Posts Made By: Alan French

November 21, 2013 02:59 AM Forum: Comets

What happened to Ison?

Posted By Alan French

We saw it at ~5:25 am this morning. Very bright in 15x50 binoculars with a short, narrow, bright tail. Not visible by eye, but it was down in the muck a bit. It certainly hasn't vanished.

Comet Lovejoy was visible by eye, and lovely through binoculars. Very well placed high in the east to the right of the Bear's tail.

I just heard that C/2013 V3 Nevski is now bright enough to see in binoculars. Also conveniently placed near Regulus.

Clear skies, Alan

January 9, 2014 06:58 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

A Slender Venus in the Daytime Sky

Posted By Alan French

Today my search was hampered by snowflakes flying through the field of view, in spite of blue skies. I couldn't sweep it up in binoculars, but did spot it (at 1:42 pm EST) at 20x in my 65mm spotting scope. Still a lovely sight at 60x - such a thin little crescent!

Clear skies, Alan

August 3, 2014 02:26 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

review of custom eyepiece case with coupon code

Posted By Alan French

I designed and ordered new foam from them for my wife's eyepiece case. We were both very pleased with the results and I plan to replace the foam in a couple of my cases soon. (I just have to figure out which eyepiece I'm going to add first.)

Clear skies, Alan

November 10, 2014 12:37 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

solar viewing

Posted By Alan French

Which type of solar viewing are you thinking of?

White light viewing uses a filter over the front of the telescope (like the Baader material) to reduce the visible portion of the spectrum to a safe level and eliminate the IR and UV. This allows fine views of sunspots.

The Lunt H-alpha scopes eliminate all but a very narrow slice of red light, the light of glowing hydrogen, revealing prominences. (They are invisible in white light because they are far too faint to see against the light of the entire visible spectrum that is allowed through.)

Adding a Baader filter to the front of the scope is an easy and safe way to get white light views of sunspots and inexpensive.

A complete Lunt solar telescope is a larger expense, but they are nice.

There may be ways to add the necessary blocking filter and dedicated H-alpha filter to your scope, but, if so, it is not going to save you much money.

I'd recommend going the Baader route initially, and saving for a dedicated H-alpha scope in your future. H-alpha solar viewing is a lot of fun and there is often a lot to see.

Clear skies, Alan

November 21, 2014 11:33 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Torn

Posted By Alan French

Interesting dilemma.

My one thought is that even a 25mm eyepiece only gives 13 power in the ED 60, so I think detail would be limited.

A nice 60mm is fun, but you've got an 80mm, which is quite portable and a fair amount more capable.

Clear skies, Alan

December 24, 2014 05:02 PM Forum: Birding Optics and Photos

Virginia birds

Posted By Alan French

Nice! I love Pileateds. My parent's yard backed up to a mature woodland and we saw them fairly frequently. We sometimes see them in our backyard where we live now. Still waiting for one to visit the suet feeder.

Clear skies, Alan

September 13, 2015 11:45 PM Forum: After Dark

rating option nolonger available

Posted By Alan French

Mine show up fine, although they are never in any sort of sensible order.

Alan

November 12, 2015 02:38 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

LROC image degradation

Posted By Alan French

Ron Streetenberger said:

Has any one noticed the drastic reduction of image resolution of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiting Camera photos? There also appears to be an increase in surface blurring. My only thought is that they are hiding things that might be disturbing to us Earthlings. Whats your take on this?

Seriously? Hiding things?!

Alan

January 6, 2016 07:58 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Need machined part. Are there any machinist that a

Posted By Alan French

If all else fails, look for a local shop. We have one in our area that is happy to take on small projects and is quite reasonable. You might find something similar.

Clear skies, Alan

March 14, 2016 11:39 AM Forum: APM

APM 12" F/7.5 is going to Seoul-South Korea

Posted By Alan French

Markus,

What are they using it for?

Thanks, and clear skies, Alan