Is there any amateur astronomer?

[Alnilam]

...or people who love Astronomy as me

[neoolong]

Used to a bit. Not any more though.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I do like astronomy and most everything space-related. But I don't have a telescope or anything like that.

[Captain tycho]

I still go out every now and then with my small telescope for special celestial events or whatnot.

[Peregrin Toker]

As in the H.P. Lovecraft sense, or "wants-to-be-a-scientist" sense??

[kojikun]

if i could buy a 5 foot telescope i would. >)

[Darth Gojira]

Used to, but our telescope broke. Besides, you need one hell of a telescope if you want to try the Chicago area, or any big metropolitan area.

[Soontir C'boath]

Besides, you need one hell of a telescope if you want to try the Chicago area, or any big metropolitan area.

Yea..., I can only probably see at least 3 stars out of the entire sky I miss the old days when I could see a lot.

Cyaround,
Jason

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

...or people who love Astronomy as me

I tend to fall into the category of the casually rabid amateur astronomer.

I own a pair of telescopes, and have been attempting to build my own on-and-off. And I know a fair bit about the sky and cosmology. Great stuff.

[Alnilam]

A big city is not so bad for astronomy as you may think.You may lose faint deep-sky objects such as galaxies or nebulae and you may not see the Milky Way crossing the sky,but there're still many things to see,like the Sun (PROJECTING ITS IMAGE IN A WHITE SCREEN),the Moon,Solar System planets (all except Pluto and Mercury -if you do not have clear horizons-),bright asteroids,double and variable stars,and even some bright objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy,the Perseus Double Cluster,or the Great Orion Nebula.They look much more beautiful on a truly dark sky,but at least they are there and may be seen.

(P.S.:For the cost of these cheap telescopes usually sold on department stores,you can buy one good 7*50 or 10*50 binoculars.They may not give the magnifications of a telescope,but they are easy to transport and give also magnificent views of the deep-sky objects).

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

A big city is not so bad for astronomy as you may think.You may lose faint deep-sky objects such as galaxies or nebulae and you may not see the Milky Way crossing the sky,but there're still many things to see,like the Sun (PROJECTING ITS IMAGE IN A WHITE SCREEN),the Moon,Solar System planets (all except Pluto and Mercury -if you do not have clear horizons-),bright asteroids,double and variable stars,and even some bright objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy,the Perseus Double Cluster,or the Great Orion Nebula.They look much more beautiful on a truly dark sky,but at least they are there and may be seen.

(P.S.:For the cost of these cheap telescopes usually sold on department stores,you can buy one good 7*50 or 10*50 binoculars.They may not give the magnifications of a telescope,but they are easy to transport and give also magnificent views of the deep-sky objects).

And for that matter, cheapie department-store telescopes tend to be long-focus, narrow field refractors, useful mainly for lunar, or planetary work . . . and that's with a set of quality eyepieces (Which aren't found in such telescopes, sadly.) And even then, they're typically not that useful.

And Mercury is a good target if you have clear horizons.

And, if one absolutely has to be able to see all the obscure NGC objects one can in a night, then there are typically semi-decent dark-sky sites about ten or twenty minutes drive outside the typical mid-sized city.