Posts Made By: Donald Dolan

Last night (9-10-03) at a little before midnight here in southern California, as I was scanning across the moon with a pair of 9mm Ortho’s in my binoviewer, something suddenly entered the field. At first I thought it was a plane, but then I realized that what I was looking at was very strange, not at all like the silhouette of a plane. It looked like a small, but very well defined, toy model of the space station. It was exquisitely rendered and although it was in silhouette against the moon it seemed to be three dimensional. I could easily see the various modules and panels that make up the station. Later I looked up the ISS orbit and sure enough, it had passed just south of California at that time.

I’ve seen pictures of the ISS taken through amateur instruments but this was much, much better. I think it was the combination of strong backlighting by the moon, the filter and the 9mm’s working at ~320x (n11) that made the great view. It was very fleeting though; it took only a second or two to transit the ~0.13* fov.

I don’t know how often the ISS can be seen transiting the moon from any given spot on the earth, but I think it might be somewhat rare. Has anybody else seen the ISS transiting the moon? Maybe somebody using satellite tracking software saw it last night too?

I’ve been meaning to try the satellite tracking software and this may have moved me off dead center. It was a very interesting view.

Clear Skies --- Don

The inside of the baffle tube has a very rough surface to reduce reflections. The baffle in the photo looks about right to me. It looks similar to my N11.

Don

I have Bob's Knobs on my N11GPS (with Fastar) and they work great. After installing you leave the screw cover in its rotated position. The cover is cosmetic only and it looks fine in the open position with the knobs installed. It actually looks like it was designed to accommodate the knobs.

If your scope gets a fair amount of jostling then I would say that the screws need to be somewhat tight. That's probably the reason that the manufactures make them so tight. New scopes have to endure shipping across country or maybe to another part of the world.

Bob's knobs do afford a good grip and it IS possible to make them very tight, if you so desire. I personally tighten the knobs only moderately and have not had a problem with losing collimation.

Bob has knobs for many different scopes, just be sure to specify the correct ones if you order. Just follow his very simple instructions and I think you will like them, I do.

Clear Nights, Don

Really looks good Tom. I think I'll build one. Thanks for showing it.

Don

Here's a link:

http://www.heavenscape.com/

I recently bought a Baader Planetarium Moon & Skyglow filter and I’m impressed with its performance on the moon. In the past I’ve used neutral density filters for the moon and I always liked the darker ones better, especially at lower powers. The Baader isn’t very dark though, in fact when I first received it, I held it up to the light and I thought that it wasn’t going to be dark enough, but it surprised me. It reduces the overwhelming brightness to an acceptable level and retains natural coloration at the same time. It’s good on Mars too. jmtcw.

That’s close to what I see visually at the eyepiece. Except I don’t see as much color, actually I only see a small hint of green. And I don’t often see the central star, maybe never in fact, although I’ve heard that some people do see it with equipment similar to mine. Oh, one other thing, I don’t see quite as much detail either, but now that I know what’s supposed to be there, I’m sure I’ll see it from now on, in my minds eye at least.

Seriously Mike, that’s a great picture. Send it to Hal; it should be an “Image of the Day” someday.

-Don

I like the Stardust chair from Hands on Optics. It’s built like a tank. I never worry about the seat dropping or the chair tipping over sideways, even at the highest seat position. It has a comfortable padded spring cushioned seat too.

Don

The correct jack tip size for the N11 is 5.5mm O.D. X 2.1mm I.D. Radio Shack’s type “M” tip module fits perfectly. You may be able to fit an adapter to the plug on the end of the Kendrick cable and use a type “M” tip module on the other. If you have a Radio Shack close by you could take the Kendrick cable and see if you can make an adapter to go from it to the type “M” tip.

On the other hand you may have a problem with the plug on the N11 itself. Some people have reported similar problems with other cables and plugs. Search the messages on the Yahoo Nexstar 11 GPS group for info on that problem.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NexStarGPS/

Don

I bought the Orion soft case (#15166). It doesn’t have any compartments for carrying ep’s, but all I need is for the case to provide some protection when I carry it in the car and it does that fine. It was on sale and I only paid $15 for it.

For another option check out the Stellarview C4 and C5 cases. They fit the 80ed like they were made for it. The C4 is aluminum and the C5 is soft.

See the yahoo Orion_ED list for what others have to say about those cases.

Don