Lunacy

Sharing some of my favorite cosmic images from last week.

 

Man just awesome, blows my mind, tell me this what equipment do you use, I dont even consider myself a novice......I'm hoping the kids might get the bug with star gazing and searching the sky, cost is an issue, plus with the best intentions the kids, would rather play hopscotch with the neighbours, but a basic set up that would be ideal, just to get their attention, or maybe the neighbours kids might interested, hence my kids will to......again to finish, awesome pictures, beyond interesting

 

If your kids are socializing with the neighbours instead of being glued to their Facebook account, you are a very lucky Dad.
Most of these images were taken with my Canon mirrorless camera using various lenses.
The high magnification pictures were shot thru binoculars or a small scope that I brought with me from the US.
Astronomy is still considered a Black Art here, so you will have a very difficult time finding any kind of gear locally.
Your best option is to order a small scope on-line (Amazon, eBay, etc.).
You want a 80mm refractor with a short focal length (<500mm) that you can mount on a photo tripod. That will give you good views of the Moon and Planets at high mag, and nice wide starfield views at low mag (and would make a great spotting scope). Also, easy to carry and transport.
If you find something, I would be happy to give you my recommendations.

 

Dr. Ski can you recommend a good beginner kit, it doesn't need to be the cheapest or most expensive, but something with reasonable quality. I'm impressed with your pics, enjoy see them and always wait for more pics, thank you for sharing

 

I'm curious if you have issues with light pollution. Do you have a dark sky area near you?

 

Camera or scope??

 

You just need to get a little ways from Dmgte to get reasonably dark skies. Problem is the street lamps and house lighting. The unshielded street lamps are my biggest issue, as I always have to play with my white balance to get a decent image. Light pollution is not a big deal if you're looking at the Moon and planets. I've taken a lot of great shots at night from the Boulevard looking out across Tanjon Straight. I've also captured the Milky Way from the shoreline in Bacong:

 

Both, if it's possible to buy a scope without been bankrupt. Like most other people I like to take photos and consider to buy one of the scopes you can attack your mobile phone, a lot of ads in fb, but when I read the reviews, I forget it very fast, guess a good scope is expensive, thanks for your pics again and thanks for taken time to reply

 

Compare shopee.ph with shopee.tw (i.e Philippines and Taiwan) and see the astounding differences in prices. For example, a 'Celestron Ultima' 52250 80mm zoom spotting scope' (one recommended by Dr Ski) on the Philippines site was P24,000 (but is not appearing there today ) whilst on the Taiwan site it is 6500 Taiwan dollars, which is P10,793 at today's exchange rate. If anyone uses 'shopee' (which seems often to have better prices than Lazada), be aware that the search box is odd! Put in too much detail and it cannot find the item; e.g. I found the scope only when I entered celestron 'Ultima' - put in the model number and it will not show the scope. If you do decide to go with this scope, be aware that the 80mm is important, as Dr Ski, when advising me recently, very much prefers that magnification to the 65mm (which will also come up in your search on shopee using celestron 'Ultima'). I am not sure about this for attaching a mobile phone but Dr Ski will know. Also, you will need a tripod (I found that other than those very expensive ones, there are mixed reviews for everything on the market - I need one also for a 83 magnification camera and so, I believe, the tripod stability is even more important).

 

A spotting scope is not optimized for Astronomical use, but you can see the Moon's craters thru it.
You can attach a mobile phone to any eyepiece with a simple adapter, found on Shopee or Lazada.