Posts Made By: Gary Weber

I agree with the thought of an annual fee. What this site offers is considerable and well worth $25 per year. God knows we have all paid more for less valuable things in our life.

Gary Weber

I don't know if this will solve your problem, bu it is a barlow at less than 2x and it is designed to work with binoviewers.
http://www.astro-physics.com/index.htm?products/accessories/visual_acc/visual_acc

Gary Weber

I have an 8" f/8 in a sonotube with a cooling fan installed. I have three reflectors and fans on all of them for cooling purposes. I also have indoor/outdoor thermometers on each, with the outside probe insulated against the back of the mirror so I can compare ambient tempertures against the actual temperature of the mirror back.

How long it takes to cool is highly dependent on your local cooling conditions after sunset. If I take my scope from indoor temp (20°C) and place it outside where the temperature is 3°C and falling, within two hours the mirror is within 2°C of the ambient air. After four hours of falling ambient air, the difference is still 1°C.

I notice improvements in my high power observing at 2°C of difference. At 1°C the high power potential if the seeing conditions are good is quite significant. If I leave the scope out all night with the fan running, I can get very fine views of Saturn early in the morning when the planet is high in the sky.

I do believe fans in my climate are highly necessary for serious planetary viewing with reflectors.

Gary Weber

If you know it's in focus that's required you may be able to fix this with the collimation adjustment. Using your collimation knobs, raise the mirror so it move closer to the secondary. You may be able to move the mirror close to an inch. Re-collimate and try again.

Gary Weber

From the RASC's page, here is Terry Adrians' "Deep-Sky Challenge Objects" in pdf, complete with finder charts.

http://www.rasc.ca/pdf/dsc-objects.pdf

This should allow you to narrow down a few objects that will be interesting to find and observe.

Gary Weber

I'm 46 and relatively new to the game. Although I have wanted (and could afford) a telescope since I was 20, I lived north of 62° N until 2000. I assessed the utility of owning a scope every 10 years or so and came to the same conclusion...it doesn't get dark in the summer, and it's a tad chilly in the winter. I moved south at 42 and rekindled my love. Now I own four scopes and I cannot imagine not having a relationship with the night sky.

The lack of youth or "the graying" of the hobby is not unique to astronomy. Talk to hams, shortwave listeners, model railroaders or other people and you'll find the same thing. Young people I know do not pursue hobbies the same way we did when we were young. They are captivated by different things and different technology. Although I feel a pang of regret as I observe this, I'm not sure it's a bad thing or not. It is different and represents a pretty major change in society.

Gary Weber

I would second the suggestion of "Turn Left at Orion". It has simple charts and good explanations on how to find many interesting objects available to small scopes.

Also good is Pennington's "The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide". The marathon part is not required, but his charts are very user friendly for all the Messier objects. He also includes sketches of what to expect in the EP.

Gary Weber

This site provides some interesting comparitive data.
http://home.freeuk.com/m.gavin/grism2.htm

Gary Weber

Tongue firmly planted in cheek...

Goto, Schmoto
I remember when real astronomers had to draft their own star charts...

http://www.cleardarksky.com/fourobservers.html
The Four Observers (based on "The Four Yorkshiremen").

Gary Weber

I really don't care about the thread much, but, given that no explanation from the moderators has been provided, there is one thing that is still confusing and I hope someone can provide some guidance.

At what point does opinion have to be supported by facts? If I want to post a comparison I made with two EPs, can I say that I think one has better contrast than the other? Do I need verifyable data to be able to make a statement of opinion based on my experience in the comparison?

If unverifyable opinions are not going to be allowed, it's going to be awfully quiet here.

Gary Weber