Any amatuer astronomers here?

[GeddyWrox]

Ordered this guy recently, it's shipping out today!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014EQ1PKE/

My daughter might be more excited than I am!

Thinking about ordering this starter eyepiece/filter kit. Seems like a really good price. I know they probably aren't the BEST eyepieces, but I'm wanting an inexpensive way to kind of stumble my way through at first.
https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-PowerS ... 004OUMTT2/

[MrSaigon]

I'd love to help, but I'm a certified professional, so I guess not what you're looking for.

[GeddyWrox]

If you have any thoughts, share them! Maybe I'll get better equipment down the line!

[AdmiralKird]

With regards to eyepieces, the main thing to remember is the size/brightness of the thing you want to look at and your mirror size.

The 9mm will be good for looking at planets, and for 130mm that is about the maximum magnification you can run (I think). If you were to go with anything lower than 9mm the objects would be pretty dim, (the mirror just isn't large enough to let more light in) but 9mm is pretty damn good. I could go down to a 5mm with mine but I've never picked that piece up, plus I already have to move the big light tube every 20 seconds at 9mm magnification or a planet will move through the view anyway.

You've got a good mix of power and portability.

[GeddyWrox]

Thanks!!

[MrSaigon]

My bad, I thought you said 'astrologers.' I blame the movement of Ganymede into Neptune's line for the mistake.

[GeddyWrox]

LOL

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

How is the Big Dipper (among other constellations) visible year round? The earth rotates around its own axis, and it also travels around the sun. Allegedly

Take a night in October in North America, you go out and you see the Big Dipper. It's 100 or so light years away. On that instantaneous October night while North America is rotated away from the sun such that it is night, the Big Dipper is undoubtedly in your cone of observability (no idea what it's called, but basically what you can see). As the earth rotates, the stars move in the night sky. This makes sense.

Now fast forward to a night in April in North America, you go out and see the Big Dipper. Still in the cone of observability even though the earth has travelled to the other side of the sun. How, when North America is rotated away from the sun and on the other side of the sun compared to the previous October, is the Big Dipper still visible?

The Big Dipper doesn't rotate around the sun.

I get that it's sitting 'above' the earth and the however many million miles or so the earth travelled to the other side of the sun is irrelevant compared to 100 light years as far as distance goes, but is North America not 'pointed' in the complete opposite direction on an October night vs an April night? If not, how not, and if so, how is the Big D still visible?

Blows my peanut sized brain.

[GeddyWrox]

It's oriented far enough above our north pole that even as the earth tilts back and forth, it's still always above us.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

It's oriented far enough above our north pole that even as the earth tilts back and forth, it's still always above us.

I have a difficult time wrapping my brain around the magnitude of even this relatively small scale where a couple hundred million miles is almost completely negligible. Space is cray cray.