Welcome to the original Sunshine Nate FAQ. Here you’ll find answers to the most common questions about Nate and his obsession with astronomy.
General FAQs
We’ve created a telescope buyer’s guide with lots of information. Click here to check it out.
There is one cardinal rule for purchasing a telescope: The best telescope for you is the one you will USE! Dobsonian telescopes, like the one I use, are easy to transport and setup and you can find them in very portable table-top designs. When considering your first scope, make sure you keep the following in mind:
Try before you buy! Local astronomy clubs can be a great resource for first-time telescope buyers. Amateur astronomers are usually friendly and knowledgeable and willing to share views through their scopes. You can look up local astronomy clubs at Sky & Telescope.
Avoid cheap telescopes at big box stores around the holidays! These package deals often tout things like lots of extra accessories, smartphone apps, and show Hubble photos on the box. These are almost always made of cheap materials and are underpowered.
Avoid the extremes! Scopes with big mirrors will have great views but are often heavy and difficult to transport. Astrophotography telescopes can capture great images if configured correctly, but they’re expensive and have a huge learning curve.
Consider buying used! Astronomers are always upgrading their gear. Check local resources like astronomy clubs or Facebook Marketplace for used telescopes before you buy new. As always, make sure you don’t pay for anything before you have seen it in person and can take it home.
We've created a separate FAQ that covers all of Nate's astronomy gear. Click here to open it.
When they were still in business, you could get an 8” Orion Dobsonian for about $650. Unfortunately, Orion (and Meade, the company they bought) went out of business in 2024. You can still find plenty of Orion telescopes used on eBay and other online seller marketplaces. Currently Apertura and SkyWatcher make very similar scopes to the Orion XT8 at comparable prices.
To show live views I use an adapter that connects my phone to the telescope’s eyepiece called the Move-Shoot-Move Tridapter. This allows you to accurately align your phone’s camera with the eyepiece using a 3-axis adjustment.
Another useful accessory for sharing live views is a zoom eyepiece like the one made by Celestron. This provides an optical zoom in addition to the digital zoom you can do with your phone’s camera.
It’s also helpful to use a Barlow lens to magnify your views, such as this one.
Stellarium - (iOS | Android | Desktop) Planetarium software that’s available on computers and devices. The desktop version is free, app for devices has in-app purchases to enable more features. Stellarium has updated objects such as comets in addition to complete night sky maps based on your GPS coordinates.
Skyview - (iOS | Android)Planetarium software that is similar to Stellarium, but also has an AR mode that uses your camera to superimpose the charts on your actual surroundings. Also has in-app purchases to enable more features.
Telescopius - A web-based multi-purpose tool for astronomy, with additional features geared toward visual observers and astrophotographers. The site is free, however you can support the creator (one lone developer) for $1 per month via Patreon. Supporting him will get you access to new features before free users. Telescopius can help you generate observing lists, which are useful if you want to complete any of the observing programs offered by the Astronomical League. You can also plan mosaics for deep sky astrophotography and upload the setting files to your software. It allows you to setup “equipment lists” to show you what objects will look like through your telescope.
Here’s a useful tutorial for taking night photos with your iPhone. This one is geared specifically at aurora (the Northern Lights), but the techniques work for other types of night photos as well.
Topical FAQs
The “second moon” is real but has been overhyped by the media. In reality, this second moon is about 35 feet across and not visible through amateur telescopes. It is essentially a captured asteroid that will make a partial orbit around Earth and then head back out into space. Facts are your friend in this case.
Yes, but probably not in the way you’re hoping. The ISS moves very quickly across the sky when visible, and it’s difficult to keep up with through a manually operated telescope. Plus, it appears only as a bright dot when looking through a telescope at typical magnification, so you’re not going to see the structure. People who photography the ISS do it with very high magnification on telescopes that have been modified to track the ISS during its entire pass.
If you want to view the ISS when it passes over your area, check out Spot the Station.
The Star of Jacob is not a real thing, though it has become confused with a real astronomical event. The Star of Jacob refers to a viral TikTok by a teenage user that claimed he had seen this star, and that it symbolized the second coming of Jesus. It went through several transformations during its trip through the disinformation filter, with some people showing out-of-focus images of the star Sirius, claiming it was the Star of Jacob.
At some point it was associated with the very real event known as the Blaze Star, or as it’s known in scientific circles, T Coronae Borealis. The Blaze Star is a periodic nova, which historically has become active every 80 years. During its peak, T Coronae Borealis brightens so much that it may appear as a new star in the night sky for a short period.
It’s possible to show the general areas where each of the Apollo missions landed, but the various flags and equipment left behind are far too small to be seen with any Earth-based telescope. In theory, a telescope would need to be nearly 700ft in diameter in order to resolve objects that small. Check the link below for more details.
For an interactive map that shows each manned or robotic landing site on the Moon, click the link below.