@stickmandiaries Below and to the left is Jupiter, and more-or-less directly below (and much fainter, especially through the clouds) is Antares in Scorpius.
@smokey thx smokey, Iāve been having vague thoughts of getting a telescope, but then common sense prevails..
@stickmandiaries Hehe! I had a little telescoping one when I was younger, and I tried to use it not too long ago, only to find out itās not worth the plastic, metal, and glass itās made of š
@johnjohnston Thanks, John. That is actually the spent flower twisted up š
@smokey thatās why itās a bit of a passing thought as I know I would need to spend serious money getting something half decent š
@stickmandiaries @smokey Iāve had a few telescopes and they just didn't work out for me. They were too fiddly and using one eye was tricky / tiring. I've had much better luck with giant binoculars and a tall tripod. My current tripod is tall but not nearly sturdy or steady enough so I havenāt used them for quite a while. Also my eyes are giving me problems these days. Something to think about though.
@stickmandiaries @smokey Giant binoculars are very heavy so they need a tripod capable of holding their weight. They do have the advantage that you can also use them for land and sea viewing.
@Miraz @stickmandiaries Thatās an interesting idea. I think my dadās Canon has better zoom than the binoculars, so perhaps I should just stick to borrowing his camera š
@smokey Oh, what kind of camera is it, Iāve been thinking about buying a āgrown upsā camera and it would cover a number of interests I have..
@stickmandiaries His is the Canon PowerShot SX60HS, which Iāve used for some of the bird and moon photos Iāve posted over the last couple years.
(I just realized @Miraz said āgiant binocularsāāIāve seen those occasionally but donāt have a set and donāt know what their zoom/mangnification might beā¦.)
@smokey @stickmandiaries For looking at stars etc zoom is pretty much irrelevant. What you need is lens diameter to gather more light.
@smokey @stickmandiaries Giant binoculars have lenses of 80mm or 100mm. Zoom is probably around 20x. Theyāre way too heavy to hold though so you need a tripod that can carry the weight.