

The Greatest Amateur Astronomer - drjohnson
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/87937d92369b

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antognini
One of the great things about astronomy is that it's really one of the few
fields of science where amateurs can still have a large impact. Most nearby
supernovae are actually discovered by amateurs, not professionals (including
one just a few days ago [1]). In fact, the Japanese amateurs are famous for
discovering supernovae because they get to catch all the ones that go off when
it's night across the Pacific Ocean. But they also have collected a lot of
very good data on variable stars, as well. [2]

Part of the reason amateurs have been able to play such a big role is that
traditionally astronomers have used their resources to harness very large
telescopes to study small patches of the sky very deeply. Study of bright
objects across large regions of the sky only requires small telescopes, so it
wasn't really worth professional astronomers' time to conduct those
observations. This has been changing lately with the rise of robotic
telescopes, however. Now that professional astronomers don't have to operate
the telescopes themselves, they can collect bright transient data across wide
swathes of the sky. [3]

[1] [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-27185965](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27185965)

[2] [http://www.aavso.org/](http://www.aavso.org/)

[3] e.g., [http://www.astronomy.ohio-
state.edu/~assassin/index.shtml](http://www.astronomy.ohio-
state.edu/~assassin/index.shtml)

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typpo
To aspiring amateur astronomers: you don't even need an expensive telescope or
clear skies to explore the night. iTelescope [1] lets you rent time on
telescopes around the world and is surprisingly easy to use after learning the
interface. I've used it to take pictures of galaxies and other objects of
interest. You can even write scripts that point the telescope and have images
delivered to your email.

In fact, asteroid discovery is well within the purview of amateur astronomers
[2]. Lots of interesting astronomical phenomena are observable by amateurs
these days.

(I'm not affiliated with iTelescope, I just like it)

[1] [http://itelescope.net/](http://itelescope.net/) [2]
[http://www.itelescope.net/astro-
science/2012/12/4/discoverin...](http://www.itelescope.net/astro-
science/2012/12/4/discovering-asteroids-whats-the-story.html)

~~~
aortega
Yeah but kind of expensive... I believe the best combination would be a small
telescope to learn the basics of the sky and then if you want to go deep, rent
the iTelescope service.

~~~
mapt
A small telescope is actually not the first choice for amateur astronomy. Pick
up a pair of relatively cheap 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars (sizable but not
enormous), and a good blanket. Do not try to hold the binoculars in your hand
- lie on your back with your head firmly against the ground and rest them on
your eye sockets (binocular hand-shake is the main reason people dislike
them).

These are more portable, more user-friendly, more comfortable than any
telescope. They're much better put together than the sparse selection of cheap
telescopes at this price level. $50-$100

After this, I would consider an 8" dobsonian manual telescope, or a motorized
alt-az goto scope with mount in the 4.5-6" range. $500-1000

A serious (but still amateur-level) 8" astrophotography setup (mount, sensor,
telescope, filters) that will take the kind of nebula pictures people see
coming from the HST, iTelescope, or Slooh, is going to run $5000-$10000.

------
mast
I had certainly not heard of Isaac Roberts before today. This was interesting.
Years ago I began experimenting with astrophotography using my 8" Meade
Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. I actually used a cheap webcam with the lens
removed. I got the idea from
[http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=141](http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=141).

I really never got around to improving my results, but you can see some
initial attempts here:
[http://foodconstrued.com/?attachment_id=6663](http://foodconstrued.com/?attachment_id=6663)
[http://foodconstrued.com/?attachment_id=6662](http://foodconstrued.com/?attachment_id=6662)

