The Telescope and the Moon

Image via Wikipedia

I have always loved space. Even as a little boy, I wanted to go to the Moon. Watching footage of the Moon landings and space walks for hour after hour on the news, in documentaries, and more recently, live on NASA TV. I have always been transfixed by the sheer brilliance of our ability as a species to leave our little blue dot and, quite literally, reach for the stars. I think space travel is one of mankind's most productive and worthwhile pursuits.

I know I will probably ever get to go into space, let alone the moon. The next best thing I can do is just look up. Look up at the billions of stars that shine up there. See different universes, the planets in our solar system and even their moons.

Now I can do this. I now have a telescope. A decent one. I spent a good few hours looking at the craters and mountains. I even managed to find Jupiter in the night sky and see the coloured stripes of its atmosphere and a couple tiny specks of light orbiting the gas giant which are a couple of its moons.

As I don't have the correct equipment yet to attach this to my camera (its in the post), I used the one on my phone. Hasn't turned out too bad if I say so myself.

The Moon over Wigan, 30/01/2011