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Posts Made By: Daryl Crowley

August 23, 2002 03:22 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Simple Dew Zapper?

Posted By Daryl Crowley

Has anyone tried, or have a reason why I should not try this? Why cant a simple dew zapper be formed from the electrical pipe wrappings that generate a small amount of heat to keep pipes from freezing? They generate a very small amount of heat and it does not seem as though it would be excessive for a Mak or SCT. Comments?

September 4, 2002 04:53 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Viewing in Michigan Last night

Posted By Daryl Crowley

Did anyone in Michigan go out last night? It was the clearest sky I have ever seen! I could see M100 and M33 at 60X clearly, which I have never been able to do! I could see the divisions in M20. I only have a 5 inch Mak. Everything I looked at knocked my socks off! Even my cheap binoculars (10X40) could see things as faint as M51. Town is just 2 miles south of my house and I could not see any glow from the street lights!

Tonight looks like it will be the same. If you're from Michigan I suggest you get out tonight. I would be interested in hearing from anyone in Michigan that was out last night. Wow!

September 6, 2002 06:56 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Exceptional viewing this week.

Posted By Daryl Crowley

Well I thought maybe it was just Michigan but it sounds like the view has been exceptional all over this week. I probably blew my chance at scoring some new faint fuzzies but I just had to re-visit all the obvious targets this week as the detail was so unusually good. Damn, I wish we could have these kind of skies all the time. Even the faint M101 and M33 that often I can not find at all, I just point the scope there and bingo there they are! The details in the big globulars like M22 have been spectacular. Like some of you I can see the hole in M57 without adverted vision. Let's hope this keeps up for awhile. Good hunting.

October 24, 2002 07:11 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

12 x or 15x

Posted By Daryl Crowley

I have decided to buy a pair of Orion Little Giants 70mm, to compliment my 5" Mak. I want it not only for "pre-scouting" areas intend to put the scope on, but I want ot use it as well when on the road. I want the ability to be able to see and show others such things as M81, M33, M31, M13, M22, etc you get the picture. I am interesed in the opinion of this group whether they would prefer the 12x70 or the 15x70. For use at home I intend to create a simple bino rest for extended view. Thanks for the input.

Daryl Crowley
Ludington, MI

October 25, 2002 12:10 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

15x70 Show other people

Posted By Daryl Crowley

I appreciate all the good information on binos but it seems everyone really focused on my statement that I like to show brighter objects to other "non-astronomer" types. I am surprised that everyone finds this quite as big a challange.

I have had very good success showing newbies a number of Messier objects with my 10x40s and 10x50s. Of cource M31 is a piece of cake, but M81, M22 and even M33 are not that hard to see if you know what you are looking for. I find that if I explain exactly what they are going to see and put that in prespective, that new folks can see quite a bit.

It's no different than when looking at faint and fuzzies in the telescope. And of course at near limits, experience always helps.

During some exceptionally good seeing we had for a few nights this summer, I actually could see (certainly no definition) M51 with my 10x40s. That really blew me away.

Thanks for the bino input!

October 29, 2002 07:46 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

Demo Stuff

Posted By Daryl Crowley

Here is as worksheet I constructed to ilustrate the scale of interstellar distances. I've sent this to school with my kids and I have shared it with a number of non-astronomy types. It's a good conversation starter. I've used rounded numbers to ease the math. Let me know if you spot any blatant errors. If anyone would like an Excel spreadsheet of this with all the formulas let me know. It's pretty simple.

Daryl

November 11, 2002 01:44 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

15X70s I got 'em this weekend.

Posted By Daryl Crowley

I appreciate the input from those of you that responded to my post a few weeks ago. You talked me into the Oberwerk 15x70s and I don't believe I will be disappointed. They are awesome to hold, suprisingly light. I put them on my tripod this weekend and the collimation looks good, as far as I can tell in the daytime. I have built an observing lounge chair with the binos mounted on an overhead boom with a fliud pan head. I can't wait to try that out!

I did buy a foam lined, hard shell pistol case to store my binoculars in. It works great and provides proctection that the soft case they came in does not. You can find some pretty good deals on hard shell pistol cases in your local department or sporting goods store and they work great for binos.

Also I apologize to everyone in the Great Lakes area for the six weeks of cloudy weather we are bound to have since I am dying to try these new binos out. When I got my telescope it was a good six weeks before I could really use it. Sorry, forgive me ;-). I will post some pictures of my viewing chair when I get a chance. Thanks again to all who posted advise.

Daryl

November 18, 2002 01:18 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

I finally got to try my 15 x 70s - sort of...

Posted By Daryl Crowley

I've been dying to try my new 15 x 70s and we finally had a little clear sky this weekend. As you know the moon was out and nearly full. The sky was very washed out but...
The view in these binoculars is fantastic! There certainly is an aspect about these that is missing in my telescope.

Huge field of view! Things appear 3-D.

I could see both M81 and M82 clearly - in spite of the Moon! I could see Saturn's rings and I could clearly see Titan. M37, M36, M38 were spectacular.

I can't wait for a dark night!

I think I need a slight collimation adjustment. It's close but I think a little tweaking is in order. I have instructions on how to do this but is it as easy as it sounds? Any chance I can screw them up beyond recovery?

Daryl

November 20, 2002 12:47 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

Collimation

Posted By Daryl Crowley

Are there any experts out there who offer collimation services? If there was someone that was expert at doing this it would certainly be worth paying for to have it done right. I have little problems with shipping my binos somewhere as I bought a hard shelled case for them. Daryl

December 1, 2002 09:51 PM Forum: Astro Binoculars

Finally got to use 15x70s on a Dark night!

Posted By Daryl Crowley

I've been way up north deer hunting for the past 2 weeks so I have not been able to post any messages. (Got a nice buck with my pistol but that is not my big news) I finally got to get my 15x70s out at deer camp on a very dark night many many miles from any light pollution. WOW WOW W O W !!!!

M31 is awesome. M33 was just there! I just pointed the binos and poof - There is was bright and clear! I never had a view of M33 like that in my telescope. Star clusters were fantastic. I am really digging these binos. Now my wife is saying why didn't we just buy the binos and save the money we spent on the telescope. I told here the same reason I own a dozen different fly rods - No such thing as an all around tool. But I am becoming a big fan of binos for astronomy. Now I just need one of those moterized chairs with the joy stick control.......Hmmm...

Daryl