One of the reasons for moving from Motorcycle to pickup is to be able to carry the telescope and associated equipment to various dark skies. The other is to bring the family along.
I am a beginner astronomer, very much so. One of the trips I am looking at is Big Bend NP or SP for some camping and stargazing.
So, how many of y'all like to look at the stars?
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Even when in the city and under light domes, I'm looking up to see just how much I can see of the heavens. I learn more and more all the time. Being along the Atlantic coast is nice; to have no light coming from at least one direction.
I don't take a telescope adventuring, though used to have one. I do have my fav binocs with me everywhere, though am interested in what binocs others have found most useful for studying stars. I have the
Vortex Diamondback 8x42 (that I see has gone up significantly in price since I got mine) which I use mostly for bird and animal watching, I admit. They go with me everywhere and are always close at hand. I also have a much smaller, less expensive pair of
Bushnell 10x25 Compact Folding, that I may have given to my daughter.
What I primarily do in studying the heavens is solo camp way out in the willo-wacks for weeks on end in the borderlands, often with a star guide in one hand, wandering around in the middle of the night, craning my neck and turning in circles, making notes of constellation positions and which ones are rising where, and teaching myself what's coming up next.
Some nights I do that, a lot of other nights it's all camera. There simply isn't much I enjoy better than being alone in the Chihuahuan Desert at night studying the night sky and making images. I honestly haven't been overly concerned with making star map type images of crystal clarity that one can study, though hope to create images that evoke for me the awe and wonder of being out there alone for weeks on end, teaching myself something new.
Here's a few of my favorites, some of which have been posted elsewhere around these forums.
My adventure rig on the border. The Río Bravo del Norte just steps away down a bank.
Galactic Core, Milky Way
Car Lights Along the River
Chihuahuan Dawn
Milky Way with Jupiter over my adventure rig.
and probably my favorite, because of the way I contrived to light the giant Spanish Dagger Yucca:
Milky Way Over Spanish Daggers
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Roaddude - Traveling Photographer/Writer/Artist On the Road In North America. Gear, reviews, people, places, and culture.
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