Posts Made By: Ron Bee

http://members.cox.net/ronby/Observations/012503.htm

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]

...hot off the press.
http://www.televue.com/WSP2003/NewProdsJan2003/New_at_WSP2003.htm

Ron B[ee]

We've all heard about light buckets talking about galaxies group (eg. Hickson, Abell, etc.), i.e., groups of galaxies. Well, I haven't heard anyone talk about open clusters group until my 4" TV-102 Light Cup showed one of them to me tonight: NGC 2567, NGC 2571, NGC 2587 and NGC 2580. in Puppis forming an odd looking trapezoid shape as shown here.

*


* *
*

The group is large, but fit nicely within the 3d FOV of my 40mm Pentax XL. NGC 2567 appears to be the largest (although the actual size from the chart is smaller than the others) with about 5-6 dim pin pricked teeny speck of stars. NGC 2571 is the brightest of the group with 4 prominent stars in it. NGC 2587 is a very dim halo
with 1 prominent star. NGC 2580 is the dimmest and loosest of the 4, registering as only a vaguely defined dim patch.

Henceforth, the Light Cup christens this open clusters group as the "Puppis 25 Group" ;-). [Light Cup Trivial: where does the number 25 comes from ;-)?] Question: are there any other open clusters group elsewhere?

Lastly, the Light Cup showed me the Plaskett's Star (desinated HD 47129). This is a giant double star system, the most massive yet discovered, by John Plaskett in 1922. He arrives at the mass of of 90 Suns for each star! I estimate its magnitude to be close to the mag 6.3 star SAO 114293. Well, I went all the way to 176x and couldn't split it :-(. Umm, the airy disc doesn't show very massive
either ;-).

It seems like the TV-102 Light Cup doesn't stop showing me new things (for small apertures) to look at!

Ron B[ee]

For some of you, this might be your first view of Mars, for others a much waited anticipation. For me and my TV-102 Light Cup, it's the longing return of the separated love ;-). So it has put together a quick HOW-TO for those who're interested.
http://members.cox.net/ronby/Mars-HOWTO.htm

I was out this morning around 5am with the Light Cup and the seeing was really BAAAAD; both Mars and Venus were twinkling! Anyway, I was surprised to see that even at the tiny size of only 5.24", it already looks like a tiny disc at 30x. I can also see why Antares was called the "Rival of Mars" as it looked like an identical twin (with the same orange color and almost the same brightness) this morning.

Let the virgil begin and best of wishes and great seeing in 2003!

Ron B[ee]

This is the first double transit for my 4" TV-102 Light Cup. I observed from 8:00pm - 8:32pm (4:00-4:32 UT).
Bad seeing with gust of winds, only two bands seen.

Io's transit already on-going. Hard to see; saw inky black pin pricked point during moments of good seeing. Yellow #12 filter works better than all other filters and used the whole time thereafter. Max. 146x only. Shadow transit of Europa first seen at 8:24pm, Io’s shadow still seen near the western rim, but difficult. At 8:28pm, Europa shadow is at slightly “below” Europa, i.e. closer to the SEB. But it appears the shadow maybe partly covered by Europa. Maybe my the bad seeing was bouncing the dot around as I went out later at 8:48pm and Europa’s shadow appeared to be in the area of the EB. This is the closest shadow to Jovian moon I’ve ever seen! Couldn’t make out shadows at 110x. Later at 8:48pm, Europa’s shadow was clearly seen without filter at 110x and seeing appears to improve with less wind.

Ron B[ee]

"zzzzzzzzz". Umm, sound like my 4" TV-102 Light Cup tuned into the wrong galactic radio station, the 3C 273 quasar; too much static if you ask me ;-). BTW, 3C 273 is the brightest quasar.

It was not seen at 30x (30mm Ultima). But there is no escaping from the 12mm TV Radian (73x); for there it was besides another star seeming of equal magnitude (seen better with averted vision). Had I not a chart, I wouldn't have been able to tell which one is the quasar. Increasing the magnitude made the quasar easier to seen and the best view was at 176x (5mm Radian) with direct vision. Its
"identical" twin is the mag 12.9 star GSC 282:337. Through the Light Cup, it really looks just like the GSC star! The following stars were seen in the area: mag 10.7 GSC 282:227, mag 12 GSC 282:238, and mag 12.1 GSC 282:183 forming a line. The nearby star, GSC 282:115 and the much dimmer star GSC 282:423 were also seen. All in all, this quasar is a lot easier than the Markarian 421 tuned into by the Light Cup last year. The LM was 5.7. Here's a
nice chart I found on the web.
http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/arpredshift.htm

For more interesting info about this galactic "radio station", please refer to these...
http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Misc/3c273.html

Here is a list of brightest quasars.
http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Misc/qso.html

Alas, the Light Cup ate galactic humble pie tonight as we spent over an hour looking for those obscure galaxies hiding in the Beehive (see March issue of the S&T). Zero, zip, nada :-(. Maybe a darker sky may do the trick.

However, the Light Cup was also very happy to have met another RASC Deep-Sky Challenge Object (3C 273) tonight (this one need 25-30cm telescope)!

Ron B[ee]
PS But wait, what's this? The static seems to have cleared up and the message is coming in loud and clear from the quasar: "Oh yeah, try a supernova next, you Light Crap" :-(.

May the Light Cup and I be so bold as to examine a new, innovative idea for a telescope design.

Point one: we all know that nature usually endows us with the best. Since we're talking about telescope, let's focus on the eye. Are you surprise to find that your eye is actually a refractor ;-)? Yeah, that's right! In fact, there is no natural reflecting systems in the eyeball of homo sapiens nor any animals on our planet (no Newtonian,
no MC/MN or SC/SN based eyeballs ;-). Agreed ;-)?

Point two: consider this - the lens system in our eye is a singlet (i.e. only one lens), not the UNNATURAL design of a doublet, nor a triplet, nor a Petzval! Do we see chromatic
aberrations? Do we need collimation? Do we need to wait for our eyeballs to cooldown when we step outside before we can see ;-)?

Thus, as a recent (and barely literate) student of optics I dare to propose a radically new design of the future of telescope which will be based on the organic system made with "organic lens"! The nature conforming, environmentally safe "organic refractor" will have only
a single element because organic system is highly adaptive and corrected. Hence, much like our eyeball, the new age refractor will be extremely light and economical. For instead of manufacturing, melting, grinding, polishing (and expensive, time-consuming hand aspherizing) bubble-free glass, the organic objective APO lenses are designed by genetic engineers and are simply produced (i.e. grown ;-)
in tanks filled with optical nutrients and harvested when ready, akin to a shrimp or fish farm today. The organic refractor will not weigh a ton as with today's design because of the need for only a single lens with
extremely short focal length. Perhaps an 8" f/4 would weigh no more than 15 lbs at most. Bigger lens can simply be made by utilizing growth hormone. Market studies will
hopefully price such a refractor no more than the pain-threshold of $3000 for an 8" model.

Of course, organic system ages over time. Thus, if you find your refractor not able to give you a crystal clear focus like it used to, you can simply get it the vision correcting Lasik ;-).

Assuming such product would be available from AP, TMB and TV, my ultimate telescope would likely be a 200mm TV-200 f/4 (or shorter) ;-)! No need for an 8" Dobs I'm being forced to get soon ;-). I speculate that the first application will appear in eyepieces, yielding a light weight (akin to Nagler T6), ultra wide 82d AFOV, with 15-20mm eye relief, spanning 50mm to 1mm in focal length! Can
you imagine such an eyepiece with only one element that doesn't weigh like a granade ;-)? Imagine the light throughput and the brightness and contrast! Unfortunately, such products were not unveiled this year at WSP :-(.

Last but not least, I bid you leave with one food for thought, knowing now what our eyes are made of: If thou loveth thyself, then love thy refractor(s) ;-).

Ron B[ee]

I was shell shocked when I saw this. It's simply incredible what this owner of the 60mm refractor have been doing with his midget size refractor!
http://astrosurf.com/l60/en/index_en.html

Ron B[ee]

Say, have I just stumbled upon the perfect 8" reflector? And I can sit down and view from the rear end like my TV-102 ;-). I shy away from the SCT and the MCT (weighs a ton).
http://www.vixenamerica.com/Products/Default.asp?TopCatCode=TS&Fam_or_Cat=VC200L (f/9)
http://www.vixenamerica.com/Products/Default.asp?TopCatCode=TS&Fam_or_Cat=VMC200L (f/9.8)

Looking at the Vixen web site, it's apparently **not** an SCT ;-). Open tube means quick cooldown time. And it weighs an unblievable featherweight 14 lbs. And the price is so right ;-).

Does anyone have experience with these two scopes? What sort of design is this? Any one know if the central obstruction is petite or huge? Are there any gotcha? Might these just be the perfect 8" reflector?

Thanks,
Ron B[ee]
PS My wide field need is taken care of by my TV-102 ;-).

Actually, anyone with a refractor can find out for him/herself. I did it with my old 4" C102-HD on Jupiter with a cardboard 33% mask to simulate the obstruction. The effect was very eye opening: a very noticeable loss of contrast and **brightness**. I didn't do a critical test at the time to find out which feature I could see and which I couldn't. But the one thing I most personally didn't like was the lack of contrast when the mask was on.

Ron B[ee]