My latest leisurely pandemic activity: Amateur Astronomy! [View all]

[Shermann]

So I bought a Orion 10282 STARBLAST 90mm Altazimuth Travel Refractor Telescope a couple weeks ago. I've never owned a telescope before, or really spent any time with one. I'm in the suburbs and there is an unfortunate amount of light pollution, which makes the refractor a better choice than the reflector.

I've gotten a pretty good look at Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and even Uranus. The moon too.

I found Messier 22 (a globular cluster). Damn hard to find even knowing right where it was. Really just a ghostly blob, no color at all.

I found the Orion nebula eventually, really difficult as well. Another nearly invisible ghost.

So light pollution is a bummer. It's a travel scope so there are options. It would be nice to be able to see more from my patio, though. I haven't seen the Milky Way in forever. But it's really a lot worse than that. Many of the constellations are being washed out. There are only two stars from Ursa Minor visible with the naked eye. Constellations like Sagittarius are totally gone.

The scope was pretty reasonable and I've been enjoying it despite the inherent limitations.