My friend Emilie Drobnes is an astronomy education specialist, and she’s taking a survey related to the International Year of Astronomy 2009. She sent out an email to a bunch of other astronomers asking, "What was the first object you ever saw through a telescope?"
Mine was Saturn. I’ve told the story here on the blog and elsewhere, so I’ll spare you the tale. But Emilie is looking to get a bunch of responses from people, and I volunteered my space here to ask you, my countless droogs.
So, what was your first? Please give a brief answer in the comments; she’ll be looking through them to collect the answers and collate the data. She needs the data by Sunday, so put down the flag and the firecrackers and leave a comment!
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Does looking at my cute neighbor count? Just kidding, I used binoculars for that…
Anyway, Although I know I looked at a telescope a couple of times I can’t remember if I was watching a particular object.
I’m thinking of buying one soon, any suggestions?
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 am
The moon. I’d gotten a telescope for my birthday and took it out, figuring how to work things as I went, then pointed it at the big crescent in the sky.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 am
The first object I had seen through a telescope was Sirius, seen through the crappiest, wobbliest telescope known to mankind. Any mortal interest in astronomy would have been killed by that, since all that trouble led to an image of a star that was no bigger than a star viewed with the naked eye (I was 10).
But if I told you about my first view of the Pleiades through binoculars, then we’d have something approaching a life-changing experience.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
Saturn…through a 24″ refelector at our local observatory. I had just joined and was leading a tour when I saw the sky clearing up. So, up we went to the dome, and I found the planet for the group to look at. When we were done, I took an opportunity to look myself and - BANGO- there was the most astounding image I could imagine. Life changing….cliche, I know…but it honestly was.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Ok, perhaps “life changing” is a phrase that will be posted here often!!
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:26 am
The first object I ever saw in a telescope was the Moon. I was nine years old and observed it through a 6 inch telescope during a visit to a planetarium while on holidays. But I´d already been hooked on astronomy since I was a very small kid, so getting my first look through a telescope was the fulfilment of a long-held desire, rather than an epiphany that turned me on to astronomy…
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:26 am
My Dad got me a telescope for Christmas when I was in elementary school and we went out and looked at the Moon and Jupiter (can’t remember which one was first).
This reminds me that I need to get a telescope, I miss looking at the stars.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:27 am
Wow! That was so long ago. It was an old, wobbly 600X scope from the Edmund Science catalog. I believe the scope was made of cardboard. I am trying to recall my first object and I’d have to say it was either Jupiter, Saturn or the moon. If I was to guess (assuming it was in the night sky at the time), I would say the moon. Today, I have graduated to a Meade 14″ LX200R
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:29 am
In elementary school, saved my money to buy a $100 telescope to see Halley’s Comet. Though I never saw the comet (Michigan was too far north for my telescope), the first thing I saw was the moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:29 am
M-O-O-N that spells Seattle! You really have to be a diehard masochist -er -hobbyist to be do astronomy in here…
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
The moon.
Closely followed by Jupiter, Saturn, and the “beehive cluster.”
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
Mars in a Jr. High science class outing. Great teacher that got us all excited about space. Actually he made all science fun and exciting.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
My first one was Jupiter and its four largest moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. I went with my father to an open doors day at the local observatory in Nuremberg, Germany and was one of the first of the group to look through the telescope. Shortly after, one of the moons disappeared behind Jupiter so I got lucky
A few years later, I got my own small telescope and during the next clear night pointed it towards Jupiter. Alas, those very four moons were still there and visible (even though a lot smaller). I felt great on both of those days.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
Probably the moon, it was the biggest object in the sky and, thus, the easiest to find.
My most memorable, though, was Saturn. When I was about 13 or so I took out some astronomy magazine from the local library and figured out roughly where different celestial objects would be. I pulled out our old, barely functioning telescope and, after about 5 minutes of trial and error trying to find the thing, got Saturn in my sights. It wasn’t super detailed, but I saw a planet with a pretty obvious ring around it.
It kind of freaked me out. I’d seen pictures that were much more detailed than what was through the lens of my telescope, but somehow knowing that the light traveled who knows how many miles and directly into my eye just threw me for a loop. It hit home for me that all the things in the sky are real, and not just abstract ideas. Seeing Saturn for myself was very humbling.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
The Moon from the local planetarium.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
First time I was taken out as a kid it was to see Halley’s Comet but it was overcast. It raised my interest enough I got a cheap telescope and first thing I saw was Jupiter and one of its moons.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Not sure the first, since there has been a telescope at my parents house for ages, though it was usually packed up, and more often used for terrestrial snooping than celestial gazing. But upon receiving my own small handheld scope as a kid, I distinctly remember pointing it at Saturn, and seeing very very small bumps that distinguished it from all the other perfectly round blurry lights in the sky. I think it was that first sighting of something I had only heard about in fantastic kids’ books that convinced me that there’s a real world out there, and that science works. At once I became both a a skeptic and a believer.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Absolutely the Moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Looked at the moon. I swear I saw the Apollo 11 lander. I was informed no I didn’t. Still love looking at Crater Tycho.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
When I was in the second grade we had to do a report about a planet. My grandfather was an engineer on the Apollo program and my father is an astronomy enthusiast, and both were rather excited about my school report. So they packed me up in the car and we drove up to Griffith’s Observatory in LA where I was able to peer through the giant telescope and see Jupiter for the first time. My school report was actually on Mars, but the experience stuck with me and I’ve been hooked on astronomy and space ever since.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Jupiter. I’d studied the moon with my binoculars, so by the time I got my first telescope after Christmas at age 10 or so, I wanted something more. I found Jupiter, the bands and Great Red Spot bright and vibrant. Really made a lasting impression, and one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Mine was the Crab Nebula. We saw it through the telescope on the roof of Stabler hall on the University of Arkansas Campus. I’m not sure what grade I was in, but I was part of the Gifted and Talented program at my Junior High when this happened, I would guess it was 5th or 6th grade. It was pretty awesome.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 am
As a child in the Apollo age, I naturally looked first at the moon through a 2-inch Newtonian I’d gotten for Christmas. I soon upgraded to a 2.4-inch department store refractor that cost $50! At $1.50 per lawn, I had to mow a lot of lawns that summer to afford that baby!
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
The Moon. Way back in 1963 when I was 8 I received a cheap Japanese-made telescope (probably WWII surplus optics–my 7×35 binocs are better) But the craters and maria looked incredible. The rest of the sky through this tube? Meh. Don’t know why, but I still have that danged telescope. T guess your first is still your first.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 am
Jupiter and the Lunar terrain upon receiving my first telescope on my 7th birthday (with a little help from my father).
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
The Moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
When I was about 7 years old, my dad bought a Celestron 8″ schmidt cassegrain. Later that winter (I think winter, but the season took a backseat to what i was seeing) he took me out and showed to me the Sombrero Galaxy. He told me how far away it was, and I was utterly astonished, amazed and hooked for life. To this day, astronomy and all science fills my sails.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
It was the Moon with (I think) a Tesco telescope that had an eyepiece that slide back and forth to be 15, 30 or 45x magnification that my parents gave me for Christmas in 7th grade in 1962. Shortly followed by Jupiter, and I remember very clearly, it’s moons.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
The Moon again. I think that will be the most common answer.
This reminds me that I need to get a telescope, I miss looking at the stars.
I used to be able to find most of the Messier catalog by memory and star hopping. And any particular day I knew what planets were visible and when. All that’s gone now.
There’s just no time at my age. I can afford a top of the line Celestron or Meade, but there’s just no time to go out to a dark location (at least 2-3 hours from where I am). I’m not even sure where the mirror for my 13.1″ Dobsonian is stashed.
Anyone remember the Coulter Optics Dobsonian line? Good times.
Waaaah! I’m old and need to retire early!
I have some plans I drew up several years ago for a 24″ Dobsonian. I found a place that could do the mirror for about $4K, but they seem to have gone away.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
I’m not sure. It was a star, likely Procyon, through a 2.5 inch reflector. The mount broke soon after, effectively putting a crimp in my early star gazing activities.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
I don’t really remember what the first object I saw was. Probably the Moon, though I might have seen Jupiter when I was but a wee one. I do remember being taken by my mother to the amateur astronomy club’s open house in middle school and seeing the Moon and trying to show off my weak 12-year-old knowledge in trying to identify the faint fuzzies. My mother also looked at the Moon, and was amazed by it, since you could see the craters, even with a small telescope. I half thought she wanted to check the mouth to make sure someone wasn’t playing a trick on her.
The first thing I found for myself had a stronger appeal to me than the first thing I saw. I had a telescope in high school, but we never could get the finder to align properly, so we mostly used it for planets or Orion or the Beehive or the Pleiades. My dad could use it by sighting along the tube, but I never got the hang of that.
Anyway, as part of a sophomore astronomy lab, we went outside with 6 inch Schmidt Cassigrans to find Albireo and the Ring Nebula. The telescopes were not newbie friendly, and I was the only one who had used a telescope before. I spent about five or ten minutes being sure I knew how Lyra looked though the finder, star-hopping to the object. And there it was, this perfect little smoke ring.
Still my favorite deep sky object.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
Jupiter, and two of the larger moons, through a family friend’s telescope. I remember seeing the moons move, if I waited long enough. The thought of those massive other worlds in motion, so far away… the wonder has never quite left me.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Alas, I have never peered through a telescope. However, I the first object I looked at with a good pair of binoculars was the moon. It was amazingly crisp, and features just jumped out at me, that I had never noticed before. I still want to get myself a nice telescope one day.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:02 am
Saturn. I was amazed - and, frankly, a bit disappointed since I cold not see color through the telescope. Still a mind expanding experience.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:02 am
Mars I think. A friend’s dad had his telescope out, and he let me peek through while he was looking at Mars.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure my first was Halley’s Comet in 1986 when I was 9 years old.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
The MOON, through Phil’s 10″ reflecting ’scope when I was about 17. Now my husband and I own our own ’scope and spend time peering at Jupiter and Saturn with our kids, neighbors, and my gaggle of Girl Scouts. Phil’s love of the sky infected the whole family. Now look how far his love has gone!!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Saturn, on summer vacation, at a local school observatory. It had rings — just like in my “Golden Book of Astronomy” or whatever was my chief space reference book at age 6.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
I received a telescope for Christmas when I was 8 (in 1977, and I still have it!)- I’m not sure exactly what the first object was, as I’ve killed a lot of brain cells since then, but I have a strong hunch it was Jupiter. I remember being excited about seeing the moons and the Red Spot, and dragging anybody I could find to come take a look.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
Saturn, at the University of Florida’s observatory. I was really amazed and stunned. It was different than I expected because it was in real color and the rings were vertical. It made me realize that I was actually on the “side” of the earth and standing close to parallel with the plane of the solar system. It gave me a real sense of my place in the solar system seeing it as it actually was, with my own eyes (aided by a telescope of course), not just what you see in a picture.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
Short answer - the Pleiades
Long answer - I didn’t have a telescope as a child, but I had a good pair of binoculars. Technically, I probably looked at the moon first, or some random star whose name I didn’t know. But I will always remember when I noticed a little cluster of stars, and that when I trained my binoculars on them, they turned into a *big* cluster of stars. There were only about seven stars I could see with the naked eye, but there were bunches I could see with the binoculars. I was so excited. I wondered if I had made a major discovery! Of course, I should mention that I was only nine years old at the time.
J. D.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
The Moon. I got a tiny field telesscope for my birthday, and that was about the only thing you could see through it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
my lovly misses got me a 6″ newt for xmas last year had to wait for about 8 weeks for a good night then i saw saturn so clear i ran inside and woke her up to show her she wos not as amazed as me but ill never forgrt that one night been waiting 20 yrs to get one and im like a ten yr old ever time i find a new object
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
My first was the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades through a set of binoculars, but what struck me the most was my first close look at the moon during the day through a surveyor’s transit! I have never owned nor used a telescope but I’m a star nut…or am I just a nut? No matter, I am proud to say that my first time was with seven sisters!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Quiet D-
You’d be surprised how much you can see from downtown in a large city. Galaxies and nebulae are pretty much write-offs, but planets, asteroids, variable stars, double stars, clusters of all sorts, and with on OIII filter, all the planetary nebulae you can eat.
I also remember the Coulter dobs, usually in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. You can get a 12″ from China nowadays for $1k, or an 8″ for $400, with far better optics and construction. Don’t let that astro-brain get too rusty.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Jupiter after it had been hit by Shoemaker-Levy.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
It was over 40 years ago, but the first would probably have been the Moon. (No need to center it in that little “spotters scope” on the side.) Jupiter and Saturn probably followed shortly thereafter.
And, yes, I also tried looking for the Apollo 11 lander.
I also remember looking at the Sun through our telescope, with a special filter. The only other thing you could see through that filter was a light bulb filament. We had a ~95% solar eclipse in the late ’60’s that I watched through it as well. (A total solar eclipse is still on my “to do list”.)
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
The moon. Then Saturn.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
The Sea of Tranquility on the Moon, back in… oh… 1989 or so.
Then there was Saturn through an observatory telescope in 1992…
…then Jupiter and the Galilean moons in 1995.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
The Moon, I think (and it’s still one of my favourite observational objects).
I guess it depends - during primary school (not all that long ago for me) we where shown the Sun one lunch time and the Moon during one school camp.
I got my first telescope - a rather dodgy 2″ Tasco refractor when I was like 8 years old or so. I can’t even remember what I looked at when I was that age. But, something like 6 years ago when I got back in astronomy I used it to look at the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn (though Jupiter and Saturn looked like … blobs). I then bought my 10″ Newtonian scope which I’ve been using ever since. I don’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure my first view was either the Moon or Jupiter - most likely the Moon due to its ease of centering in the scope for a beginner.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
The first thing I remember seeing in a telescope was Saturn, when I was about 10 years old. It made such an impact on me that I still remember that experience.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 am
The Moon. I was 8 with my first telescope, and it was the biggest object in the night sky.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
When I was a kid, I think I went to a museum somewhere and they were actually looking at the surface of the sun — it must have been through a special filter. I remember looking at the sunspots.
More recently, when my father-in-law received a 12-inch Newtonian for Christmas, we set it up in the back yard and first looked at the moon, quickly followed by one of the Orion nebulae and Jupiter. It was clear enough that night that we could actually see three or four different cloud bands.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
Strictly speaking it was Altair, the first star I used for alignment. After that, globular cluster M2.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
My first look through a telescope was at Jupiter the night that Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit it. I was 16. (kind of late for a first look, but I didn’t even know my family owned a telescope until that time)
My boyfriend, his friend, and I went out to a local college where they had a talk and telescope viewing. We missed the talk, but were able to see Jupiter and its moons. I was amazed at all you could see with a small telescope - the stripes, the moons.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Mine was Halley’s Comet back in ‘86. I was 5. An astronomy club at a local collage was doing a sort of outreach effort. They had a few ’scopes, the largest was more than a few times larger than me. Fairly good conditions looking back at it, not too much light pollution and such out in the backwoods of Pennsylvania.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
The first object I saw through a telescope blew my mind and hooked me forever on Astronomy. I was 11 years old and my parents had given me my first telescope - one of those low-power department store refractors on a wobbly wooden tripod, but to me it could have been the finest instrument from Mt Palomar. After being warned not to look at the setting sun, I hurried out to our small backyard in Phoenix, set everything up, and in the fading light above the horizon spotted a “star”. I was alone and had already managed to align the side mounted, equally wobbly “spotting scope”. I got the “star” in the cross hairs and then squinting through the main scope, slowly focused the blob of light to reveal a sharp, glorious image of Saturn, rings and all! It was unreal and truly amazing. It was bright, very small but exquisitely detailed. I was totally amazed and had to get everybody to see it! Through the years came better scopes and closer views, but that breathtaking first glimpse of Saturn remains in my memory.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Jupiter and its moons. Blew my mind.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 am
M57…the guy I was with was a showoff =D
The point was to show me the Ring, then Jupiter, and finally the moon, after which it didn’t matter if my eyes were burnt out of their sockets by the light!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
When I was maybe 7 or 8 years old my mom woke my sister and I up at 4 am and we stood on our front porch looking at a comet through a small telescope. I don’t remember which comet it was, but it was in the early 70s. Beautiful.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Jupiter. It was an amazing site along with a few of it’s moons. It took my breath away.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Jupiter.
I have interested in astronomy since I was very little, but for some reason, I never actually looked through a scope until a little while before Shoemaker-Levey impacted Jupiter. A few months before the impact, I attended a lecture by David Levey at the Cranbrook Institute for Science in Bloomfield Hills Mi. After the lecture, they opened up the observatory and let folk view Jupiter through their six inch refractor.
I didn’t buy my own scope until Hale-Bopp. Up until then, I had always talked myself out of it. I feared sinking a lot of money into good optics and then letting them collect dust in the closet. When Hale-Bopp came by, I realized that optics never go bad, and it would be a crime to miss such a wonderful event. So I asked around at an astronomy club meeting, and one of the members there had his 8in SCT up for sale (to finance the purchase of a 12in). I was more than glad to take it off his hands.
The first thing I ever saw in my own scope was Hale-Bopp. I will never forget the sight of that comet in a scope! The image of concentric rings around the core caused by jets from the nucleus and its rotation especially stand out in my memory. The sight, both naked eye and through the scope was awe inspiring!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
I was thinking that it was the Moon through a (what I now know to have been crappy) 1-inch refractor that my parents got for my brother and me, but on reflection (no pun intended) it was Venus in the daytime through the 12-inch Zeiss refractor at Griffith Observatory while on a school field trip when I was 8.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 am
My first object was a randomly-selected starfield. This would have been in January in rural Connecticut and I was about 10 years old; my dad had gotten me a 6-inch reflector scope and tripod for Christmas. I remember I looked through, and almost jumped back in shock at how many more stars there were in the telescope than there were to the naked eye.
The first object I could name was the moon. It was full that night and I was again transfixed, by the scale of it and the level of detail. It was the first time I felt what I always feel now when I see the moon: it’s not a light in the sky, it’s another world, another planet that’s so close we can see features on its surface.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 am
The moon. I had that lousy telescope of my dad’s friend, with a very uncooperative and rickety mount.
It’s pretty much the most obvious object out there, and it was the first time I ever touched a telescope so…
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 am
I believe it was Halley’s Comet, at the Grinnell College observatory. I don’t remember it, though; I was 4.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
The Pleiades. They are my favourite star cluster. If I pity my progressive short-sightedness is because by now I only can see a blur at naked eye. But I miss Alcor too.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Mine was Venus. I just got a hold of my first telescope, it was just the OTA with no base/tripod/mount. A lovely 4.5 inch Nexstar Reflector. I was so anxious to see something with it, I leaned it up again the dash of my car and looked up at Venus. To my delight I was able to see Venus at about 3/4 full. Still sends shivers when I think about it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
The moon through my father’s WWII-era US Navy 16x spyglass. Nearly 3 feet long, wrapped in black cord, heavy as all get out and no tripod. I had to rely on Merced’s local astronomer, Dave Olsen, and his classes for kids (the sun and sunspots) and free community viewings (Saturn).
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
Saturn, through a small refractor. I bought the telescope as a Christmas present for my young boys, but Christmas night was totally cloudy. We hopefully set the telescope up on the deck, anyway, and waited for a hole. After several hours a hole appeared, a small one, with one star in it. The “star” was Saturn, and all three boys and I got a quick look, the only one that night. Forty years later two of the three boys are enthusiastic amateur astronomers… start ‘em early!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:47 am
Albireo, the beautiful double star in Cygnus, back in 1962. I had just gotten a 4.25 inch reflector from Edmund Scientific. The moon was not out and Saturn was not up, so I pointed it at Albireo. The stunning paring of gold and blue in this double star took my breath away. It didn’t hurt that these were also my school colors.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
The Moon, followed by Jupiter and Saturn. That was through the much maligned “Tasco/Trashco” brand that was probably the first telescope of many of us! I abused that thing so badly that I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. The tripod had a habit of collapsing if you touched it.
I too need to buy a new scope.
Juan, I had a Meade ETX 90 EC, (a 3.5 inch Maksutov/Cassegraine, with computer control.) The optics were excellent for the relatively small size, BUT, I found the “Go To” Computer control very annoying as the thing always missed the object by about 20 degrees. I asked the dealer about this, who also had used the Meade Go To system, and he told me that was a common problem with the Meade. So, I’m looking at other brands, and also spending substantially money more this time.
So, I too am open to suggestions!?
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
The Moon, through a small refractor my parents purchased for me from the Spiegel catalog.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
The moon. That was about 65 years ago.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
The moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Incidentally, I had an opportunity to share my Meade with a family that homeschooled, and had a chance to give a brief lesson on Astronomy. It really opened their eyes to the vastness of space, and the reality that it is far older than they believed.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
The moon was first, followed shortly thereafter by Saturn and Jupiter. The moon was interesting, but Saturn had rings, and Jupiter had moons that moved noticeably over time. Too cool!
My parents bought me an inexpensive refractor telescope from K-Mart for Christmas. We didn’t have a whole lot of money, so it wasn’t inexpensive to them.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:53 am
The moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
The first object I observed through a scope had to be sometime in the 1960s… it must have been the moon since the space-race was in full swing at the time and that was what I spent most of my time daydreaming about.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
I was four, 1979, and I saw the Moon through my grandfather’s motorized refractor scope, so it ‘followed’ the moon across the sky. I couldn’t tell what was cooler- the shadows cast by the lunar mountains across the moon’s rather unsettling gray surface, or the fact his telescope compensated for earth’s rotation!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
The moon using my dads binoculars. It was the summer of 1968 just a NASA was gearing up for Apollo 7 and the eventual moon landings.
The first object I saw through a telescope was Jupiter and its moons.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 am
The first object I ever saw through a telescope was the Moon. The telescope barely qualified as such though - it was a very cheap 1.5″ objective refractor (think plastic rather than fluorite) and I remember the Moon was barely in focus.
The first object I ever saw through a REAL telescope was Saturn when I finally purchased a more serious ’scope (12″ Meade Lightbridge.) Absolutely blew me away, and has had me hooked on observational astronomy ever since.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
The life changing was before I looked through the telescope, I could see a blue irregular band stretching across the sky on a very clear night. Just beautiful. After that I got my dad’s 60mm celestron refractor (I still have it!) and panned around the sky looking at little points of light till I happened to stumble upon a whole heap of stars on one place (which I now know to be M13). The whole concept of globular clusters still amazes me.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
MESSIER 57
I still think it’s the coolest.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I honestly can’t remember for sure, but here’s the story I tell about my first use of a telescope. My friend Jeff had a 4 inch Newtonian reflector, basically a department store telescope as I recall, and we took it outside one night. Being the budding astronomer that I was (or at least would soon be), I took charge of the telescope and decided to look for the Ring Nebula which I’d seen some cool pictures of. So I looked at the little star chart I had, found Lyra in the sky and swung the telescope around to that direction and carefully pointed it by eye, then looked through the eyepiece and “Wow! There it is!” I exclaimed. Right in the first field and it was an easy object to find. So a little later, I decide to go look at Albireo the double star in Cygnus and when I got to the area I soon found - the ring nebula again! Uh oh, I thought, as I realized that something was amiss. That was the moment I learned how to focus the telescope. My easy “Ring Nebula” had been a bright common star somewhere near Vega in Lyra, out of focus.
I am pretty sure that wasn’t my first look through a telescope, though it might have been. I do remember when I got my little 60mm refractor in early 1974 when I was 13, I used it to look at the Moon, the Sun (with a filter) and also at Jupiter.
Jim.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Da-Moon!
Now, I curse it =-)
Seriously, it was the moon that hooked me, but DSO’s are what I enjoy now!
I was out just last night with my 10″ F/5 Dob looking at a couple of really faint Globular Clusters in Del - the moon mucks up the skies too much for good faint fuzzies.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Aside from the girl next door, you mean? LOL
Seriously… the Moon. I suddenly saw mountains, and rills… and realized this bright globe hanging in the sky was a real place… and we would reach it soon… (This was about 1967)
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I think my first target may have been Halley’s Comet, but it was equally likely to have been the Moon. I’ve been looking through telescopes since I was about 8 years old. (And look where it lead me: the Cassini Mission. Mothers, don’t let this happen to… wait, no, this is a good thing.) It’s a bit hard to recall that far back. I can recall struggling to find M51 and M13 in my stupid Tasco telescope (Christmas gift, 1985). Probably as a result of that frustration, M51 became the target of my first observing session with a big-kid telescope (16″ Brasher refractor, Goodsell observatory, Carleton College). And I can tell you what my first astro image was: Comet Hale-Bopp.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Saturn
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Seeing as how I couldn’t wait for nightfall after putting it together and I wanted to calibrate the spotting scope, I decided to pick something of interest for the target. So technically it was my neighbor, Missy, sunbathing down the street.
After that I used it to cast a projection of Sol on some poster board and tracked sunspots for several months.
My first nighttime object was Jupiter but I had that sucker pointed all over the sky before dawn.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
The sun, with a sunspot filter, of course, in elementary school science class. Helps you can see the sun during school hours.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
The orion nebula.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I don’t want to mention all the stars I watched though my telescope, just because I didn’t know where the “good” objects were.
).
The very first object I want to mention was the Orion Nebula, through the telescope on the roof of our university-building. That was really awesome! Later I found the Orion Nebula, Saturn and Jupiter (with its 4 moons) through my own telescope, what was quite amazing!
Oh well. Of curse I also watched the moon (but there was nothing to see what the astronauts of Apollo left behind, maybe it was faked - yeah, a terrible joke, my apol(l)ogies
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I’m pretty sure I saw the moon through a telescope before I could consciously remember it. But the first object I looked for through a telescope was Halley’s comet, back when I was in elementary school.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
halley’s in ‘86 … hooked me
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
The first thing I ever saw through a telescope was the sun projected onto a viewing screen.
The first things I looked at when I got my own telescope were Saturn, the Moon, and the Ring Nebula, pretty much in that order.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Pleiades
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Oh, and before anyone asks… I bought my telescope in the summer, hence, no Orion nebula
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
i think i might have looked at the moon and some stars with a little pirate-style collapsing telescope that i still have over 30 years later. but the first memorable view was of Saturn through a 16″ refractor. i think we looked at halley’s that night too.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Saturn! It was stunning, and breathtaking, and hooked me to astronomy.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I’ll let you know when it happens. Unless binoculars count, then it would Andromeda. In the meantime I just check out Hubble and other publicly accessible sites for all the pretty pictures. For a novice like myself it is kind of nice to have professional commentary anyway to go with what I am seeing anyway.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Little miss, Luna, of course. It was with a dinky little red telescope that I got as a kid, and the Moon was about the only thing we could see. I still loved it.
It was the Moon that I saw again through a real telescope at the college observatory near my house in high school. I think we were pointed at Tycho, and I was just FASCINATED. A whole other world and you could SEE it UP CLOSE and just WOW.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Jupiter!
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The Moon, quickly followed by Saturn
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
The moon. A neighbor (my age, we were maybe 12-14 years old) got a telescope for a birthday or Christmas. He’d go out and gaze and occasionally I’d go join him until I got too cold.
I remember pretty vividly seeing the shadow across the ragged edges of craters and really *seeing* the features as 3D objects for the first time–it was a stunner and I’ll never forget the experience.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
The Moon, the sea of tranquility, to see where the astronauts landed
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Greetings everyone!
This is my first time commenting here but I been reading Phils blog for quite some time. My first object I have observed through a telescope I believe was the Orion nebula. Seeing the asterism known as the ‘Trapezium’ in the middle of the nebula really made me pleased. After reading about it a couple years earlier it really put things in perspective for me to actually witness it in person.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
The Ring Nebula. I was so proud of myself, took my brand new 8″ dob out for the very first time and it only took me about 10 minutes to find it. So amazing.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Either the Moon, or Venus.
As a kid, I was surprised to learn that the bright ’star’ near the moon at sunset was Venus. When I finally got a telescope, those were the first 2 things I looked at.
I’m only 22, so it wasn’t long ago. My parents had bought me a programmable telescope… I’m sad to say, I never got it set up right. If done correctly, it was supposed to point you to any celestial object you typed in - assuming you put in the date and approximately where you were located.
Now I’m really sorry I never got it working…
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Venus. “OOOH! A crescent planet!” Guess I was channeling Galileo.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
The Moon. Absolutely my favorite object in those days. It was followed by Jupiter & attendants and then Saturn.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I am not sure what year it was. My father took me outside with his brass and leather bound telescope he used on his fishboat. He had me rest the beast on his shoulder and had me look at the partial lunar eclipse. I was just a little tyke at the time, but it must have had quite the impression as to this day I think of that night whenever I have a good night at my telescope.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Hi Dennis,
Yes binos count. I never go observing without mine. Some objects are just so much better with both eyes. In fact binocular vision is making a comeback at the professional level too.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
The Moon! (and not the naked kind)
Twenty-five some odd years later and I’m a physicist at Argonne Lab. Much of my impulse to go into science was due to my father taking me out as a kid to look at the moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Jupiter, from the observatory on the roof of the old physics building at the University of Alberta. Also spotted Mercury and Venus but didn’t see them through the telescope.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
The moon, but if that doesn’t count the next object was this little fuzzy blob called Comet Halley. This was through a 3″ refractor on an alt-az mount.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
To be completely honest, i grew up in the city and seeing things in the sky from my yard was incredibly hard. The absolute first thing I ever saw was the non-celestial activity of people on the street in my neighborhood.
After that the first celestial object I saw through a telescope was the only one I could clearly find in the light polluted sky: Luna, the full Moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
That would be Saturn. My brother and I were fishing right behind Adler Planetarium and we saw a group of people walking into the Doane observatory. we looked at each other tucked our ‘refreshment’ under our jackets and followed them in. Wow I loved it. That was 20 years ago. today I still enjoy the wow when people see it through my scope!
Dave
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
The Ring Nebula, it was awesome. Then the guy running the telescope turned it on Saturn, and that was double awesome!
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Albierio through a 110mm Newtonian reflector.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
When I was in Jr High, I got a (3 inch?) refractor. I’m not sure what I saw first. Perhaps it was Jupiter with a few Gallelian moons. Maybe it was Saturn with perhaps Titan. It any case I got a little buzz at being able to find these objects myself. However, the bodies would slowly drift out of view. I originally thought that there was a problem with the mount but quickly realized that the earth was rotating.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
The first thing I ever saw through a telescope was my neighbor taking a showe….
Uh… I mean… the moon. Yes, that’s it. The moon.
But seriously, I got a telescope when I was a little kid and I couldn’t tell one star from another to look at or where to find the planets but the moon was kinda hard to miss and it surface features which I figured would be interesting, so that was it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Jupiter and its moons. Same thing (life altering).
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
The wonderful Moon, looked at the craters.
I disassembled two binoculars, and used my hands to focus the lens to bring out greater detail of the Moon’s surface.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
My mom bought me a cheap kmart telescope when I was 10. I took it out in my backyard and began to look at the brightest stars. I had no idea what I was looking at but i found a couple of binaries. I then pointed to a realy bright star in the west and there it was Jupiter. I could not believe it. I ran in the house and told my mom and ran for the Encyclopedia. Ive been hooked ever since.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
The first thing I ever saw through a telescope was Jupiter. My highschool physics teacher had an extra credit project that enabled me to see some cool things and get some extra points. You basically had to drag yourself out of bed in the middle of the night in the middle of winter (or fall or spring, I just remember it being really cold) and everyone got to take a look at jupiter through a large telescope. It was amazing, I actually could see the spot. we also looked at the pleades (sp?) cluster. Ever since then I’ve wishe dthat I had the money to buy a really nice telescope and the time to use it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
It must have been a planet, but I don’t know which one. I was 12 or 13 years old. My telescope and I were on the deck of a ship and I didn’t know how to focus the scope, so all I could see was a blob. But it was a bright blob.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
The first thing I saw through a telescope was comet Hale-Bopp. I was looking at it with my mom, and we couldn’t hold the binoculars still enough to view much of anything in the sky. We went to buy a tripod and ended up getting a cheap telescope. Pointed it right at Hale-Bopp which was easy to find as it was large in the sky, and just above some tree tops. Proceeded to look at the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter after that.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
The Moon, then the Sun and then Jupiter
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
One more thing about my refractor. You could insert some eyepieces for ludicrously high magnification. Of course, the image would then be blurry due to atmospheric conditions and quantum mechanics.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Jupiter + its moons at an observatory in Canada,
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
The Moon. I was five and my Dad had bought me a cheap telescope because I was interested in astronomy. (He also bought me my first microscope. Dad loves science, and passed it on to me and my sister.) I think he showed me Mars that night, too, but I may be misremembering.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Jupiter through an 80mm Jason refractor. Could make out a few bands and 4 or 5 moons, it was awesome.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
My first telescope was a department store Tasco 50 mm refractor. Not the best made telescope ever…. But I did look at the moon with it, and it did well enough at that.
My first view through a “real” telescope, my dad’s 6 inch Mead Newtonion on an equatorial mount, showed me Jupiter. Next up, Saturn. And I was hooked.
JBS
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I had a red plastic toy “telescope” with slides of various objects in the sky that you would put in the eyepiece and look at a bright light to see. It offered no magnification, but one could look out it at the objects in the actual night sky, for fun more or less.
One night when I was perhaps 5 or 6, I was trying desperately not to fall asleep and brought out the ’scope. I trained it on the full moon and examined for a while, when I heard my parents outside my door. I jumped into bed just in time to not get caught awake, and patiently waited until they left.
I resumed my position at the ’scope, expecting to see the moon still, but there was only blank sky. Somehow, I thought, the knobs that held the ’scope steady had loosened and the scope tilted down. I resumed my aim at the moon, and cranked down hard on the knobs, knowing for sure it wouldn’t slip this time. I laid back in bed to try to sleep.
After a few minutes of failing to fall asleep, I again got up and looked into the ’scope. Sure enough, there was no moon! Damnit, how could the ’scope have moved its way back down again? This time I was going to find out.
I readjusted the ’scope and locked those knobs hard as I could. I stared into the eyepiece without blinking and noticed something for the first time … the moon moved! Either I was seeing things, or it really did slowly wander out of my field of view.
I’m surprised that experience both sticks with me to this day (I don’t remember much before 13 years old) and did not motivate me to study astronomy. I still have a fond interest in it as a non-practicing hobby, but I never followed through with it fully.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Saturn, viewed through a 3″ f10 Newtonian This happened in the late 1940s as I recall. Yes, Saturn was there way back then.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Although not my first view through a telescope, on of my first views was at a scout camp when I was doing the astronomy merit badge. It just so happened that the camp coincided with the Comet Shoemaker-Levy Jupiter collision. Seeing that through a high-powered (yet portable) telescope was amazing. I remember being able to see enough detail to make out an impact point.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
The first one I can remember seeing was M45, The Pleiades Cluster. When I was 14 I was outside at night with my mom’s 7×35 binoculars, basically just playing around when I noticed the stars look a lot bigger and brighter thru the binoculars. Orion was especially and startlingly large and bright, spanning many fields of view, though I don’t think I saw the nebula at that time. In my suburban yard even the pleiades looked like just another cloud. So when I turned toward that cloud, I wish I’d said something profound like “My god, it’s full of stars!” as from 2001 (the book, not the movie) but I think it was more like “Holy S***, that ain’t a cloud!”
That planted the seed, and years later when it grew into a real interest in Astronomy and not just pretty sparkles in the sky, I looked up what would have been in the sky in January of 1995 and confirmed it was indeed the Pleiades cluster. I still look in their direction everytime the Pleiades are up. Knowing what they are, a group of big blue stars about 450 light years away, greatly enhances their beauty.
As far as my first view thru an actual telescope, that I don’t remember. Probably Jupiter, Saturn, a split Castor, or M13. All amazing but that first view of M45 is what I’ll never forget.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
The first object I ever saw through a telescope, and for senitmental reasons the first light object for every new telescope I have gotten since, is Alberio (the blue and gold double star in the head of Cygnus the swan).
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I’m not sure - it was silvery and disc-shaped and had this row
of colored lights around the rim. And there was a dome in the
center of the disk that had these two weird-looking guys in it
with big almond eyes and big heads with no ears.
I don’t remember anything else after that….
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
The first thing I saw was the lens cap and a few confused minutes later, the Moon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Saturn, at my school observatory. I was 13.
Emilie, it’s very moving reading all the comments.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
The sun. During junior high one of my classmates brought in his telescope with a special filter for viewing the sun. Very cool.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Comet Hyakutake. I was just shy of 10 at the time, and I remember going out with my father to a field to look at it and do some astrophotography. We did the same for Hale-Bopp when it came around as well. Being that young, and getting two spectacular comets in a row like that, it took me a while to realize just how rare they were and how lucky I was to have gotten to see them.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
The moon. I was a child of 5 or 6 and I still remember it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
the first object I saw was Jupiter. Unlike most astronomers, though, I can’t say this inspired my career and gave me some obssessio with the stars or anything. I just enjoyed it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I looked at the moon around the time of the first Apollo landing through a 2″ or so wobbly dept. store scope.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I think it was Mars back in 2003 when we were at the closest to it in our orbit.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hey! Mine was Saturn first
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Moon. When I was about 10 years old, my dad picked up a second hand 3″ refractor. It was a pretty clunky thing, but it was OK for the moon, but not a lot of use for much else. It disappeared into the shed for a number of years, to be found again when I was clearing it out as they were moving house. The mount was rusted to hell as was the focuser. A sad end to a sad telescope.
The first thing I looked at when I’d got something decent was Saturn.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Mine was Saturn, too. It was a horrible spyglass type of scope with maybe a 50mm lens, but I could see the rings, which was awesome, like a billion hot dogs.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Then, it was Mars, the moon, Saturn again, binary stars, and finally, a nebula (which looks nothing like those colorful pictures, though, it is still neat)
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The good ol’ moon. This good friend of my father gave me the telescope as a gift (Although it had the same zoompower of a pair of binoculars), and the first thing I did when the night came was to point the big, round thing in the sky.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I kind of recall looking at Saturn too, but I remember more clearly that I thought looking through an amateur telescope wasn’t worth the trouble when looking up the object in an astronomy atlas would give me enormously more satisfaction.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
My first object was the moon.
I used my grandfather’s telescope. It was an older model Tasco refractor telescope. It had a magnification range from 15x to 45x. You didn’t change eyepieces out; you turned a tube. Same for the focus.
Although not high powered, the views were crisp. I recall when I took ownership of the ’scope and spent hours looking at the sky. My favorite activity was to examine the waning cresent in the early morning hours and see how the moon looked in the daylit sky.
Although I have a larger reflector telescope that’s more powerful, there are times I wish I still had the small telescope; it was permantly damaged when it fell off my little brother’s dresser.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
The moon - on the night of a full lunar eclipse. The telescope was a birthday present, and the eclipse was a few days before my birthday … far too good an opportunity to miss, so I was allowed an early pre-birthday “test run” of the ’scope, just to “make sure it was in working order”
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Like most people, it seems, my first object was Saturn. (If you don’t count my neighbor’s kitchen wall telephone that I used as a target to line up the finder that afternoon.) It was the day the mirror arrived back from the place in New Jersey that I had sent it to be aluminized. Am I the only one here who built his own first telescope? Edmond Scientific 4 1/4″ mirror grinding kit, home-made mount (from plans in an Edmond’s “Build Your Own Telescope” book), that my dad helped me build, it took months to grind, and probably had a terrible figure, but Saturn (and the Pleiades, target # 2) looked great! Never did find the Ring Nebula, or the Crab Nebula with it, though.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
When i was maybe 11 or 12 yrs. old my parents gave me a telescope, Which I used to see everything I could, that includes neighbors =P But the first thing I saw from outer space, with it, was Mars, it looked beatiful and then jupiter.
but before that I saw the moon with binoculars =P
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Mine was the Orion Nebula, and I was hooked!
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I was about 12 when my dad who was a superintendent foreman for a construction company one night set up his 650x surveying instrument and we looked at Saturn and the moon. I was blown away.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
La luna.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Ahhh… way back in 1986. Halley’s Comet of course. Changed my universe forever. Saw it for the very first time through an 18″ scope at the local University courtesy of a friends dad. It was simply amazing. I was 11 years old and I remember it like it happened last week. Changed my life forever. The next day I bought my first issue of Astronomy Magazine, conned my parents into buying me a subscription and it was all over.
The first thing I saw through my own telescope, 2 weeks after my first view of Halley’s comet, was the moon - viewed through my brand new Astroscan. I purchased it from the add in that first issue of Astronomy magazine - not 2 days after my first ever look through a scope. Cost me all of my meager “chore money” savings, the better part of a years worth - a huge expenditure for an 11 year old! It may not be much of a scope but it was worth every penny. I still have that scope; I’ll be giving it to my son in just a few years (he’s 3 now). I hope he experiences the same sense of wonder and awe that I did - it was such an amazing feeling!
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I should say that it was Halley’s Comet, but I slept through it (I was 6, at Cub Scout camp, and my dad couldn’t wake me up at whatever hour of the night it was in sight over the Arizona desert).
So my first was only a few years ago, when I finally got out the telescope I’d gotten as a 21st birthday present, set it up in the middle of nowhere the night before a launch of something I’d built, and saw Saturn, then the Pleiades, then Jupiter and the Galilean moons.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
For me, my first object was Saturn. It was back in the 6th grade. My friend Bob got a nice 2.4″ refractor on an equitorial mount. I had read all of the books on astronomy in our tiny elementary school library so Bob assumed that I must know something about observing the sky. Wrong! It was a crisp fall evening and we planted Bob’s scope out on the front lawn. I pointed it at the first bright star I saw, without having a clue what it was, and there was beautiful Saturn! We whooped and hollered and ran inside to get Bob’s Mom and Dad to come out and see. That evening started a lifetime love affair with the sky that continues to this day.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I was probably 5 or 6 when my dad took me out one night to point out Orion and the Seven Sisters. It started a love affair with science that has resulted in my working on a graduate degree in chemistry. The sad part of the story is that even though it changed my life, my parents think science is a waste of time (I’ve never been able to figure out how dad could have enjoyed Orion and the Sisters and feel this way about science). First object I’ve seen through binocs would have been.. The Seven Sister’s.. The blue haze covering that awesomely beautiful group of stars ’still’ takes my breath away.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
The first object I ever saw through a ’scope was Venus. It wasn’t a very good telescope, but that almost made the experience better for me. Barely being able to make out that what I was looking at was actually another planet made it seem so much more mysterious. This drove me to always want more and has fueled my obsession with astronomy ever since. Not knowing is what excites me, and it makes the knowing even more gratifying.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I remember trying to stay up to see comet Kohoutek, but I fell asleep with the binoculars, and never did see it. That would have been my first thing I guess, had I made it
I missed comet Halley as well. In fact, the first comet I ever actually got to see was Hyakutake, and I skipped my first day of work at a new job to be up all night the night before. I figured I might never again get a chance to see something that cool in my lifetime.
And Hale-Bopp rolled around not long after, shooting down that hypothesis
I’ll be 96 if I’m still around for the next Halley appearance… so I’ll probably fall asleep and miss it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Wellllll….. to properly align the finder scope my father set it up on a small shed somewhere off in the distance. Does that count?
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I’ll never forget it. Sixth grade. April, 1963. At the San Diego County schools’ campground across the valley floor from the observatory on Mt. Palomar, where all 6th graders spent a week of environmental study. A staffer at the observatory brought over what must’ve been a 4-inch newt and gave all the campers a look at Saturn. It was breathtaking, even in that little scope.
Took me another 40 years to get my own first scope. But now I’ve had the most fun taking my 10-inch SCT around and showing Saturn and other such wonders to kids in my community. I’m not sure which has been the greater hoot!
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Jupiter, through a Celestron 18″. I could see three or four of its moons and I was completely transfixed! I don’t know how many people have seen Star Trek: First Contact, when Zefram Cochrane looked through the ’scope, saw the Enterprise, then checked to see if there was a model hanging in front of it. It was kind of like that. It was completely awesome!
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
When I was 8 or 9 a neighbour had a telescope and the first thing he showed us was Saturn. Followed by Mars, Jupiter and the Moon. The next day he projected the sun on to a large white piece of cardboard to show us sunspots. Very very cool for a young fella.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Luna.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
My first was M42 (Orion). Got a Nexstar 5 after months of on the waiting list.
Of course the initial astronomy curse hit and I had clouds. I new what would be up that night so got the scope configured (goto is a dream in light pollution) and got it tracking Orion. Through the few breaks in the clouds I did get some glimpses.
Jupiter and Saturn happened much later when they came around to my side of the sky.
The sunspots through a good filter was also impressive.
Since then the downside of living in the city has killed my enthusiasm. But any chance I have to get to dark skies and show friends is amazing.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
My first time was with Saturn. (I was young, it was dark, I was a little unsure what to do and kinda scared and awkward : ) but it completely blew my mind. Unlike the other planets Saturn’s rings give you a real sense of a 3D object out there in the darkness, surrounded by space. I was hooked instantly andI haven’t looked back since. Now I “do it” every chance I get. I have two scopes, took an astronomy course and am now working towards my degree.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
It was Saturn.
I was little and trick-or-treating on Halloween and one of our neighbors set up his telescope in his driveway. He pointed it at Saturn for the neighborhood kids to see.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Mine was the moon during a lunar eclipse. 4th grade. It was a crummy little plastic thing intended for birdwatching, but we propped it up on the car on its rickety little tripod in our flood-lit parking lot and I watched the shadow of Earth swallow up the craters and ridges. And then I sat and marveled for a while at the color, transfixed by this sea-change. Then I watched it re-emerge, from pinprick of white to full glory. I seem to remember my dad trying to get me to come in for bedtime, but he didn’t have much luck.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:11 am
I was 11, in the Boy Scouts at summer camp (Camp Awani in So Cal mountains) in 1960.
They had a scope set on Saturn and the planet looked really close–Huge! I was just having fun, causing trouble etc and I remember everything suddenly stopping. I was stunned.
Still am.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Venus, 28 years ago when I was 10, through the small 2.4″ refractor that I built myself on a course of the Dutch Youth Working Group for Astronomy (JWG). Not counting a daylight test on distant rooftops.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:49 am
M26
.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:10 am
First star party: ring nebula
My own scope: the Orion nebula–”Wow! The trapezium is RIGHT THERE!”
My four-year-old, that same night: a crescent moon–”Daddy! I see ‘da cow!”
July 4th, 2008 at 1:30 am
The Moon. Breathtaking. And also the Moon for both my sons, if they count.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Jupiter through a 4.5 inch tasco telescope. It was a horribly inferior piece of equipment but that fuzzy yellow dot encouraged me to buy the 10 inch dobsonian I have today.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:56 am
I’m still saving up for my first telescope
July 4th, 2008 at 3:18 am
The Moon; I got my first telescope only about 2 1/2 years ago - a rather dodgy 5″ reflector from a car-boot sale. Terrible piece of kit, so the moon was about the only thing I could see through it (I now know that it seriously needed collimating, but I didn’t know that then!). I later bought a better 5″, and now have a motorised Celestron 8″ which I love to bits, but the Moon is still my target of choice!
Incidentally, Phil, what’s with the dodgy horoscope and “Make money quick” ads that Discovery seem to be serving up?
July 4th, 2008 at 6:06 am
On my own, less successful experiments with a telescope, it would have been the moon, because it’s easy to find. The first time I had help at an observatory (just last month, because my son is obsessed with space) it was the moon, then Saturn. And yes - it would be the moon, then Saturn for my 3-year-old too. But of those two, it was Saturn that made me cry.
July 4th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Mine was Comet Halley back in 1986 when i was 11. The local observatory had an open evening for the public to come and have a look at our periodic visitor so my Dad took me along. To be honest, all i could see was a fuzzy ball and i’ve seen many better looking comets since, but the experience was enough to send me into weeks of “please, can i have a telescope? please, can i have a telescope? can i have one now? what about now?” - eventually, i’m pleased to say it worked - doesn’t it always? I just hope i’m still around to see Halley’s next visit and share it with another youngster.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:46 am
The moon. With my own telescope. I was a HUGE astronomy buff as a kid. Had a stack of astronomy books almost too high for me to carry. Life as an 8 year old astronomy buff in the 50s was pretty lonely. Back then I believed in god and hoped when I died ‘he’ would let me ‘run’ a planet’s orbit. I was a big fan of orbital mechanics, even though I didn’t really know what it was. I’ve maintained an overall interest since then but nothing major.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Jupiter in the summer, I think it was 1997? And I saw many of its plethora of moons… amazing.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:05 am
The Moon. Through a telescope I built from a kit when I was about 10. Then Jupiter and Saturn, I think.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:24 am
The Milky Way in general. My mother took us to her university observatory as part of her astronomy class when I was 8 years old.
July 4th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Saturn. I was 8-years old and a well-to-do uncle of mine bought me a 3″ Ziess refractor. It was a cold November evening in ‘64, and I set up my new scope for first light. There was a couple inches of snow on the ground, it was COLD, but I was determined. A streetlight due south of my yard blotted out most of the sky, but a single “star” burned bright. I pointed the scope at that star, and once I saw it was Saturn, I was hooked.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I took an astronomy class my freshman year in college, and we went to look at both Jupiter and Saturn one night for the class. I’d never actually looked through a telescope before that and it was a beautiful thing to really be looking at something I’d only seen pictures of. I went and took the rest of the courses offered after that and the astronomy and cosmology information I learned became my favorite part of my physics education.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Mars. Borrowed Sears home-astronomer-type telescope in the back yard in southern Georgia. Back in the late 70’s in the deep south, it was hard to find out where the planets were on a given night, so it was an exciting event for me.
July 4th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The first object I recall seeing through a telescope was the Moon.
July 4th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
The Moon in total darkness, followed shortly by Halley’s Comet.
I was in year 6 at primary school,1986, Gold Coast Australia, and we had a special function for anyone interested at my school one night during the week around 7 pm. I went there mainly to chase a girl I liked ( I knew she was going hehe) but soon got interested in the telescopes that were set up.
Before we saw the comet, they showed us something else. I could see this huge dark lumpy object. I wasn’t aware it was the new moon at the time, as I wasn’t really paying attention to what the astronomers were talking about. I imagined it might be Mars or something, but in hindsight it filled the entire eyepiece and I could still make out craters and things and now know it was the new moon. My kiddie brain and lack of interest in astronomy didn’t register at the time that it was a ‘dark’ moon. A short time later I got to see Halley’s Comet.
That night something clicked and it was all over for me. I had the Astronomy bug. I got my first set of binoculars a year later, and my first job at 16, I saved up 1000 dollars and bought a 4.5 inch dobsonian on an equatorial mount. All my friends thought I was a complete nerd spending that much money on the first big thing I would ever buy, but they just didn’t get it. They still don’t. I now use a homemade 10″ truss dobsonian that works beautifully. On one occasion, as I was near completion I got a visit from an old friend, who upon seeing it, said “who builds a telescope? .. oh .. you do. *laugh*”
Sometimes I am glad they still don’t get it. ;p
July 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
The object was probably the Moon.
This was the first telescope I had, a present one Christmas probably while Kennedy was still in office (the latest it could have been was 1963 because we moved in 1964):
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-A-C-GILBERT-TELESCOPE-80X-WITH-CASE_W0QQitemZ250208275744QQihZ015QQcategoryZ31745QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
Although it had only one eyepiece which gave 80× with in most cases a noticeable amount of chromatic abberation, I credit having to use such a small ’scope with making me a better observer. I wasn’t able to get anything larger until I got a RV-6 Dynascope in 1970, by which time I’d pretty much decided to pursue astronomy rather than to major in chemistry when I got to college.
(I still have that old Gilbert telescope somewhere, although when I dug it out some years ago I discovered that years of exposure to the air had destroyed much of the aluminum coating on the mirror.)
July 4th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
It was certainly the Earth. And, as our closest celestial object, it’s still my favorite. It’s the only one that is subject to investigation by smell or taste, though i hear two people have eaten bits of the Moon.
If you don’t count the Earth, it was the Moon. But my Sears refractor was also used to see Saturn and Jupiter, and a total eclipse. These days, my log shows M57 more ofthen than anything else.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Saturn. At least, I think it was Saturn.
The next one was Mercury’s transit across the Sun, except obviously I didn’t look through the telescope at that.