Posts Made By: Randall Barbour

Check out this link
http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/worldatlas/pages/fig2.htm
you will see that the darkest skies are all over the western desert areas etc. The cleardarksky.com (clear sky clock) shows a light pollution map for each area on a link. So, find an area in the list for clear skies near you and check out the light pollution map that goes with it.

Randall Barbour

I have to second Dan's boat trailer type hand winch. If you work the pulley's right, you can wrap the cable around he winch and continue on to a fixed point on the end of the roof near the door. That way, if you turn the crank one way, you open the roof; turn it the other and close the roof. One wide of the winch spool will take up cable and the other side will let it out. Sorry, if my description doesn't help.

rb

Milton,
I owned this same scope and had great views of Saturn and Jupiter. AT 118x you should see cloud bands on Jupiter and many of its moons. The image that you describe as a "featureless ball about the size of a pea" describes what I routinely would see without a good cool down. This scope will present excellent images. But, requires at least 1 hour, often more in winter, to cool down. What is happening is the air inside is warmer than the air outside and it refracts the light just like hot pavement on a summer day. The atmosphere can also ruin your image as well. Are the stars twinkling to your naked eye? If so, you won't see good detail on the planets. I was lucky in that my scope star-tested perfectly and didn't need collimation. Yours may not be collimated correctly. Finally, don't expect Hubble images. The Hubble mirror is almost 3 meters across and looks through zero atmosphere with zero light pollution.

rb

Check out the "Guide Star" mount

http://www.guide-star.com/main.html

rb