Posts Made By: Dave budlong

http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html This is a page I found this weekend. Did not know that it was even there before, but it is IMHO a very nice resource. Just wondering if anybody else has any great observational sites of similar nature. This one not only tells you where the comets are, it gives you charts and information on what scope you can reasonably expect to see them in.

Last weekend I finally got the 12 inch out under dark skies, and it was great. Since I got the 12" the poor 8" has seen very little action. That problem was rectified the other night, I decided that I wanted to go out for a quick look from the backyard and the 8" is way easier to move. The point is that I have been telling myself how much I NEEDED a bigger scope, had to have a bigger scope, and though I love my new scope, I now have more appreciation for the 8". I think getting a 8" instead of a 10" scope is fine and just wanted to put that out there.

Got a Real short list this month, only 7 objects, that however is not the story of this months chase. We get to look at the easiest to find Messier Object in the sky and conversely what I think is the hardest to find Messier in the sky, as well as a really neat Galaxy in Cetus. So here it is this months tricks and treats.
M29 an Open Cluster in Cygnus, best at very low power and easy to find in Bino's.
M103 A pretty nice Open Cluster in Cassiopeia, also easy enough to find in Bino's.
M76 Here it is the hardest one of the entire list in my opinion, a real tough object to find, I never found it until I got my 8 inch scope. Thats not to say it can't be done, but I would not let yourself get frustrated if you cannot find it in anything less that a 4.5 inch Newtonian, or 90mm Refractor. If any of you do find it for the first time in a scope smaller than that I would love to hear about it though.
M74 It is a Galaxy in Pisces, it is sort of a fickle object you can find it in Bino's but it does not look like much, however it took the 8" dob to see anything more and even that was not much, but it is a great dark site object.
M34 An Open Cluster in Perseus, another great object for Bino's.
M45 The biggest gimme on the list, The Pleiades, now here is a great object to put on your Messier Bino list, if you have Bino's go out and look at it with them, then start your Bino log. Now that we have started that log too, you are on your way to completing your second Astronomical League observing program, go ahead and find someone to pat you on the back, you deserve it.
M77 Finally we get to go after that cool little Galaxy in Cetus I was talking about. It is very bright and after you find it in the scope you should be able to find it in Bino's. Some of you might be able to find it with Bino's without a scope at all.
Don't forget that Mars is going to be great this month, better towards the end of the month but really nice. Good luck to everybody, and most importantly Clear Skies.

Went out with the 12 inch scope tonight and did a few firsts. First time I have observed with it at 300x, and it was not to bad for tracking, image was good, and I was able to pick out more detail in Mars than I ever have. Also its the first time I have used an Orange wratten filter on Mars and that was also pretty good. Hopefully we get another clear night later in the month but at least I got one halfway decent night, before the fog rolled in.

I just got my first 2 inch EP. Thanks to the weather it may be months until I get to use it, up until this past spring I have only had the TV Genesis that even accepted 2" EP's and since I had the TV 40mm plossel in a 1 1/4" I felt no particular rush to get a 2", now that I have a "big" 12" scope I figured it was high time I had a big EP. Now having given a little of the background, I have no intention of switching to premium EP's in the near future, but I think I might like a Powermate 4X. The question revolves around their ability to accept both 2" and 1 1/4" EP's. How well do they perform with the smaller EP's, I assume they do well with the 2" EP's because it looks like thats what they were designed for. The problem is I can't find a decent review. I am thinking the 4x because it would ramp up some of my better EP's.

Yes under the mirror cell. Hopefully it works out for you.

Was out tonight, started out looking at DSO's until Mars got up over the neighbors house. Watched Mars for a while, then when the moon started to get up decently, I rolled that direction with my recently acquired Konig 32mm. Was using my 12" Orion Dob and I saw something I have never even heard anybody ever report before, a meteor crossed the face of the moon. Now that was an all new thing for me, I have had them cross my FOV several times though out the years, but never have I seen one between myself and the moon. It was very odd looking, sort of a muted Yellow-Orange color. Anyone else ever had this happen to them?

I was reading my new "Bluewater Sailing" magazine and came across this little gizmo. It is a LED flashlight that they showed for reading nautical charts, they are tiny with a 3 position switch for variable lighting. I figure with a piece of red tape across the LED's this would be a great astro chart flashlight.

http://www.9voltlight.com/home

What do you guys think? Its supposed to run forever on one 9 volt.

I recently joined another forum group for golf, this group wants to build itself into a similar resource for golfers as Astromart is for Backyard Astronomers. I would like to invite those of you interested in this forum to join. The people on Astromart are generally great people and those of you that have a Golf passion would be a great addition to this other forum.


http://www.thegolfforums.com/forums/index.php

http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=380205

This might be a better fit, I would think the size of the scope makes it easy to move and at the same time you are going to get a little more aperture. I do not know the person selling the scope, but that would be for you to decide after reading their feedback reviews.