I'm taking out the telescope tonight.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

Anything I should look at? Besides my neighbor's living room?

I've got Jupiter, Mars and Venus lined up.

Plus a lovely shot of the Orion nebula and the Pleiades.

[snoorkel]

I don't know anything about astronomy but I wish I did.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

The shitty thing about toting a 10" dob is that it takes like a half an hour for the damn tube to chill down. Otherwise you get these hazy, wavy heat shimmers everywhere.

So, I got time to burrrnnnn.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

I'm really excited about venus. It's at the perfect position in the sky right now.

It's a lot like looking at the moon too. One night you'll see a crescent and then a while down the line you'll be blinded by the full thing.
Phases and whatnot.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

I'm going to try to take some pictures, but I never usually am able to make it work.

Cross your fingers.

[snoorkel]

I'm going to try to take some pictures, but I never usually am able to make it work.

Cross your fingers.

That seems like it would be incredibly fun (playing with good results, at least)

Now if only I had $6,666 to spend on a nice telescope and DSLR 

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

Shit.

Small cloud bastard children are flying in low at 12 o clock, breaking up and taking my view with them.

No time for cool down. Aim and fire, heat shimmers and all.

That seems like it would be incredibly fun (playing with good results, at least)

Now if only I had $6,666 to spend on a nice telescope and DSLR 

Imaging is very expensive and it requires a solid tracking mount and some comfortable RBG exposure time.
I have neither.
I'm more after the here and now, so I was mostly just looking for a big bucket I can suck some light into and enjoy the view.

[Socks]

It was very clear out tonight and the stars were beautiful. But, really all I could enjoy was the sunset.
Describe to us what you see, how are the aliens plotting, are they building canals, or machines of war?
If you spot Hoffa, tell him I said hello.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

I got a few really good views before little flak clouds started sprouting here and there.
Jupiter was especially stunning. Got to even say hello to the red spot tonight. Planet peering is so incredibly breathtaking. It really never gets old. I could look for hours if I had the eye stamina.

A couple from around the block was walking with their kid and because I was planted on the sidewalk, they started talking with me a little so I asked if they wanted to take a look through and they seemed really excited to do so.
The kid just flipped out. The mother told me he was just covering the solar system in school and he was just so excited to be able to see jupiter up close and in person. He asked all kinds of questions about the scope and told me about the storms up there on that planet and everything. That kind of enthusiasm just made me so damn happy. He'll probably tell his teacher about it tomorrow.

That kind of thing really makes my day.

[Socks]

I got a few really good views before little flak clouds started sprouting here and there.
Jupiter was especially stunning. Got to even say hello to the red spot tonight. Planet peering is so incredibly breathtaking. It really never gets old. I could look for hours if I had the eye stamina.

A couple from around the block was walking with their kid and because I was planted on the sidewalk, they started talking with me a little so I asked if they wanted to take a look through and they seemed really excited to do so.
The kid just flipped out. The mother told me he was just covering the solar system in school and he was just so excited to be able to see jupiter up close and in person. He asked all kinds of questions about the scope and told me about the storms up there on that planet and everything. That kind of enthusiasm just made me so damn happy. He'll probably tell his teacher about it tomorrow.

That kind of thing really makes my day.

Awesome!