Posts Made By: Tom Hole

So far, tonight has been very good. Mag 5 skies, no porch lights and very good seeing (7+ most of the time). I invited the whole cul-de-sac out for a view of M42 and described what it would look like if everyone had their porch lights on. I think they may have gotten the picture.

M42 was magnificent. I had the 24 Pans in with the 1.38x OCS for 88x. All 6 stars in the trap were sharp as tacks and the whispy clouds impressed everyone.

Then I treated them to Saturn at 545x. I was using the 11" Starmaster on the EQ platform. I had the 7mm UO orthos in the TV binovues with the 2.5x OCS. That gave me 545x in a 45 deg AFOV ep. This should be trouble, right? Nope. Everyone was thoroughly amazed. I could make out the usual suspects on Saturn. I asked all the kids to describe what they saw. One of the 8 year olds, without prompting, started describing the yellow banding on the surface and the lighter rings on the outside. This was her first real look at Saturn. Got similar comments from the other kids age 6 to 18. The adults all wondered where the color was. Oh to have the youngn's eyes again.

No one had any trouble merging. What a treat for them. I told them I didn't get to see Saturn at 545x on a nice night like this. They were very happy campers.

As a bonus, my neighbor brought out this gucci heated seat pad for my observing chair. Now that's clean livin'.

Oh, the more power part. 545x was definitely not the limit for tonight's seeing. I need to get to 700x. Looking at a 2x Powermate to put in front of the 2.5x OCS. Hmmmm....

Clear skies,

Tom

You get a nice 35 Pan from UPS, stick it in a Starmaster and can't stand the view because you're only using one eye. Oh well, I'll keep it for those niche moments where I need a wide field view. Maybe I should just buy a nice pair of binoculars.

Clear skies,

Tom

I know this gets said all the time, but I wanted to pile on. Many heartfelt thanks to ATWB for hosting Astromart. The benefit that it has provides me, personally, is untold and for the astronomy community in general, immeasurable. You can count on my continued support for a long time.

Clear skies,

Tom

BTW, I finally found that elusive 15mm Pan

Been looking for a while and almost got a pair of 15mm TV plossls instead. But one finally turned up. I may eventually replace them with 16mm T5 Naglers, but we'll see.

I have come to dislike my 10mm Ultimas and 11mm TV plossls a lot. Great images, but just terribly uncomfortable to use. Thinking of trying a pair of Radians. Issues that concern me:

1. Barrel diameter - They are 1.8" in diameter which is almost as big as my 24 Pans (1.9"). But they are not tapered at the top like the Pans.

2. Instajust click stop thingy - many folks report a dislike of this feature and it would seem to be a PITA for binoviewing.

My other option is a pair of 11mm Nagler T6's, but the Radians would be cheaper.

Any comments are welcome.

Clear skies,

Tom

And no one has peed in anyone else's Wheaties. Good stuff.

I solicit inputs on what to do with all those caps that come off the ep's and clutter up my ep case throughout the night. I was thinking of velcroing a nice pouch of some sort to the outside of the lid to keep them all in. Any thoughts?

Clear skies,

Tom

Has anyone taken all of the cool images that Hubble and other fine telescopes have taken and made a 3 dimensional virtual map that one can "fly" through? Either on the computer or in immersive virtual reality? I think it would be way cool to don a set of VR glasses and float through the known mapped universe. Even just the Milky Way would be worth the trip. I'd pay a couple quid for it as well.

Clear skies,

Tom

Here's what got us all excited a little over a year ago:

http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=173208

http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=175111

Those were the salad days.

Clear skies,

Tom