Used to ignore the moon because I thought it washed out everything else

For years I'd just pack up my scope whenever the moon was out, figured it ruined any chance of seeing deep sky stuff. Then last Thursday I was stuck waiting for a friend and the moon was almost full, so I pointed my 8 inch dob at it just to kill time. I spent two hours just staring at the terminator line, catching craters and shadows shifting, and I realized I'd been missing out on one of the most detailed targets in the sky. Does anyone else have a bias against certain objects that you later changed your mind about?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarb7121d ago

Oh man, I feel this. I had the same thing with Jupiter for years. Thought it was boring because it's just stripes and a red spot, but then I caught a shadow transit of one of its moons. Watched that little dot crawl across the planet for an hour and a half. Totally hooked me. Now I check for transits every time it's up.

kevinc8421d ago

Buddy of mine had the same exact thing happen. He was all set to give up on Jupiter because he thought it was just a boring orange ball. Then one random clear night he caught Europa doing its little dance across the face of the planet. He texted me a blurry phone pic through his eyepiece at like 2am, all caps "I GET IT NOW." He's bought two new scopes since then and hasn't missed a single opposition.