Thursday, October 13, 2005

stargazing

I was driving around upper bidwell park with Dan and Jason (who was ... not feeling himself let's just say) when we came across the Chico Observatory. I didn't even know Chico had an observatory, but there it was. I was fascinated by the telescopes they had, and it was a beatifully clear night. We were out taking long exposure night shots, so I had my camera with me, and I asked the two young volunteers there if there was any way to hook up my camera to the scopes. They said yes, they make adapters for cameras, but that they didn't have any and to come back today when Jim was working because he had one. Well, I went back tonight and talked cameras with Jim. I was just fascinated with the stars and moon that I spent almost two and a half hours there without even knowing it. Well, here's a shot of the moon I got with his camera adapter:



As you can see, it's a bit blurry for various reasons, like the telescope was out of focus. There were people in line wanting to look through the eyepiece, so we only had a few minutes to mess with it. I am going to go back after I learn more about how they work and once I get an adapter that's made for my camera. The moon was so brilliant tonight! I am also excited to go back when there's no moon so I can get some shots of the milky way and various star clusters and the such. The night sky is so captivating; I can see why so many ancient cultures spent so much time studying it. I won't even get into the meaning of life aspect of things :)

Here's a picture of the building and the two telescopes they have. They are both long exposure which is why the moon looks like the sun. I also caught the telescope on the right when Jim was moving it to another galaxy (or whatever). I was using the other one (on the left) with the camera, you can see it's pointed at the moon.



Like I said, I can't wait to go back and play around some more. I hope I don't get hooked on astronomy...