Posts Made By: Jeff Chappell

Friday night around 11:00 I was just getting ready to come in because the nearly full moon had washed out most of the sky, when I turned the scope on the moon just for grins. To my surprise, I caught a shadow of what I assume to be a satellite as it passed directly across the widest part of the moon.

The whole transit took maybe 3 seconds at most, but I could clearly see the outline of whatever it was. I was at 67x with a 15 mm EP, and it was surprisingly large, maybe 30-40", and perfectly round with a smaller square section descending from the bottom side. After it passed the moon, I tried to see it with the naked eye, but the sun was too far gone for it to be illuminated.

I've seen many satellites pass through my field of view before, but never one in front of the moon, and none that looked this large (at least as big as Jupiter). Anyone else ever had a similar experience?

I just got one of these for $16.95 at a local sporting goods store, and the height is a perfect match for my f/5 10" dob:

http://www.sportseat.com/

It might be a little short for a longer f-ratio dob, but from about 30 degrees to the zenith, it's just right for mine. It's not adjustable, but it sits several inches higher than the foldup lawnchair I had been using.

Can't argue with the price...

Jeff

Have you considered an equatorial platform. You can get one here suitable for your 10" dob for $480:

http://www.roundtableplatforms.com/default.php

Check out this link for a nifty tutorial on using a GEM. The key is to get it set for your latitude (a one-time procedure) and then roughly polar aligned. For purely visual viewing, I just set the declination to 90 and make sure I can spot Polaris through my finder scope. That's close enough for me. Keep at it!!!

http://www.astronomyboy.com/eq/index.html

M7 has always been a favorite of mine, partially because of the way it stands out, and partially because it's the first DSO I found by 'accident', right after I got my first little 60mm refractor. There's nothing like just sweeping across the sky and having this glorious view pop up unexpectedly.

Paul Harvey advertises something called Ocular Nurition from Hi-Health (www.hihealth.com) that *supposedly* helps to eliminate floaters. It's $40 dollars for 100 capsules. It might just be snake oil, but I've considered ordering some just to see. I suffer noticeably from floaters during high-mag planetary viewing.

BTW - I've had laser surgery, and the trade-off of some starburst patterns around bright pinpoint light sources vs. trying to view with contacts or glasses much favors the surgery, IMO. In fact, the results of the surgery were responsible for renewing my interest in astronomy. Maybe I'm just one of the lucky ones...

Jeff Chappell

You'll need something bigger than a 10" reflector to see the Horsehead. I spent over an hour last winter with a really dark sky and a fair amount of imagination trying to see it, and I couldn't manage it.

How much are you willing to spend?

Tom, try taking the lens caps off. Should help...

;-)

What about a geosynchronous satellite? Wouldn't they appear to be stationary right near the ecliptic and fade slowly? I've always wondered why I don't notice more of them, as I think they'd be rather common.

Perhaps we don't see them because their orbit is so high, thus they appear too dim to be noticed. Maybe you caught one just right with the sun's reflection on a panel or something.

That's my theory, anyway...

Jeff

The constellation Lyra which contains M57 is shaped like a triangle attached to one corner of a parallelogram. Using your eyepiece that gives you 40x, center your finder between the 2 stars forming the short side of the parallelogram farthest from the triangle (the bright star Vega forms one point of the triangle). This will be the southern side of the parallelogram.

M57 will now be somewhere within your field of view, not right at the center but probably 1/2 way to the edge. It looks like a little grey smoke ring, 2-3 times the diameter of Jupiter right now. Once you've found it, bump up the magnification to see it better.

140mm is plenty to see M57 unless your sky is completely washed out with skyglow. I've seen it from my suburban backyard in a 60mm Celestron refractor.

Jeff