Past and Future Astronomy Interests

I have blogged about some of my past astronomy interests in the post “Why Clear Sky Tonight”.

My future astronomy interests are:

  • Planets – The planets have always fascinated me.  Sure you can see the moon with the naked eye, but the planets are so big but just so far away.  I have seen the close up pictures from the different large telescopes, Hubble and the main NASA space crafts.  But, I want to see them for myself with my eye.  I remember the first time I saw the fuzzy images in my ETX of the four moons of Jupiter and mentioned to my children that was what Galileo saw over 400 years ago too.  I remember the first time I saw Mars and it was red.  I remember the first fuzzy images of Saturn’s rings on my ETX.  I want to see the planets closer, sharper and be able to photograph them.
  • Moon – Sure, we can all see the moon.  But I am interested in exploring some of its detail.  Plus, it is a good goal on those “so-so” nights.
  • Galaxies – I want see a galaxy in a telescope and realize how small we really are in the universe!
  • Astrophotography – I want to document all my observing
  • Computer-Controlled – I want to figure how to automate all of this and sit back and enjoy the images.