Star Walks

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

A friend of mine and I initiated an astronomy club at our university a couple of months ago.
We got our physics professor involved and the whole thing has really taken off.
We (almost) got our own logo, publicity in the newsletter a discussion panel at a science film event and regular meetings with lectures and student talks.
We are planning to get a number of telescopes in the range of a few thousand bucks even.
But so far we didn‘t really manage to make observations, mostly for weather reasons.

Until today.

A few of us went on a star walk and we got pretty much the whole night sky show.

Moon, several constellations, Jupiter, Saturn and even Mars. We saw meteors, Iridium satellites and the Milky Way...

It was amazing.

Can‘t wait till we get equipment beyond our own eyes.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

You could rent time on telescopes at remote obervatories. I know it's not hands-on and probably seems less exciting, but the equipment would likely be superior to whay you can afford. Do you really need the photons to come directly from the objects you want to view? By the way, a good pair of binoculars (optionally stabilised by a monopod or tripod) can get you a long way in observational astronomy without shelling out on an expensive telescope that you need to maintain, insure and protect.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Thanks, but our Professor really wants to get that equipment for the university in general and the club has enough buzz to get the funding for the first time.

The mechanical engineers are even constructing our own radio telescope.

We also plan to cooperated with a near-by observatory, definitely.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Thanks, but our Professor really wants to get that equipment for the university in general and the club has enough buzz to get the funding for the first time.

The mechanical engineers are even constructing our own radio telescope.

We also plan to cooperated with a near-by observatory, definitely.

What's the seeing like at the proposed location? It's obviously best to be away from light pollution, sources of convective heat cells, etc. Radio telescopes have similar issues with RF interference. Will the radio telescope be a single dish or an interferometer and what wavelengths will it cover?

Apropos nothing, the following site lists a number of useful mobile apps.

http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/astronomy-astrophotography-stargazing-smartphone