Posts Made By: Denise Babcock

Beautiful paint job!

~Denise

Hey, I heard that interview! It was on early Saturday morning. Very exciting to hear NPR call up an amateur astronomer. Now if only I could get a chance to see this nebula for myself before it goes away for the summer...

*snicker snicker* That's great! Laughing at stupidity is one of my favorite pastimes.

Oh wait, I know what it is... His name must be Morans, and he's signing his message. Yeah, that's it.

~Denise

This is my buddy Fred, at my favorite dark-sky site about 20 miles south of the Grand Canyon. Fred's an 8" Deep Space Hunter from Hardin Optical. Maybe not a high-end fancy scope, but it sure is a lot of fun!

~Denise

I think it's a transient feline phenomenon, myself. Guaranteed to turn up when least expected during at-home observing.

~Denise

I was out with my scope a couple weeks ago, showing my brother and his wife how light-polluted their skies really are. They live out in Superior, Az, and really desperately wanted to look through the telescope. (I haven't seen my brother in sixteen years. I get there, he says, hi, then immediately wants to know if I brought the scope. Guess some things just run in the family, eh?) So I set up and got to show them some nice views of Jupiter and Saturn, and the moon, and even a pretty crappy view of the Orion Nebula before it set. But I couldn't get much of anything in terms of deep sky, thanks to the lights. Fortunately, they were impressed enough with the planets. So was I, for that matter... I'd just bought a new barlow that day and was bouncing around very excitedly because my scope (8in f-6 Dobsonian) was suddenly showing lots of detail, particularly on Jupiter. Can't wait until I can afford to expand my eyepiece collection, currently a grand total of three, again.

~Denise

GCSP report? Nice idea, but to write up a report I'd have to actually have the time to do so. It's been *how* long since the party, and I'm only just now getting back online.
The star party was great. I can see now what I missed out on last year by running off on my own... not only are the nights of observing wonderful (when the wind and/or clouds allow--grrr!), but the days of hanging out with fellow astronomers and getting spoiled rotten with Thom's wonderful cooking were great. I'd been planning to sneak away and head up to the North Rim, but somehow, I got sidetracked and never made it. Maybe next year.
I got there late on Tuesday night, so tired from work that all I wanted to do was wander around and look through other people's scopes, joining in with the general public. This was my second year at the Canyon, and it seemed like this year the crowds of curious people were actually a lot smaller. But some of them were really cool, like the newlywed couple who stuck around for an hour or so Friday night and left discussing what kind of telescope to buy. It's fun to spread the addiction.
The first night I set up was Thursday, due to clouds on Wednesday. It was kind of funny--people seemed to get a real kick out of something relatively boring, the "eye chart" stars in the Big Dipper. Everyone set up around me was showing things like galaxies and nebulas (er--nebulae? which is the correct spelling, anyway?), which I was really wanting to get away and look at, but when I tried to shift my scope off those stars to something else, people didn't want me to. Go figure. At least they were ooh-ing and aah-ing.
On a more personal note, my second day at the Canyon I ran into a friend from last year, who rather quickly became my boyfriend, and who is now my fiancee. So I'd definitely say the GCSP was a life-altering experience for me,as well as being a lot of fun.

~Denise

Hope you have a good trip! As yet, there are no monsoons, but who knows when that'll change. Here's a link you may find useful, detailing observing sites in southern Arizona:
http://www.siowl.com/index.html?ObservingSites/obssites.html
It indicates the Chiricahuas are great, but I've never observed there, so I can't confirm or deny. Good luck!

~Denise

My two cents... I have an 8" dob that came with a 9x50 finder. I used that for a few months and was frustrated as anything because it showed *so* many stars, I couldn't find what I was looking for. So I got a Telrad and used both, until the finder's mounting bracket broke off. I've used the Telrad only for a year and a half now, even in seriously light polluted skies, and haven't even missed the finder. I've been able to find things in town by using the few bright stars visible and the Telrad to get in the right area, then finding the target in a low-power ep. Works for me.
Yes, it's true, there's still some contortion involved looking through the Telrad, but it's a much faster process (at least now that I'm used to the thing), so fewer overall neck cramps. 8)

~Denise

Hmm... I had been thinking about this yesterday at work, because I'm very interested in getting my paws on one of those fans someday (after I buy the big telescope, of course), and I was thinking if you're worried about the heat, why not just detach the fan during the day and stick it back on at night? But then I saw the comment about the cold. Oops. This desert girl never thought about that.

~Denise
glad to not have subzero temperatures to worry about 8)