Dramatic Celestial Event

[blobrana]

Hum,
The Geminid meteor shower, one of the most dramatic celestial events of the year, will peak tonight.
 The shower is created as the Earth moves through a cloud of dust trailing the 3200 Phaethon asteroid.
The show can be seen this evening in the southern sky near the constellations Gemini and Orion ;
(and by coincidence Saturn, the brightest `star` in the sky, happens to be in Gemini too, so an easy task for any amateur)

The meteors will be the brightest at about midnight..
And, for once, it may actually not be cloudy here...

More Here...

[blobrana]

Hum,
Well I suppose it depend on what you want to do, where you live (ie how changeable the weather conditions), and price.
A 2” is ok for a general scan of the skys.
But at least a  3”  (with a short tube length) is really recommended.

I made a page with a few recommended scopes/prices.
(ie SKYWATCHER MERCURY-705 (£129) is what i would want santa to bring)

So what are you interested in?
Deep sky, double stars, variables, planets, comets or just sight-seeing?

I suppose living in Texas, with clear skies (a 4" refractor would be too expensive) but a big scope like an 8-10” (dobsonian) reflector would be nice. (A real hassle living in cloudy Britain though)

[blobrana]

Hum,
Indeed.
Yeah I must admit I have a few good bins that I use more often than my scope. A nice pair of opera glasses, a 8 x 30, an a pair a zeiss 7 x 50 (that cost the price of a small car)…though I did consider paying up on a set of battleship binoculars (25 x 150) for the bargain price of £2000, (they are normally

link for celestron starhopper scope

http://www.celestron.com/telescopes.htm

[blobrana]

@cecilia
Sticky- tape not do?

(Eyepiece projection is a common trick - just hold the lens above the eyepiece)

But adaptors are made.

[blobrana]

Hum,
Yeah nebula are quite frustrating, i have never seen anything other than a very faint greenish tint to the best nebulas out there.

A lot of light pollution doesn’t help either.
However, planetary and double star work is not affected (much).

A 7-10 x 50 binoculars would be idea for the city as well.

And here’s a plug for
http://www.distantsuns.com/

[blobrana]

Yeah,
That sounds like a Geminid, fast and blue, a speck of dust burning up at 70km/sec 20 kilometres up...

Though, some did get through...

[blobrana]

Hum,
It’s doubtful that it was associated with any known shower, and i had a quick search for know manmade re-entries - none at that time...

The shower was probably a basketball/fridge sized rock breaking up 100km up...