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Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

February 1, 2005 04:53 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Are You a Maximizer?

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Sounds like an interesting article, I may have to check it out. The grass is always greener I guess.

I don't think I qualify as a 'maximizer' -- I'm one of those semi-long-term 'phase' astronomers. I went through a 10-year SCT/general observing phase, a 10-year truss dob 'deep sky' phase, etc.

Right now I'm 3 years into my homemade-planetary dob phase. Though I'm not sure it's a phase this time, I may have finally reached my own personal telescope Nirvana. We'll see in 7 years I guess grin

February 2, 2005 03:00 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

Saturn...is it my imagination?

Posted By Paul Kammueller
The rings go through a multi-year cycle of 'open' and 'closed' (i.e. edge-on) phases as viewed from Earth. The rings are starting to close compared to last year, and as a result detail within the rings will get progressively harder to see over the next few years, until they start to open again.

February 2, 2005 02:50 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Common Objects converted to Astro Use

Posted By Paul Kammueller
My 10" f/8 homemade planetary dob includes a surplus achromat and a paper-towel tube in the finderscope construction, old CDs as axial spacers in the base, and a flat weight off a set of barbells resting rear of the mirror cell.

I once made a 1" achromatic spyglass using stainless steel rollers from an old copy machine for the tube and a plastic aspirin bottle painted silver for the dewshield. Was a surprisingly shiny and pretty scope.

February 4, 2005 03:17 PM Forum: Politics

India to the Moon, and NASA wants to hitch a ride!

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Where have you been the last 4 years? None of use should be surprised by instances of politics and ideology trumping science anymore. :S

February 4, 2005 04:42 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

10,000 days!!

Posted By Paul Kammueller
I don't recall the launch. I do recall every flyby, however -- the Voyager flybys have been spaced out throughout my whole coming-of-age time frame and I think substantially influenced me. For me they started when I was in about 6th grade and just starting to look at Jupiter with a crummy 60mm Montgomery Wards refractor. I remember very anxiously awaiting the Uranus flyby my senior year in high school. In college I went to the auditorium in the physics building to watch the incoming images from Neptune live on the big screen.

February 7, 2005 04:16 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Flocking a long tube

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Easier to apply the glue to the backside of the flocking paper rather than the tube. Then you can insert the paper in longish pieces, use a long broom handle to roll-press the paper against the tube's interior wall. If its sonotube, some well-place screws penetrating in from the outside can make useful mounting points to punch the paper through to make it stay put as well.

February 13, 2005 02:35 AM Forum: Eyepieces

5mm EPs under $100

Posted By Paul Kammueller
Orion's 5mm Ultrascopic is also nice. It's really a 10mm Ultrascopic with a built-in barlow lens so the eye relief is better than you'd expect.

I use a 5mm ortho myself but the eye relief down there puts some people off.

February 14, 2005 10:49 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Plossls vs Naglers

Posted By Paul Kammueller
As one who's owned Naglers, Plossls, orthos, Konigs and Kellners, I'd say I generally agree. The simpler designs do seem to have an edge in sharpness and contrast, the better quality ones anyway.

That said, the Naglers are still excellent themselves (especially considering the number of elements), and there is the question of detail vs. enjoyment. The big multi-lens eyepieces have that immersive 'spacewalk' effect. If you like HDTV but don't care how big or small the screen is, then the simple designs are for you. If you don't care quite as much whether it's quite as HD but want that big, projection-screen 3-D stereo SurroundSound experience, you go for the Naglers.

February 16, 2005 08:10 PM Forum: Pictures of Me and My Telescope and........

Scopes Please 2

Posted By Paul Kammueller
My 16" f/3.75 dob, just finished.

Had first 'competent' light experience last night (meaning, first time I could actually point, collimate, etc. -- first light saw unworkable mounting, impossible navigation and misaligned optics).

Actually it's a newt-cass (f/18 in cassegrain mode), but until I resolve all the mounting issues with the cassegrain fork it's an f/3.75 dob. 8) Yeah I know the struts look crude but what can I say -- I'm not an artiste, I'm a hack. grin

February 17, 2005 03:32 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

WHy doesnt my view of Saturn look like the picture

Posted By Paul Kammueller
My first view of Saturn was in 1980 when the rings were edge-on. It looked like a white dot with a line through it. sad

Some eye training is in order here, which comes mainly from time logged at the eyepiece. Much of this disappointment is due to the fact that your eyes are looking at something that they are used to recognizing as fairly featureless (a bright, white dot).

Your eyes and brain have to 'get used' to seeing detail in a little bright white dot. It's not something they're used to doing, or even trying to do. Your brain is an image enhancement computer and it takes time to learn the proper filtering for this kind of image. I know it sounds strange, but this actually takes practice more than anything.

Observe regularly and give it a few months. The colors and detail will come.

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