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Posts Made By: Mike Ratcliff

May 4, 2005 10:55 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Just a quick poll.

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
About 1969, Sears 60mm refractor made in Japan for about $70, bought by my parents when I was 15. A lot of money back then.

I eventually saw about 80 Messier objects. Had trouble with the galaxies!

The eyepieces were 0.965 inchers. 20mm, 6mm, and 4mm. Plus a barlow! Didn't take long to realize that the 20mm was the only usable one!

The mount was pretty bad, but the main telescope was decent.

Mike Ratcliff

May 12, 2005 07:33 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

A bad idea (INFO)

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
Inge,

That's OK. It's not a bad idea to encourage people to fill out the profiles. It adds to the sense of community. I just filled out mine.

Mike

May 13, 2005 06:57 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Color in M8 and M20

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
The pink hues are probably just remnants of that camera flash going off in your eyes. smile

I haven't seen color in M8/M20 myself, will check again next time.

Mike

July 15, 2005 10:21 PM Forum: Pictures of Me and My Telescope and........

I didn't get so much as a Thank-You from my wife.

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
Funniest post I've seen in a long time!

August 19, 2005 07:39 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Near Full Moon Nights

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
One other thing, rays on the moon show up better at full moon.

Plus I don't gripe about the neighbor's lights.

Mike

August 31, 2005 07:31 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Eyepiece Suggestion

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
Paul Rini has some 2" 30ish eyepieces being closed out. He builds them himself from surplus lenses. $35 ain't bad. See his ad in the Amart classified.

September 19, 2005 04:55 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

To Flock or not to Flock

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
A good test for if/where to flock is to look at the daytime sky (far from the sun!!) without an eyepiece in the focuser. The indirect sunlight will light up the telescope.

Ideally, you should just see the primary mirror reflection of the sky. Anything else should be jet black. If not, that is an area to be addressed.

Directly across from the focuser and the dewshield area above and across the focuser are two common areas to deal with.

I also had a shiny black 2" focuser tube that I flocked as much as I could without the eyepiece hitting the flocking.

I used double black velvet from Jo Ann's fabrics, a chain store. Have not done a long term test of durability, etc, but so far so good. (It was weird being in a fabric store, the last time was as a little kid many years ago with my mom who made clothes.)

Mike

October 13, 2005 01:09 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

10-9-05

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
Outstanding post!

My first thought: pretty good galaxy observations, given 8" dob and LM of 4.5. Lafayette definitely not dark sky country.

Then I noticed you're only 13! Wow! I would have guessed at least 5 years experience. Plus a great essay on Cygnus. Congrats!

I haven't tried these galaxies. I'll give 7217 a shot next time.

Mike

October 14, 2005 08:58 PM Forum: TeleVue

TV85, "Sharpest Eyes on Earth"

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
Looks to me that the newspaper article is misleading. The TV85 did not see 0.07 arcsecond resolution directly.

Two quotes from the AU site:

"While a 2.4 m telescope on the ground can never equal HST's performance, a somewhat larger telescope, say 4m, at Dome C could well produce images of equivalent resolution to HST for about 10% of the time.

"Any amateur astronomers amongst you will realise that the 85 mm aperture Televue telescope we used has a theoretical resolution of only 1.5 arcseconds, so how can we measure seeing down to 0.07 arcseconds (the lowest value we have seen at Dome C)? The trick is not to measure the star diameter directly, but to measure the variations in the intensity of a star. This is analogous to measuring the waves on the surface of a swimming pool by looking at the patterns of dark and light on the bottom of the pool caused by sunlight. The instrument we used to make this measurement was a Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor.

Mike Ratcliff

January 7, 2006 12:05 AM Forum: Eyepieces

XT6i/Children/Eyepieces

Posted By Mike Ratcliff
The 12.5 mm "VOLCANO" top ortho (not the HD) from University Optics does really well on the moon in the 6" f/8 scope I have. The volcano top shape makes it a little easier to use. At outreach parties, it's the setup I use, and works well for kids. And the ortho is very sharp and bright.

Mike

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