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Eastern Veil Nebula

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Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

July 26, 2003 05:22 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

"Mars effect" on equipment (in)decisions: RELAX

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Notice how the closer Mars gets, the more people are sweating about whether they have JUST the right telescope to view it with? Should I get this, should I get that, etc. This hobby becomes a kind of disease whenever something big is going on 'up there'.

Mars is getting pretty big in the eyepiece. I'm thinking it might be time now to just go with what you've got (unless you got nuthin' then I say get something fast :-)). But don't agonize over it! We're comin' into crunch time here, maybe we should all spend a little more time viewing so we have less time to read equipment ads and stress about whether we have just the right Mars scope.

July 29, 2003 01:00 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Uranus 7/29/03

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Spotted Uranus last night, that was fun. Last time I looked at it was probably 15 years ago with my old orange C8. At 100x or so it's obviously not a star. At 250x it's a neat little blue-green disc that's clearly too big to be Airy (and the seeing was too bad tonite to see any Airy discs anyway -- they were more like Airy blobs). I even sketched the dot for posterity. Ooooo, look at the detail! :-)

July 29, 2003 03:24 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

mars 07/29/03 - smudging experiment

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Anybody here use editing software on their sketches? Decided to try a little experimenting with the 'smudge tool' in the software to see what that's like beyond the finger-smudging I did in the original. Interesting effect -- makes it look kind of 'blurry' but in this case this is accurate and seems to look more like what was in the eyepiece than what I was able to draw by hand - seeing was kind of "eh" last night (as can be seen by the heavy 'canalization' of features) but it's been days and I needed to get out there and check out Mars again. Didn't get very good positions or definition of individual features but it seems like I was getting better able to see more contrast and shading variations on the planet this time.

July 31, 2003 12:37 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Weather head-fakes and Mars

Posted By Paul Kammueller
This is really annoying me. Last couple of nights, I check the sky: overcast. Thank God. I can just sleep tonite. Then in the morning I wake up cursing because the sky is blue and the sun is shining. I'll bet there were a good observable 2 hours or so sometime this morning. Arrrrrgh

July 31, 2003 12:41 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Mars and sleep deprivation

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Mars is in a pretty bad spot now -- rising just early enough to make you stay up late instead of trying to get up early. How is everyone coping with the accompanying sleep loss?

Trying to keep this nighttime activity moderated, like 1 or 2 late nights during the workweek. In 1988 I was kind of going overboard staying up observing every night and was starting to doze off at work during the day -- of course back then I just worked as a student employee taking inventory in the university libraries. Nowadays have to be more careful!

August 1, 2003 02:29 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Mars 8/1/03 - sketch and a question - Hellas

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Still working at it, Mars was magnificent last night, it's getting hard to draw now. Question, why does the NW 1/3 or Hellas look brighter to me -- is it a dust cloud, or is it just the way the Hellas basin is, or is it my eyes?

August 4, 2003 04:26 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Creepshow -- Mars 8/4/03

Posted By Paul Kammueller
I really need to catch up on some sleep. This planet is starting to look like a very creepy skull to me, complete with eye & nose holes and some very nasty deformed teeth.

August 7, 2003 03:32 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Re: C11 question

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Bill, is there a significant image shift when focusing? If there is, then when your wiggling the focus knob back and forth one part of the primary can be further forward/back than another.

There *shouldn't* be that sort of curvature of field in a C11. Unless it's a property of the eyepiece.

August 7, 2003 01:59 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Mars 08-07-03

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Getting further around the globe. Trying to get complete coverage so I can make a little map! -- did this once in '88 with my 3-inch, a fun project that is, if not particularly useful. This is centered I believe on Mare Cimmerium, Mare Tyrrhenum, and Hesperia.

August 9, 2003 07:18 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

Fun with canals (or: I need more sleep)

Posted By Paul Kammueller
It feels like I'm seeing more detail. Maybe my eyes are getting better. Or maybe my imagination is. Maybe I'm just not getting enough sleep anymore and it's time to take a time-out for a few days. The moon's getting pretty full anyway. Gary P. was commenting here about how canals don't show up in amateur sketches anymore, but I swear those little green ditch-diggers are back at it again, maybe they got tired of hiding from our NASA probes!

Ha ha. I am tired and am now going to bed.


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