Best products from r/spaceporn

Great, glad you find it useful. I cannot recommend it highly enough - it's very soul-enriching, especially in the modern technology age where it's about cramming as many megapixels of saturated color into your retina as quickly as possible. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area with low light pollution, you should definitely consider taking it up!

There are many excellent books out there, and also a pair of good binoculars cannot be beat (like a solid pair of 10x50s from an astronomical manufacturer like Meade or Celestron). For alignment, you can get one of the fancy GPS-guided "go-to" telescopes, or you can get an old school Tel-rad. My favorite books for learning the hobby when growing up were the Peterson's Field Guide to Stars & Planets, the Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Terence Dickinson, and a couple of books on star-hopping. There may be better ones now, definitely check Amazon. I also find the various tablet "Virtual Sky" apps really fun, although you can't really take a tablet out with you because it'll ruin your night vision. Red marker + saran wrap + low power flashlight is the key.

And if you want a nice, easy-to-read and enlightening book to ground yourself in the rich history of several millennia of human astronomy, you should check out Timothy Ferris's Coming of Age in the Milky Way - it was accessible and engaging for me, even as a 13 year old.

I do have the 100mm 2.8L macro lens BUT if I could redo the purchase I wouldn't get the L series. It's a beautiful lens but it was just shy of a grand. I could have gotten the 100mm non L lens for half the price. I am a fan of the STM lenses and of course the USM lenses but I do shop with price considered now. The L isn't my first reason to look at a lens. Plus there are lots of lens rental websites so you can try before you buy or for using a lens once for vacation or something.

If you want to talk macro, PM me. I live macro photography. I'm no professional but I love seeing the details you miss all the time on small things. Super macro is also fun and quite challenging. http://digital-photography-school.com/super-macro-photography/

The prices have gone up a bit but still a decent price for what you get. I use my 100L fit family portraits too.

Non L is 600. Not cheap but not terribly expensive. It's an achievable goal if you really want it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00004XOM3?cache=a0071f54bb81555881641ed403b15faf&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1407817888&sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2

Sure.

The gold standard in intro astronomy is the Big Orange Book by Carroll and Ostlie (orange standard?). Probably not the first book to read, but if you're serious about astronomy it's essential reading.

I really like the podcast Space Time with Stuart Gary. He basically goes over recent papers, but at a level that is very approachable for non-scientists.

You may get a lot out of a non-major intro textbook. I believe that John Fix's book is the one we use at my university. There are a number of intro texts out there, I'm not an expert on which is the best. But make sure it's not more than 5 or so years old, a lot has happened in the last few years.

Also, don't let the math scare you off. You need to learn calculus, and it was hard for me, too. But, you can definitely do it.

I hope that helps!

I started with this one. A celestron 130slt. I know people don’t like the computerized ones but in my opinion, for an amateur, it’s really great. Amazon has a warehouse deal for $320 right now. It’s a great telescope for beginners. I even took some pictures of the moon and stars. You can see the rings separated from Saturn but you cannot tell that there are two rings if that makes sense.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007UQNNQ/

I had the opportunity to see the shuttle land in California when I was growing up there and to watch it launch when I was attending college in Florida. I recently read an outstanding book on the Shuttle program I would recommend to anyone who is interested.

She says she'll post the process later this week, I hope she does! I have some ideas on how she did it, but it would take some testing.

These are how I'm thinking she got the basic forms... although, the way she is talking about it, I would suspect they were baked separately. Mud cake is more dense than butter cake, and DEFINITELY more dense than a sponge. I'm guessing, she baked the mud cake in the smallest, two times. Then possibly poured the butter cake in to the two-sizes up pan, and floated the smallest cake pan in the center, with something along the top (like masking tape or something) to hold it in the center. Repeat with the sponge cake, although I think she might have to weight it a little bit to keep it the inner pan where she wanted it. This is, of course, wild speculation, and I am dying to find out how she did it.

However she did it, this cake is amazing!

Yes they are. This is the the best "affordable" option http://www.amazon.com/Tokina-11-16mm-AT-X116-Digital-Cameras/dp/B007ORX8ME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420828935&sr=8-1&keywords=tokina+11-16+dx+ii+nikon

I have that lens and take panoramas like this https://www.flickr.com/photos/128475051@N04/15800909882/ with it. It's actually an amazing lens for that price. Was $700 when I bought it :/

For $50, you get a pretty good quality binoculars. A mount is pretty much needed good resolution, or the object will shake like crazy.

I got a tripod (for my camera also) and it works for a cheap tripod.

Absolutely not, you can definitely see the milky way clearly in a lot of areas of the country. It's quite spectacular. Check out the light pollution map and find an area within a reasonable drive to head to to stargaze. Buy some nice binoculars ($50-$70) and a copy of Left Turn at Orion.

If you're ever able to visit west Texas, stay at a lodge or hotel near Fort Davis (we stayed at the Indian Lodge) and do all the tours and events at McDonald Observatory. There's enough for about two days' worth, and it's not very expensive. Do the private observing session ($50, 2-3 hours of amazing stuff to see through a 36" telescope with a dozen other people, book it early). Bring your binoculars and stargazing book and do your own stargazing at night. This is what got me into astronomy and drove me to build my own telescope!

Make sure you DO NOT go out there before or during a full moon. Optimal lunar cycle is somewhere between a few days after the full moon and no more than two or three days after a new moon. Anything else, and the moon washes out the whole damn sky.

This is also a cover of a pretty great book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Algebraist-Iain-M-Banks/dp/1841492299

I recently broke down and did this.

This telescope. (Heavy but great optics)

This phone holder

iPhone 7 Plus

VSCO camera app to allow control of exposure, ISO, etc.

Gets me this on the second try taking pictures

It's not so much the challenge, it's that over a third of the puzzle is one single color. It would be super tedious and not fun at all. IMO, the best puzzles have a lot of different things going on like something on /r/wimmelbilder. This Rick And Morty puzzle was a lot of fun to out together, but they intentionally left out a single piece to troll buyers.

Get the companion book! It's quite good and you'll probably enjoy it way more than I did.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Interstellar-Kip-Thorne/dp/1494559390

Hey man thanks for remembering! I appreciate your advice.

So GOTO is something to consider when upgrading from my first setup. Got it. For beginners, it's best to go for something a little bit more complicated to learn, correct?

I've looked around in Amazon, but I couldn't find anything on 8" Doby. Could you give me a full name or link it for me, please? I'm going to be in the US next week and I will order it there and then fly back with it to home. Is that something you see any problems with (if properly packaged of course)?

How about the 32mm 2" widefield? Is this it?

https://www.amazon.com/Meade-Instruments-Infinity-Refractor-Telescope/dp/B00LY8JCII I got the 50mm one. I'd say it's pretty good for the price!

If the Shuttle/Mir era interests you, Dragonfly is a must-read. It has a lot of inside stories of the people involved, and is a great technical and human drama.

http://www.amazon.com/Dragonfly-NASA-And-Crisis-Aboard/dp/0887307833

It's pretty good if you take a telescope with you. Here's a composite with my phone and (shitty) telescope I took at the eclipse in April: http://i.imgur.com/SXak1LG.jpg

Me too. Found one 😊

https://www.amazon.com/Carolina-Biological-Supply-Company-Globe/dp/B0062AVDAI?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_5

People on r/nasa liked this, Thought I would share here also.

Amazon Link - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VHH8MP3

While nothing special https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-NexStar-130-Computerized-Telescope/dp/B0007UQNNQ has been a great learning scope for me.

https://www.amazon.ca/Gosky-Universal-Phone-Adapter-Mount/dp/B013D2ULO6/

I used a 12.5mm eyepiece.

Gosky Universal Cell Phone mount https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013D2ULO6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share