Hello as the title says this thread is about Hobby Astronomy

Does anyone here own a telescope? What kind? Do you look at stuff often?
What's your favorite thing you ever saw? Feel free to share

This thread can also be used for people who want to get into astronomy but don't know where to find good resources and stuff.

So I'm going to start; As you probably figured I own a telescope, to be more precise I own a 200/1200 Dobson Reflector (for anyone who knows what that means)


My favorite thing to look at in the night sky is Jupiter (who is currently in opposition which means it's as close at it gets to earth)
I'm planning to upgrade my setup soon to enable astrophotography so I can take awesome pictures, unfortunately it's one hell of an expensive hobby.

I would love to find people who share this hobby

I'm saving up for a telescope. I really wish i had one D:

The coolest thing i've seen was a blood moon lunar eclipse. I'm wanting to go on vacation somewhere to go star gazing. I haven't found a place yet, possibly Utah, USA.
But now, I just lay in my backyard on clear sky'd nights and watch the starts.

I used to be in to it as a kid, one a telescope in a school fundraiser (Was seriously spoiled) and usually spent most of the time I would usually use for sleeping looking into it, although I did burn out after a couple weeks of it, i'd be serious of getting back into it.

(chirs your tele looks like the ones stashed away in my school)

i'd like a telescope, planning on buying one when i get older just to fulfill my kid self's dream
i've been told that saturn is a beauty to look at, so that's what i'm trying to go for when i get one

The big telescopes get expensive fast. If you want to look at the solar system for starters, you won't need that big of a telescope to see alot. It also is alot less dependent on how dark it gets. Generally speaking, if you can see orion from where you live (or any constellation really) then you can probably see all the planets just fine through a smaller telescope.

Here is a great video showcasing the kind of magnification you can get with a simple 5" (which means a 5" opening, mine for example is an 8") on our solar system


Smaller Telescopes, especially smaller Newtonians (the ones with the big mirrors) are especially easy to maintain. While a big telescope needs to be very precisely collimated using a laser, smaller telescopes can be collimated by eye much easier. As such, great for starters