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Posts Made By: K. Michael Malolepszy

May 6, 2004 02:21 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Star party eyepieces

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
I bought several of the "Orion Expanse" eyepieces for public observing sessions. They have a nice wide field that some people appreciate and I won't cry if someone leaves some goo on them... There are several clones of them available elsewhere. I also have some Rini eyepieces for combat conditions.

June 8, 2004 07:28 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Hi-res H-Alpha of Venus transit

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
That just became my newest wallpaper....well done! Fabulous!

Here in St. Louis we dodged rainy weather and had very good conditions for the transit. It was a whole bunch of fun, even though none of us had an H-alpha filter.

Thanks again!

BTW, NASA-TV was broadcasting the Exploratorium coverage of the eclipse that featured a lot of H-alpha video, pretty high-res stuff, too.

Oh yeah, Direct-TV changed the lineup and NASA-TV is now carried by them on channel 376.

Michael Malolepszy

June 14, 2004 10:26 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Venus Transit from St. Louis

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
More of the enthused crowd... that was as much fun as the transit itself - the group's thorough enjoyment of it.

KMM smile

June 14, 2004 10:31 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Venus Transit from St. Louis

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
A view of the 80mm Tuthill finder projected image.

September 20, 2004 03:30 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

larger dobs and finders

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
I have a 20" newt that only had a Telrad. I am in the process of mounting a 80mm finder. It's just gotten too time consuming finding deep sky objects with just a telrad. For one thing, my eyes are getting to the point where I cannot see 6th magnitude stars much of the time to star hop from. With my 50mm finder on my 9.25" SCT, I can actually see all the background stars and find things much more quickly. So I figure a 80mm finder will be just as useful.

BTW, I use an amici right angle diagonal on my finders. No need to hold charts upside down or do any mental mirror image trickery or print customized charts. "F" that noise. WIth a an amici equipped finder - BadaBing, BadaBoom, I'm there.

Many of my fellow club members seem fine with just a Telrad - but they usually are using 10 inches or less of aperture - but I think a finder is very useful, maybe necessary for dim objects not near a bright foreground star.

KMM

October 11, 2004 07:48 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

New Meade Series 5000 Eyepieces - Taking a Run At

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
They look like Pentax XLs with a nagler's apparent field... perhaps they have heard people's complaints about the Radian's click-stop eye guard and gone with the Pentax style eyeguard.

Looks Nice.

KMM

December 6, 2004 04:34 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), anyone?

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
I was able to see it Friday from the severely light polluted skies of St. Louis with a 76mm
refractor, but not with my 10X50 binoculars. Too much glare - I had 4 lights staring me right in the face. Also had many tree limbs that I kept having to dodge, along with very small patches of clouds. Couldn't really say how bright it was other than it seems like it's around m=6, perhaps a tad brighter. Need to get out to a dark site...

December 6, 2004 05:28 PM Forum: After Dark

Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), anyone?

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
I was able to see it Friday from the severely light polluted skies of St. Louis with a 76mm
refractor, but not with my 10X50 binoculars. Too much glare - I had 4 lights staring me right in the face. Also had many tree limbs that I kept having to dodge, along with very small patches of clouds. Couldn't really say how bright it was other than it seems like it's around m=6, perhaps a tad brighter. Need to get out to a dark site...

December 13, 2004 11:21 PM Forum: After Dark

Geosynchronous Satellites

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy
I haven't, but others have:

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/hattonjasonp/hasohp/GEO.HTML

http://www.usafa.af.mil/dfp/cockpit-phys/gp1sup2b.htm

http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle/geoflare.htm

http://www2.nict.go.jp/ka/control/telesco/telesco.html


December 14, 2004 07:29 PM Forum: After Dark

Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), anyone?

Posted By K. Michael Malolepszy

I saw ONE Gemind last night under my wonderful dome of light pollution. Of course, I wasn't much in the mood to spend a lot of time outside in the cold since I already spent most of the day yesterday in the cold - in my office (HVAC problems at work)...however, I had no problem finding Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) with 10X50 bincoulars. It was quite easy to find as long as I'm not string right into a street light and has been an easy city binocular object for at least a week. No tail or fanning visible in the binoculars. Looked light a very bright globular in the binoculars.

I used this chart which I had NO problem reading in the ambient light outside:


http://www.skyhound.com/sh/2004_Q2.gif

Other info at:

http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/charts.html

http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1396_1.asp

http://cometography.com/lcomets/2004Q2.html

Images:

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2004Q2/pictures.html



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