A blessed solstice to all

Nope but at this time, just a few days before Christmas, it is associated with the birth of Christ. That is the exact reason it was used in the OP. He too thought of that particular word…at this time…and used it to promote this thread.

the idea of a prayer for peace around this time of year is not solely a christian principle. claiming that the use of a prayer for peace at this time of year should be restricted to christianity is just another example of how some christians think its my way or the highway. pretty much every major religion has a prayer/hope for peace that is used around major holidays .

jewish prayer services for example use a prayer for peace as part of all services. (its part of the amidah)

and solstice is one of the major holidays in pagan religions.

Christ was and is a Jew…now just stop with trying to disguise the truth of what I said. You and I both know, your motivation was for no other reason than what I’ve stated.

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i had no motivation to in your words “promote this thread”

im not the one who is trying to turn a simple prayer for peace health and happiness into some kind of ulterior motive.

and ill point out that while christ may have been a jew,the whole idea of christmas in the first place was to overwhelm the pagan rituals the predate christmas.

Ever use a go-to scope? I bought one years ago but got frustrated trying to use it. The alignment procedure is not very clear. Decent views in par with the ones you posted but without getting it aligned properly, it won’t track. I’ve been thinking of switching to another type that’s easier to use. Any Recommendations?

Merry Christmas (for believers in Christ), Happy Solstice (for our pagan friends), Happy Hanukkah (for our Jewish friends), Merry Nothing (for our Atheist friends).

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mine is a goto scope but its not really high quality. its goto leaves a lot to be desired.
i know there are newer scopes that do a better job, some literally take a picture of teh sky so it can figure out where it is and goto from there.
the key is the mount. the better the mount the better the tracking. cheap goto scopes are sometimes called hobby killers because of the frustration in getting them aligned and using them.
there is a astronomy forum where people have a lot of suggestions on better quality scopes depending on your budget.

Depends on what you want to observe. Nice rounded scope is 8 inch SCT scopes. You can go bigger but if you travel you have to consider set up and weight. I have 12 inch with supper wedge. Entire scope weight about 200 pounds or more.

SCT gives you decent planetary and deep sky viewing. Refractor give good planetary viewing but not deep sky. For deep sky you would want a reflector scope more like Dobsonian. Saying with Dobsonian scope either go big or go home. There light buckets which is what you want for observe deep sky objects.

Don’t buy a scope based on power.

If you planing on any photographing you need a solid stand/mount. It should hold twice the weight of your scope to accommodate your camera equipment.

Pretty neat sight right now.

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Have a good set of binoculars?

This is same photo that Moonshine posted…but turned the right way as you would see it.

Good set of will allow you to see the 4 moons…but they may not all be on one side since couple of them rotates around the planet pretty fast.

your view wouldn’t be as clear thou…specially Saturn rings.

Not by my standards I don’t. It was very easy to spot and almost looked like a snowman. They weren’t quite on top of each other, just barely separated enough that we could all see the anomalous look of it. The kids enjoyed it and asked a ton of random questions about the stars and constellations.

A good time in all. Perhaps I’ll teach them about the Zodiac clock and how the constellations have influenced religious symbolism over the last 12,000 years. We are currently in the Age of the Fish (Pisces), and we all know what that is associated with.

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Thanks! I will check the forum out. I had a feeling it was my mount. It’s near impossible to find anything with it. It really did kill the fun.

Thing about looking up…other then planets the night sky is same as it was 12 thousand years ago. It’s what monkeys had seen millions of years ago.

One thing I would really love…to spend about month in Southern Chile mountain top.

What a sight they have.

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Thanks. I have wanted to get something decent. I would like to do deep sky, my problem is I live close to town and light pollution is terrible, so I would have to have a place to lug everything. I have considered an 8 inch, my go-to is 6. When I can get it on target, I get decent planetary views, but for deep space, I know I need something bigger. I haven’t decided on photography, probably won’t, too much extras needed…

Main thing that Moonshine said is cheap scopes are hobby killers. It’s best not to buy one unless you can afford a decent scope.

Bigger isn’t always better.

Also every 1000 ft you go up…it’s like 9 percent? don’t quote me on that but less atmosphere.

So get high and dry for best viewing.

The Precession of the Equinoxes changes the order in which the constellations rise over the eastern horizon during the spring equinox. A new constellation every 2,160 years on a 25,920 year cycle of 12 constellations. 12,000 years ago it was Leo (the Lion), in about another 100 years it will be Aquarius (the Angel). Right now it is Pisces (the Fish).

ETA: Fun fact, the Moon is 2,160 miles in radius. :wink:

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mote

/mōt/

noun

  1. a tiny piece of a substance.

“the tiniest mote of dust”

Depends on where you’re at. Even the sky during daytime rotates during the year. Very southern sky does drip and rises over thousand of years. As you can see my lst viewing was low just above southern sky.

That’s where some of best goodies to observe. :wink: