about getting started and everyone is nice and willing to help:
Those are the two messageboards I frequent the most, and there is a great wealth of information. Also if you don't want to sign up to a messageboard to ask questions feel free to ask in the comments section below I would be more than glad to assist you any way that I can.
So there you have it, a little bit about how I got into the hobby and why I'm still into it just as much, if not more, than I was when I got my first telescope and first focused on a distant object magnified. Hope you have clear skies and maybe more of an interest in astronomy.
Comments