Posts Made By: Stephen Nolin

IMHO, that's pretty frickin' sweet!

Very nice!

Optics are one part of the equation, but not the final answer. One way to reduce scatter is to flock the inside of an OTA to reduce the chances of light reflections. The barrel on your EPs can also be a problem if they haven't been properly blackened to the end of the barrel. Orion's Expanse EPs have a retaining ring at the bottom that holds the final lens in place, and mine was actually shiny, which caused a light spike right acoss the EP as a bright object got closer to the edge of the visual field. Using a microscope and some flat black paint, I painted the retaining ring and the spikes have completely disappeared. Hope this helps.

In addition to all the good advice, I'd like to make a suggestion about stabilizing the tripod you already have. There is a black coveing over the top of the center extension tube on each of the tripod legs. I removed that cover, and unlike some who have suggested using sand (which could be very messy if it is fine enough to spill out between any gaps), I went to a local gun shop and purchased 6 lbs. of #4 lead shot. I then poured 2 lbs. into each one of the extension tubes, hot-glued the cover back on top, and now, my tripod sits very solid on the ground with no wobble or vibration. Hope this helps.

Very nice pic! Does your imager only capture in B&W, because I think this would be great in color.

There's another aspect to "outreach" that I've noticed. Over 6 years ago, I was interseted in getting into astronomy, so I went to a local club's meeting and then, to the monthly star party. Most people were accomodating when I would ask questions about their telescopes such as, why did you buy this type, what are the differences, what makes one better than the other, etc., but every so often, I would come across someone who acted as though I had just asked them to donate a kidney.

If I hadn't had pretty thick skin, those encounters could have been enough to turn me off to the hobby, and it seems to me that we need to attract a new generation of astronomers or this hobby is doomed. With the X-Box, computers, and cell phones that can microwave a frozen Hot Pocket for an after-school snack, kids have even more reasons to stay inside.

Fortunately, computer-guided telescopes could bridge the gap for the tech-teens, but we first have to make sure we at least don't put them off because "they're in my way" or "they're bothering me". We need to remember that we were all novices at one time, and if not for the assistance of another astronomer, we might not be enjoying the hobby that we love so much.

When I took the family to the Grand Canyon in July of 2005, I saw this cloud formation and had to shoot it. This was my very last picture of the canyon and it was taken from Yaki Point.

Read this article and see if this technique helps your collimation:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=827