I'd been there, done that.
Okay, uh, we'll go ahead and let me…. Figure out how to get out of full screen here real quick.
There we go.
Okay, because I want to be able to see the…. Script, obviously.
Okay, here we go. In 3…. 2… 1….
Welcome to the StarCast for the week of June 22nd, 2025.
I'm your host, Jay Schaefer, and with me is my co-host.
Mike Lewinsky. Welcome, Mike.
Let's take a look at some space weather from SpaceWeather.com. So, Mike, what's happening with the sun over the next couple days?
Thanks for having me, Jay.
Well, we have a low…. Chance of X-class flares, uh, just about 10%.
Uh, with a slightly greater chance of M-class flares at around 55%.
That's for the next 48 hours. As far as geomagnetic storms.
Uh, there is a 15% chance of active. Conditions over the next 48 hours.
Uh, 25 to 30% chance of a minor geomagnetic storm in the next 48 hours, and.
Uh, 25 to 40% chance of a severe geomagnetic storm. So, some of the recent.
Activity, especially on the solstice, uh, may have triggered. A bit of disruption, and we might see that in the nights to come.
So why is it that we can only, uh, basically make a forecast for about 48 hours in advance?
Well, I think that's, uh, mostly due to, um. You know, a combination of, uh….
The limits of technology, but also, you know, we're looking at, you know, activity on the sun now to extrapolate.
Uh, what's… what's coming our way, and uh…. You know, the… the X….
Flares and other flares themselves are traveling at the speed of light, so we….
We get that, uh, effect, and the radio blackouts that it causes within.
You know, 8 to 10 minutes at the speed of light.
Uh, but, uh, geomagnetic storms are…. More, uh, charged.
Particles, and they're not traveling at the speed of light, so….
Okay, so it's about, uh, you know, one to two days, 24 to 48 hours before they actually get here.
Uh, we have a delay before they reach the Earth.
Exactly. And some… then some of the forecast is, well, what… what are the sunspots that are turning toward us?
And how active do they appear to be? And so, you know, we may have an inkling that.
Something could let off. But until it actually happens, we're just guessing.
Okay. So, uh…. What else is happening this week is the moon is pretty interesting this week, uh, going from the sun to the Moon.
So, uh, early tomorrow morning, uh, uh, the, the…. Morning of the 23rd.
Uh, with the, um…. Moonwill, uh, the crescent moon will, uh, pass by the Pleiades star cluster.
And so, uh, it's not quite an occultation like we had back in April 1st, but it's always interesting to see.
A kind of a dark moon passed right by the Pleiades, which is….
Very recognizable and fairly bright star cluster. And the moon will reach its perigee, or which is called the closest point to us in its elliptical orbit around Earth.
On about, uh, 5 UTC…. On June 23rd, uh, 2025. Again, tomorrow, basically.
Um. And then, uh, the new moon will fall on, uh.
To be precise, uh, 10232 UTC on, uh, June 25th. And so when we say, uh, UTC, of course, we're talking about.
Universal time constant, which is basically greenish mean time. And so… and that's probably about a 7-hour difference from our particular time zone, which is the, uh.
A Rocky Mountain time zone in the United States. That's kind of the main events for the night sky this week.
And in space news…. There was a surprise Nova this week.
Um, it was per…. Yeah, it was pretty exciting news on….
Yeah, really exciting.
June 12th, uh, the, uh. All Sky Automated Survey for Supernova.
Uh, which is a basically…. Something that scans the night sky, uh, tries to scan it all the time overnight to see if there's any newer supernova occurring.
And there's a difference between a supernova and a nova. So, like, a supernova.
Is a huge star explosion that we can see in…. Actually faraway galaxies. It's that massive and huge.
Whereas regular novas, or, you know, even though they are pretty violent event, um.
It is a star exploding. Those are often more from… actually, we see those that are in our Milky Way galaxy.
And so, this, um…. This planet, the sun that Novaed this week.
Was, uh, formerly named, uh, V462 Lepi. And it was a, uh….
Hardly even, uh, you know, a notable star. It was previously at magnitude 22 that wouldn't even appear on most star charts.
And so, when it first appeared, it started shining around, uh, magnitude 8.5, and then continued to brighten.
Till last night, it was a magnitude of 5.6, which is.
Quite bright, and you can actually…. Uh, that would be visible to the naked eye in a dark sky. And, uh, of course, you could… and it would be easily seen with binoculars, and actually, I got out there last night with the binoculars, and.
Was able to kind of pick it out. And so. You know, it's basically… there was… where there was nothing, uh, you know, a few nights ago, there's a bright star now, so….
And so, uh, in other news, uh, can you tell us a little bit about the Rubin telescope there, Mike?
Yeah, this week we're gonna get our first look at images created out of the Rubin Observatory.
Using the world's largest digital camera. Uh, and the Rubin Observatory is going to create the ultimate time lapse of the night sky.
Repeatedly scanning the sky and creating an ultra-wide, ultra-high definition time-lapse record of our universe.
That observatory is named for Dr. Vera Rubin, an astronomer who is also honored on a new U.S. Coin, so I am really looking forward to seeing.
Those images as they are released. And we'll include a link to that… include a link to that, uh, observatory's website so that, uh, listeners can, uh.
Yeah, and so that's….
Keep an eye out, and uh…. Watch those images, uh, press conference is gonna happen on, uh.
Tomorrow at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.
Oh, great, that's really exciting when we get a new observatory online, and so….
And it's also… I'm really happy that it's honoring Dr. Vera Rubin, who's.
Where, uh, a prominent female astronomer that's done a lot of really important work.
Uh, so then this week's discussion, we're gonna talk about astronomy on the cheap.
Uh, and I'm… I'm not a rich man, and I don't think that you are either, Mike, and so….
Uh, so we don't, uh, I don't have a…. I've probably spent too much on astronomy stuff, but uh… but there's ways to do that on the cheap.
No.
That's right. I'll tell you, I got my, uh, first. Real, uh, dedicated observing around a campfire.
I mean, as a kid, you know, I…. I wasn't attempting.
Or, you know, it was just… I was just looking in awe and wonder.
Which is a great way to do that. Um, and then, as a young adult, I started camping.
And a friend had made, uh, some… he was an astronomer in grad school, and he'd made some.
Star charts that he photocopied and gave to me. And what I discovered was really wonderful about these is that they only had printing on one side of the page.
And I could stand over a campfire. And use the star chart to….
First of all, block the light of the campfire. So that, uh, my eyes could stay dark adjusted, mostly.
And second of all, to illuminate the star chart from underneath.
So that, uh, and this was well before the era of cell phones, so there were no apps to turn to.
But I still have these, uh, star charts that my friend Larry made for me.
And, uh, they're… they were incredibly useful to be able to stand there and….
You know, find one constellation, start with the Big Dipper. And, uh, you know, start to learn those… the names of those stars, and then find.
You know, the next constellation, the Little Dipper, and to go on from there. And, uh, of course, the Summer Triangle. So I got really good at the Summer Sky, just.
Just by, uh, hopping from constellation to constellation using these. One-sided, uh, star charts.
And we do have a link of some downloadable sky maps.
That, when printed, would be. Um, single page, so….
Okay.
Oh, well, yeah, and of course, a step up from that is what they call a printed planosphere.
You can do the same thing if you want.
And I have a little one, I think it cost me less than $10, that….
That glows in the dark, and it's basically a, uh…. Cardboard, um, device that allows you to rotate.
The night sky chart around to the night that you're looking at, and then you… and then it actually has glow-in-the-dark ink on it, and….
And, uh, I can just sit out there in a lawn chair, uh, in the dark sky.
And, uh, you know, basically be able to pick out those stars. So….
To me, the cheapest way that you can do astronomy is just to have a comfortable, uh.
Uh, outdoor chair, and a planisphere or a star chart. And then, um, practically everybody out there has a pair of binoculars, or you can get a super cheap pair of binoculars.
And I would call that the next step up.
That's right, and uh… some binoculars will support tripod mount, and so….
If you are going to invest. I recommend… I've got a pair of Pentax, uh.
They're 10x50. Uh, vocals, and uh….
I am able to screw that onto a tripod mount, and….
Uh, then I can…. Find my target, and I don't have to, uh, suffer.
The jitter of holding it by hand, I get a nicer, clearer view.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Um, and uh…. Yeah.
Yeah, and they also, you know, when we say, uh, when you said, uh, 10… 10 by 50.
Uh, that means that it's 10x magnification by, uh, 50 millimeter.
Objective lens, and so, you know, and then… so if you can get, uh, so binoculars are kind of….
In that realm, and so if you have a 10x, uh, you know, 50 or a 10x70.
Uh, those are sufficient binoculars that you can see. A lot of night sky objects, down to magnitude, you know, 7, some, some, you know, if you're in dark skies.
And like you said, having a tripod mount, it really helps that out.
And in addition to binoculars, there's also little spotting scopes, and so they're basically half a binocular.
And those are fairly inexpensive as well. And so, those also work fairly well.
I recently inherited a. Botting scope with, uh, and this is a very old….
Uh, it's a Swift brand, and it's kind of got this marine green.
Uh, finish. I would estimate that this thing was probably manufactured.
Uh, and this is full… it advertises as fully coded. This thing has got to have been made in the 40s or 50s.
That's right. Came with a set of 5 eyepieces. So, um, designed for astronomy, came with a star map, and….
And you can still see stars through it, right?
Well, that's… and what did that set you back?
Well, it was, uh, actually given to me by a friend who inherited it from her father. She said, well, I didn't know that I was going to have a use for it, but you might, so….
I was grateful to add. An antique to my collection that certainly still has use.
Yeah, and for me, actually, I… because of the way my eyes are offset, is I actually, uh….
Can look through a spotting scope, uh. Easier and better than I can, uh, binoculars, so….
That's one of the… you know, when I go camping or backpacking or something, and I don't want to haul anything that's too heavy.
Is, uh, I usually just have this little, uh, spotting scope that.
Works pretty well. And so, also, nowadays, of course, we've all got phones, and um….
You know, and we can… and some of these newer phones, uh, particularly from Samsung and iPhones, are getting to where they're really, uh, sensitive to dark, uh.
Can do some night sky imaging. And, of course, the most important piece of equipment for this would be….
Having a tripod, and I can't overemphasize, you know, what an investment a tripod is. Like you said, for binoculars or for a spotting scope.
And especially if you can get a phone mount, and you can mount your phone on a tripod, you can do some pretty cool night sky stuff.
That's right, and I use the apps Skyview for Android and Stellarium for Android, and.
Sure, there's the Stellarium for iPhone. Out there, um, just to help me navigate.
Uh, but I have used my phone to do long exposures.
And, uh, can capture the Milky Way, can capture, uh, Aurora.
If it's bright enough. And, uh, so that takes getting into the….
You know, manual mode, and adjusting exposure times to being, you know, somewhere between.
15 and 30 seconds, maybe setting a high ISO. And, uh, setting, uh, manual focus, of course.
Yeah, and uh… you can actually, yeah, there's, uh, one app that I think is both Android and iPhone is called Nightcap.
That, uh, that I use, and it uses long exposure and stacking.
To, uh, to do imagery, and again, if it's mounted on a tripod.
You can get, uh, you know, good Milky Way and stuff like that. And then another thing that you can do with your, uh, um.
Your phone is something called digiscoping. And, uh, yeah, you're aware of that, Mike?
I have just a little bit. I've not tried it myself, but I know people who do.
Okay, so, uh, digiscoping is you can get a little adapter that can, uh, that basically holds your phone, uh, close to the eyepiece of a spotting scope or binoculars.
So….
Or inexpensive telescope, and allows you to use your phone, uh, use the telescope or the, um.
Or the spotting scope to, uh, to do the magnification. And then your phone does the actual capture.
And so I've… I had really, really good luck with that. In particular, like.
Things like lunar eclipses, um…. You know, where you can actually run a time lapse on your phone, mount it to a scope, and so that was one of the….
Things that… and it's also very portable, like you said, camping and backpacking is that you just, you just need the, uh, the little adapter clip that.
Clips onto your spotting scope. A tripod and your phone, and you can actually do some.
Pretty decent star imaging. So, you… both you and I, uh, do a lot of time lapses, and so, uh, we use digital cameras, so, uh.
Can you tell us a little bit about your entry into using digital cameras for night sky imaging?
Sure, I started out, uh, in…. Probably about 2011.
When the Sony mirrorless cameras became affordable enough. It was always, for me.
Matter of, uh…. Well, let me back up. I had a… I had a Mead 8-inch Dobsonian, uh.
In the mid-90s, late 90s, and I did buy a…. Usb eyepiece.
So it had a little camera built in with a…. Usb cable, and….
I… I took that and hooked it up to my computer, which I then hooked up to a projector.
And I projected a, you know, probably an 8…. 10-foot-high, uh, live image of the moon on my bedroom wall.
So that… that was kind of fun. Um…. And… but, you know, it was pretty low resolution, low quality.
Um, it wasn't until, say, 2010 that. Sony mirrorless cameras became.
Inexpensive enough to actually. Uh, you know, buy and start doing more serious, uh, time lapse and astrophotography.
And, uh, it was the next 5 series that got me started.
And, um…. You know, for $600, $700, I was able to, uh, get a camera that could.
Take long exposures. Uh, with a wide-angle lens, and uh….
You know, looking for around 18 millimeters, sort of at the starting point of the kit lens.
Uh, is fine, and uh…. I used… I went through quite a few Sony NEX 5s, uh, between.
2011, and say. Uh, 2000….
16, 2017. Uh, mostly just burning up the shutters by taking millions of pictures every year.
And I'm now using a Sony a6300. And a Sony a7R3, which is, you know, on the higher end, full frame.
And they're both excellent cameras. I've kind of just stuck with Sony because of.
The investment of lenses that I have. Um, and they've just served me very well in the more recent models.
Have a silent shutter feature, so that instead of actuating the shutter.
Um, they…. There's no mechanical movement for a shot.
So these cameras have been more durable and have endured, you know.
Sub-zero minus 10 degree temperatures. Up to, you know, 100 degree in the daytime.
For hours in the sun, hours in the freezing, uh. Getting, you know, rhyme and… or, you know.
Frost, uh, all over the camera. They've been just remarkably resilient.
Yeah, we could both be accused of camera abuse. There's probably no better way to abuse a camera.
And, uh, provided me with years of enjoyment.
Than to shoot nighttime sky lapses year-round. Um, so I've got.
My investment is in Panasonic Lumix cameras. Uh, which are also mirrorless cameras.
And, again, primarily due to the fact that that was where my LINDS investment was.
Before I started doing a lot of the night sky and, um….
And time lapses, and that sort of thing. But there's not only time lapses, you know, time lapses are very gratifying and, uh, you know, especially for.
The Milky Way, and looking for meteors, and that sort of thing. But you can also use just a, you.
A fairly inexpensive digital camera, and uh…. On a tripod, and do imaging of, say, the moon, or, you know, with a proper filter, you can do the sun and get sun spots.
And then, uh, if we talk about. Deep sky photography, or deep sky observing.
Then we get into, uh, where we want to actually track, uh, these….
Deep sky objects, so that we can, uh, kind of follow along with them as the Earth rotates, and so….
I know that you've got a Star Tracker, and how does that… and what does that cost, and how does that work for you, Mike?
Yeah, it's the, uh, Skywatcher Star Adventurer. And I got the photography package.
So, it's… it's on the lower end as far as trackers go, but uh….
Obviously, uh…. Useful, uh, enough for a lightweight telescope.
Or a, um…. You know, we're talking about $500, which….
You know, compared to amount for a larger optical assembly would be several thousand dollars, so….
I have to set my, uh, latitude. On a dial, and I have to pull or align it, and that's probably the most difficult part.
It has a small built-in reticule, uh, with an illuminator so that I can.
Align it with the North Star, and then I have to account for the particular time.
And it takes a bit of effort, you know, sometimes 20 minutes to get it well aligned.
The amount has to be, uh, leveled, the tripod has to be leveled.
The amount has to be aligned, polar aligned. And then I have to select the correct, uh, tracking setting, because if.
I'm tracking the moon, which I use this most frequently for lunar eclipses.
Uh, there's one setting, because of the distance of the Moon to the Earth, and.
It's, uh, uh…. Orbital period is going to be different from the apparent motion of the stars with the Earth's rotation.
So, different settings. This also does a time-lapse mode, where I can just set it.
And tell it to just turn at a constant rate, and….
Have some, uh, motion of the…. Time lapse instead of having a fixed view.
So it's been a… it's been a great, uh, investment for me, and I've… I've been using this for.
About 6 years now. The only drawback, like I say, is the need to polar align it.
And I've… I've been out. For a lunar eclipse, and oh, it's cloudy in the north, and.
Maybe it's going to clear up later, I would really like to have it aligned before the eclipse starts.
And sometimes that's just not possible. I have to do kind of my best guess at.
What's north. And I've had okay results when I've had to guess, but it's obviously more accurate if I can.
Truly find Polaris and have it correctly aligned. And balance. That's the other… that's the other thing, is that there's a balancing.
A counterweight, and that needs to be adjusted based on. What kind of lens or tube I'm mounting, and the weight of the camera.
So, that's gonna vary from, uh. Setup to setup.
Yeah, so those are basically… and there's another brand of one of those, it's from a company called Mouche.
Shoot, move, uh, and they're… they're kind of… their advantage is their portability is that you can throw them in a backpack if you're going out camping or rafting, or kayaking, or whatever.
And then you can just mount your DSLR camera again on a tripod, and the star tracker, and uh….
And, you know, it can add a lot of detail to your Milky Way photography, if you're actually, you know.
Tracking those Milky Way stars, so you can do shorter exposures, so you get less star trailing.
And so, uh, so those are kind of a nice economical alternative, and, um.
And I just wanted, you know, talk about, like, you know, what the traditional astrophotography investment was, and so it….
You know, up until a couple years ago. If you wanted to do a really good, uh, you know, deep sky, uh, photography.
And capture Nebula. And that sort of thing, you had to have pretty significant investment. You had to have a telescope mount that was a tracking mount, and, you know, it might have been, uh.
Uh, you know, go-to mount, which is something that would, you know, you could basically tell it, uh, where there were 3 stars to align to, and it would actually tell the telescope where to go.
And then you'd have to have the investment of the telescope.
And then a camera for the telescope, and then sometimes they have a, uh….
Tracking camera that keeps the telescope on target. And they would have an automated focuser, and before long, you could get into an investment of, you know.
Getting close to $10,000 in a decent setup to do. You know, any, uh, you know, deep sky photography, and so….
Uh, and that all changed a couple years ago, um, and with the introduction of what they call smart telescopes.
And so, um…. Were you aware of that when we, you know, when that… when that happened, Mike?
Yeah, I mean, you were actually the one that I think, turned me on to the, um, Seastar.
I have another friend who bought a, uh…. Dwarf. So, I've seen that in action as well.
And, uh, I went and bought a Seastar for my use during the solar eclipse of, uh.
April 2024, and was really very, very pleased with the performance of that, just as a….
As a solar telescope, and I use it probably half the time I use it, is for.
So, yeah, so we're talking about… there's a couple brands out there, uh, that….
Uh, capturing sunspots.
Or in the sub-$500 range. Um, and so….
There were some smart telescopes that were kind of introduced, you know, about 5 years ago that were.
You know, kind of on the high end, where they were, you know, in the, you know, $5,000 range, you know, the $2,000 to $5,000 range.
And, you know, that was beyond my budget and interest in, um….
And doing, you know. Astronomy, but when these smart telescopes came out, there are a couple of them. One is called the Dwarf II, or Dwarf 1, Dwarf 2.
And then, uh, from a…. Brand called ZWO is… there's two telescopes that they have out, smart telescopes.
Seastar S50. Which is a 50mm objective lens.
And the Seastar S30, which is obviously a 30mm. Objective lands. And so these….
Basically, we're game changers. I mean, I… the first time I….
Got that, uh, out in, um. Did some night sky imaging. It was like….
Wow, this is not difficult, number one. You know, like you said with the Star Tracker, having to deal with polar alignment.
You know, knowing what your latitude is, what time it was, you know, and by the time you get everything set up in a traditional telescope.
Or StarTracker, you know, you've pretty much lost interest, or the weather's changed, or it's, you know, especially if it's cold out.
Uh, it's just not a pleasurable experience, but if you can….
Grab one of these smart telescopes, and literally, the S50 is that you….
Go out, plop it out on its tripod. Turn on the app and say.
Go image Orion. And, uh, and it goes to it, and it starts taking pictures, and uh….
And it does all these things that, um…. The expensive astrophotography rigs used to do.
Where, you know, it has the camera, it has the autofocuser, it has a filter for the, um.
You know, for light pollution. And it does internal stacking, where it takes these short exposures of images and stacks them together to make a.
Uh, large exposure. And then, at the end of the night, it spits out a JPEG for you, or it can spit out a more sophisticated file format, a FITS format.
Um, uh, file that you can process, uh, in post on your computer.
And you can do some really, uh, fantastic deep-sky imaging. And so, you know, and that wasn't a big interest of mine.
Before, because, you know, there's so many people with the more expensive rigs that did deep space stuff, that it wasn't, you know, it wasn't at.
Economically viable for me to do that.
Same, same. It's, uh, it's really exciting to kind of watch as the image develops, as it stacks image after image, and you start with.
Maybe the faintest of smudge that shows up in the. Cell phone, uh, view, and then suddenly you get a little bit more definition with every.
Subsequent image that's stacked on top, so it's like…. We're trading some of the….
Uh…. Nice aperture you get on a big telescope for just time.
May not be able to grab as many photons with any given image.
But we can extend the amount of time to. Grab many photons anyway.
Yeah, and I think that, to me, the biggest thing is that this really democratizes the, um.
The hobby, as it were. You know, we always had a saying that, you know, these gifted, uh, whenever you get that gift of the telescope, you know, the 4-5 inch reflector telescope.
That, uh, somebody gets you for a Christmas present. We call those hobby killers.
Because, uh, people would, you know. Get… go… try to go through the hassle of setting them up and looking through the telescope, and….
Not getting really, um, you know, satisfying results, and so a lot of people lost image.
Interest in the, you know, hobby of a strong amateur astronomy, just because of.
The telescopes were so difficult to operate.
That's right, and there's just such a nice range of costs.
Um, out there, you know, starting with the Seastar S30 at about $400.
And the S50 being a little bit more, another 150 or so, so 550, 600.
Uh, the dwarf is comparable to that. Uh, there's. Vespera and Vespera Pro, which are gonna jump up to, you know.
$2,000 to $3,000, and then from there on up into the Celestron, say, Astrograph.
Series, you know, running from 3,000 to…. You know, $6,000 or $8,000, depending on the size of scope that you want, but….
All kind of, you know, based around some of the same concepts of….
Let's… let's stack images, and…. Capture light over time, which of course is something that our eyes just can't do by themselves.
Uh-huh. And then, um…. And of course, before these smart telescopes.
What I would do for, um…. Right, uh, for Deep Sky Photography.
Is rather than me make the investment in these, uh, you know, sophisticated telescope setups.
Is you can rent observatory time. And so, you can, uh, there's several of these observatories out there.
Where you can actually just basically rent time on an observatory that has a sophisticated telescope, and.
Sophisticated imaging equipment, and they… you can tell them to, uh, say, uh, I would like to have you point this at, you know, this nebula.
And, uh, you know, for on a clear sky night, and they, uh, you….
Pay them money, and they send you images that you can post-process, and….
Turn into some really, you know, world-class, uh, you know, deep space, uh.
Object photography. And so, and so I've, you know. Told people in the past, if you want to, you know, if you really want to get into deep sky imaging, um.
Is don't necessarily make that investment on your own. You know, invest the money in, you know, just getting the images made by a professional observatory.
And, you know, sent to you that you can process and make your own.
Um. And so, I will include a couple links to, uh, you know, one observatory in particular, it's called the Insight Observatory.
And they have, uh, actually 3 or 4. Different observatory locations that you can, uh, order images from.
Yeah. And hey, Jay, there's another, uh, thing that's not on your list, uh, that I think we should talk about, and that's, uh, star parties. You know, people can.
Uh, look for local. Amateur astronomy groups, and get out and have the benefit of.
Um, their neighbors' telescopes, who…. Enjoy sharing and giving tours of the night sky.
That's something we do here in Crestone, Colorado, where I live.
We've hosted two star parties this year, and we have plans for.
At least 3 more, including our big annual celebration on. August 30th and 31st at the Colorado College Baca campus.
We've got some exciting…. Presenters lined up this year, including a.
A physics professor who will be giving a presentation on archaeoastronomy.
Yeah, and these are usually free, too, and so I'm a member of the El Vallier Astronomy Club here.
In Taos area, and we just… actually, last night, we…. Canceled our star party due to clouds, or postponed it until next week.
But again, yeah, these public star parties, uh, is, you know, you can get out there, you can talk to people that are even more expert than you and I, and look through their telescopes, and, you know, and take advantage of that.
In addition to that is there's also a public observatories. So.
Um, I know in, uh, Colorado, uh, we… there was, uh, a couple, uh, public observatories where they would just basically… you could go to these observ… observatories on certain nights of the week and look through their telescopes for visual observing.
And so… and again, it was hosted by an expert, and they're gonna point the telescope for you.
And you can look at, you know, look through these super expensive, uh.
You know, telescopes were often owned by colleges or universities. Um, you know, one of the….
Big ones was the DU refractor in, uh, in Denver, Colorado.
And we're actually, uh…. Uh, in the process of building a… the largest, um.
Public telescope, uh. In the southwest United States, here in Taos. So we're on a, uh, kind of a.
3-year ramp up, uh, to, uh, add a new, uh, 36-inch.
Dobsonian telescope that was donated to the. University of New Mexico at Taos, and so they're basically building a, what they call a roll-off rooftop.
Observatory that will be open to the public so they can look through the telescopes that way.
So, yeah, these are some of the ways, so you can, you know, you don't have to throw a lot of money at the hobby of astronomy, and in fact, you know.
Awesome. That's great.
You know, just being able to know where to look, and, um, you know, keep your eye out for star parties, and some of the more inexpensive equipment. Uh, you can get a very enjoyable experience, so….
Uh, you know, we tell… that's how we do astronomy on the cheap.
So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap that up, and we'll thank all our listeners for checking out this podcast.
Be sure to, uh, comment, like, subscribe, and…. Let us know what you'd like to hear more about, or less about.
And you can also check out our respective websites. Mike's is wildernessVagabonds.com.
And mine is Skylapser.com. And our intro music is fanfare for Space by….
Kevin McCloud from the YouTube Audio Library. From the deep space… Deep Sage 9 Observatory, this is G. Schaefer.
And Mike Lewinsky, wishing you all. Clear skies.