I have always been fascinated by astronomy. Living in a city, it is hard to appreciate how many heavenly bodies exist out there. But get out into the country where there is no light pollution and and gaze upward and be amazed by how many stars you see. I am fortunate to live in a community that has an active astronomy club. They raised money and erected a building where they have monthly public lecture nights on a variety of topics. They constructed domes for the telescopes they have acquired. The latest and coolest telescope has a 24" lens. Not very many astronomy clubs have anything that large. It was a gift from the local university's Physics & Astronomy department. I have gazed in wonder at Saturn and her rings and at the mighty planet Jupiter and some of its many moons. I want to buy my own telescope but I am having trouble trying to decide which kind to get. A refractor telescope with lenses for gathering light is good for viewing planets. A reflector telescope uses mirrors to gather the light and is better at looking at deep space objects. And then there is a variety of telescopes that use a combination of both lenses and mirrors. I would like to look at everything and even eventually learn astrophotography so I am still on the fence. And the prices range from $300 to thousands of dollars. I think I just need to buy one I can afford and get started observing. You can do a lot of observing with your eyes and a good pair of binoculars. Learning the constellations is a good place to start. So get out there and start learning about the stars and the planets!
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