Posts Made By: Tom Lacovik

Okay, I've absorbed all your tips. I've looked at Starry Night pro (macintosh) and picked the next best time to shoot for a GRS spotting.

Weather.com tells me it will be COLD partly cloudy monday at 6am here in portland, or (45* N), so I'll be taking my chances I guess....BUT...

At 4:00 PDT, Io's shadow begins to creep across Jupiter and does so until about 6:10, so there's something to look for as well.

Io itself transits from about 5:10 to about 7:20 (i guess that makes sense that they are both 2:10 in duration).

Now here's what is so good about that in my mind (besides never having bagged a shadow transit either. that should be cool too) At about 5:40 Io will be close, but just due north (jupiter's north) of the GRS. So there will be a nice little marker of where to look. There is also a seemingly high contrast but smaller storm in the NEB but in line the GRS. Both of these will be at meridian at about 6:30 (with +- 15 minutes being meridianish).

At the moment that Io emerges again out of transit, the GRS will be 3/4 of the way hmmmm...West? It appears from here to be moving left to right, which when looking up means east to west as opposed to west to east right?

So in my dob everything is flipped left to right and top to bottom, so all I need to do is maybe print the above schedule...and figure out ahead of time which way is which. Jupiter itself drifts from my perceived POV (earth rotating that is) from my FOV right to its left and is upside down. so i should expect Io's shadow to start it's transit from "my" (through the ep that is) right and move across through my (EP) left...as will Io, then the GRS (wich will appear to be in the "top" of the "top" EQ band (ie. the south of the SEB, only flipped). Are you with me? did I get that right?

The only non-perfect thing is that I am getting 12.5, 9 and 6mm UO Orthos Monday night, not monday morning, so I'm stuck with the just adequate 6 and 9mm plossls i have (plus my TV 2.5 barlow).

9 gives me 133...Or I could barlow my 30mm ultima to get 100x or my 25mm Sirius Plossl to get 120 with good eye relief...also, I have 23a red, 56 lt. green, 8 yellow and 38a blue filters...maybe the yellow?

any last minute suggestions?

Thanks for all the earlier ones by the way!

Tom.

i have one and it is basically like not knowing you have a barlow, and that's a good thing. excellent quality like all TV optics. probably as good as a barlow can be. the powermate is another story.

Looks like all your replies helped more than just me and that's what's great about these forums.

Now get out there and use your 'stuff' tonight. The moon and Saturn rise hand in hand tonight...in my area they are high enough to view at 10, but look a lot better when higher at around 11:30 or 12. (or you could get up early for jupiter too, but this 11pm viewing is so easy comparitively

TomL

Haha! He "updated" his listing...no he didn't reduce the price...or maybe he did, but then he hiked it back up again if so...(maybe he "cleaned" the mirror himself with a plastic wire like he told me he would). but I love his update...it's even more beligerent than before. okay, i'll look on astromart from now on...that'll teach me!

cya guys out there.

TomL

Remember that these people died doing something they believed in with all their hearts. This was their life's work, and at least they died doing something they believed in, and doing something that benefits humanity and the sciences.

At least it was not a senseless waste of life, such as we've become so accustomed to of late. At least they were doing what they wanted to do their whole damned lives long. No matter how routine the rest of us think spaceflight is (yes, even spacebuffs like you and me, we must admit, not just the 'masses'). They knew how much danger they were in all journey long. And they accepted it bravely.

TomL

Yeah, I've seen that one (it really doesn't say much), but I was hoping for someone here to pipe up about it instead

Thanks for all the replies so far and so quickly. So Jim says the Antares is supposedly better on false color, but Mark says that even so, even at f8.3, you wouldn't go around calling it a planet killer. I just thought it fit the bill. I have an all-purpose 8" f6 dob, but want to have something a little more suited to the task for Mars this spring. Or Jup/Sat right now.

The Antares price is certainly attractive as are it's reviews, I just don't know if it is going to be any improvement over my f6 8" dob (XT8) for planets.

If not, then I will save my pennies for a real 'planet killer' .... if such a think can be had for $1000 or less.


p.s. terminological interlude...is f8.3 considered "wide field" or "long focus/planetary"? I think the concept of "wide field" is lost on me. Of course I don't live in a place where I can see the milky way, so its object-to-object hopping for me.

Okay, I'm getting the refractor itch. Jim you have me looking at the Orion Skyview Pro 120, AstroView™ 120mm EQ and Sky Instruments (Antraes) 120 f8.3 812GP (Sky Instruments).

I think these OTAs might all be the same?! except as you pointed out that the Sky Instruments may have Vixen glass instead of Synta glass but otherwise that same synta setup ota on an eq4. It certainly costs more (double) wherever I see it.

Looks like some reviewers say the antares is better on false color than those orion's, which i assume are optically identical (the 2 orions that is) -- ie. synta --, just the mount and motor and tripod is different, yes?

okay, so i could pull the trigger on this right away...if all could benefit from a chromacorr, then is there any point in getting a slightly better antares/japanese glass than an orion/chinese glass, if i'm splurging on chromacorr correction on either one? or am i better off getting the orion if i'm planning on adding chromacorr to either.

2nd, IF IT WERE YOU, and you could buy the USED sky instruments (japanese glass) 812GP on an EQ4 (cg5-ish?) mount with aluminum tripod (to be replaced i'm sure) with 8x50 RA finder and 2" focusser

OR

NEW Skyview pro Synta made orion branded on the beefier mount / steel tripod with a free RA motor (!) but a chincy 6x30 straight finder.

FOR THE SAME PRICE as each other...which would you buy?

tee hee.