Posts Made By: Michael Aaron McNeely

November 19, 2006 03:16 AM Forum: TeleVue

Denis Fell's TV102 Site

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

Denis has a nice overview of the TV102 along with some recent images:

http://www.spacealberta.com/equipment/tv102/tv102.htm

Check it out.


March 10, 2007 04:54 AM Forum: TeleVue

TeleVue 140 Binoscope

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

See link:

http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/mazmoto/wengler3-j.htm

I'm not worthy, i'm not worthy...!


March 24, 2007 03:21 AM Forum: TeleVue

Addictions

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

See link:

http://home.austin.rr.com/victorsvaliant/televue.JPG


May 12, 2007 12:06 AM Forum: TeleVue

EPOCH 2007

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

Al Nagler is going to give a talk at EPOCH 2007:

http://www.2020telescopes.com/EPOCH2007H.html

This is just a short drive from my home in Northern Indiana, and I am looking forward to attending.

I often wondered why Al never attended any Midwest star parties?

June 13, 2007 03:01 AM Forum: TeleVue

Help Stellafane

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

See link,

http://www.stellafane.com/help/auction.html


June 14, 2007 02:23 AM Forum: TeleVue

Steve O'Meara's New Books

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

I just realized that Steve O'Meara has two new books out. These are notable in that he used a TeleVue 4-inch refractor for his observations. One is named "Hidden Treasures," and the other is a Herschel 400 guide. I pasted the Amazon links below.

I haven't seen any mention of these in S&T. They had heavily promoted his last book about the Caldwell Objects. Go figure (I realize that they had a falling out).

Steve's first two books, the Messier and Caldwell guides, are among my favorite astronomy books.

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0521837049/ref=s9_asin_title_1-serq_g1/103-9660889-0936666?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-6&pf_rd_r=17448AK3QWKC59H1GHHY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278842101&pf_rd_i=507846

http://www.amazon.com/Steve-OMearas-Herschel-Observing-Guide/dp/0521858933/ref=sr_1_3/103-9660889-0936666?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181787526&sr=1-3


June 20, 2007 03:05 AM Forum: TeleVue

UFOs in my TV-85?

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

No, I haven't gone crazy. I was observing with the TV-85 tonight and facing north. I noticed two bright satellites emerge in the northwest. They drifted slowly together and were separated by a little over 2 degrees. I was able to identify the ISS, I could see its solar panels, and I reasoned that the other satellite was the space shuttle Atlantis (I came in later and checked).

In the extreme east, I was able to hold both craft in the same eyepiece field as they entered earth's shadow. They both had a reddish tone before winking out into tiny points.

I had three good looks at the ISS. Luckily I had my scope mounted on a Tele-Pod, and it is easy to move around quickly compared to an equatorial mount.

I also enjoyed the line of Venus, Saturn, the Moon, and Regulus in the western sky. The moon was very close to Regulus, and I could see them together in the low power field provided by a 26mm TeleVue plossl.

A lovely night here in Northern Indiana. Our state just adopted daylight saving time last year, and since we are on eastern time it doesn't get truly dark until around 11:00 pm.

August 6, 2007 02:10 AM Forum: TeleVue

Old School Refractor

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

I volunteered to provide telescope viewing to participants at the July 2007 History of Astronomy conference at Notre Dame.

The university provided some Celestron CPCs for observing. I brought my TeleVue-85 and had plenty of compliments upon how nice the scope and its views were.

Jim and Rhoda Morris brought one of their replicas of Galileo's refractors. They reconstructed the scope using the same methods as Galileo. They had even applied gilt designs on the leather tube. Details of their project are at http://www.scitechantiques.com/Galileo_telescope/

I took some pictures of my scope next to the Galilean refractor. It was quite long, much longer than I would have imagined. Looking through the scope increased my appreciation of Galileo.


September 21, 2007 02:30 AM Forum: TeleVue

TV-85 Review

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

Hi, I posted a review of the TeleVue-85:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=596

Thanks.

October 25, 2007 02:15 AM Forum: TeleVue

Haunter of the Dark

Posted By Michael Aaron McNeely

I just came in after observing the Comet Holmes. I saw news of the comet outburst tonight at work. As I drove home, I noticed the comet as a naked eye "star" in the constellation Perseus. It was slightly brighter than nearby Delta Persei. I noticed that air currents made the comet shimmer like nearby stars.

My first view of the comet was exciting in the TeleVue-85. Using a 24mm Panoptic, the comet was quite startling. It resembled a bright, tan-colored planetary nebula (for lack of a better term). The stellar nucleus was surrounded by a tan disk. The nucleus itself was segmented into a bright star-like component, slightly off-center, with a dimmer, yet still bright fan of material emerging towards the west.

This comet is quite bright, and I observed it nicely up to 200x using a 6-3mm Nagler zoom.

I must say that this is one of the strangest looking objects I have ever seen. Thanks to the Almighty for providing such a show before Halloween (especially since we missed out on Comet McNaught).

The view of the comet reminded me of a line from H.P. Lovecraft's story Haunter of the Dark, "the three-lobed burning eye..."