Posts Made By: Dawn Grove

Please tell me this is an April Fools gag!

A whole new meaning to "beer goggles" vision.

Hi Gang!

We have another Telescope Workshop this weekend and wanted to give any amateurs in the area a heads-up. We will have ATM and telescope guru's on hand to show you how to use, collimate or repair your telescope, give you advice on which telescope to buy or get you started on your own telescope making/mirror-grinding project. (Yes, my 8" is still being used as outreach glass *sigh*)

Even if you are not in need of help or advice we always like meeting other astronomers in the area and swapping stories. (No, that wasn't a black and white cat you reached down to pet at that last star party....etc....)

Here are the stats:
StarForge Astronomy Association Telescope Workshop
Saturday, June 6th
Open house between 2 pm and 6 pm, (Please note: this event is more geared for the more mature crowd - teen enthusiasts and older)
8660 Madison Avenue, Fair Oaks, CA
(at the corner of Madison and Illinois)
Admission, parking, everything is free (as usual)
ATM Guru and event organizer: Mark Graybill
(with other telescope guru's in attendance)
Contact Number (Me, Dawn) 916-524-2788

Okay, did I get everything? Oh, you can visit our nifty website (that I need to get updated with pics of Astronomy Day last weekend!) at: http://www.spaceandastronomy.org/

Hi gang,

StarForge is restoring a donated telescope and we are trying to document as much about it as possible. At our last meeting we talked about sources to contact and I know that AstroMart is a good place to find knowledgeable folks. The telescope is an 8" with a beautiful mirror and with our current information we are pretty sure it is a Mellish telescope and that John Mellish is responsible for the mirror. It appears as if some pieces may be missing and some look tweaked. We have created a page for the project with some initial pics. If you can help us in any way (documentation, help us figure out what needs to be done, how to repair/get parts, etc.) please give me a shout.

http://www.spaceandastronomy.org/mellish.html

We are hoping to have this scope returned to its original glory (so much beautiful brass!) so we can use it for outreach as well as at our member star parties.

Thanks for any information/comments/thoughts.

Dawn Grove
President and grunt for StarForge Astronomy Association

That sounds like so much fun. My favorite activity is sidewalk astronomy. For your next one, you could print out some star clocks to give out. They are a lot of fun, I used them A LOT when I did community star parties and they are cheap. You could either just hand them out to do at home or if you are more set up you can provide kid scissors and the brass fasteners (you can get all the supplies for less than 10 bucks) and you can have the kids do it right then and there and tell time by the stars. It is such a hoot to watch them. Here is a link to printing out the star clocks http://lawrencehallofscience.org/StarClock/starclockprintout.html Here is a picture of when we did star clocks for a big gathering of scouts at their astronomy camp. I am the one addressing the munchkins on the far right.

Dawn Grove (Baird)

After much back and forth over it my plan of attack is....

Build a sonotube 8" dob because budget is very tight right now. Then I am going to save up to build a 12" truss. I found a pic of me polishing a mirror a while back.

Dawn

After reading the way the article was worded it does make one wonder if that failure to switch off the transmitters was really a "failure". I would love to have a private chat with that "fellow". I wonder if we could find out who that was...

Dawn

The first time our german shepherd got hit we tried everything. (My hands got worn out with all the washing!) The hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and Dawn dish soap was the only thing that really worked. The second time a skunk came around she killed it (blood everywhere!) and she only got a little bit of the stink on her. Glad we have her up on her rabies shots!

Thank you for mentioning the Perseus Double Cluster!! Been a favorite of mine lately and my little scope shows it off so well. Winter is a favorite observing time for me too!

Dawn

Inge Skauvik said:

Last night I was out observing with members of our local astronomy club. Many of the people present had never looked through a telescope before, and therefore much of the time was spent with show objects. Telescopes available were two Portaballs (My old 8-inch sold to one of the club members and my present 12.5-inch).

The demo objects included M57, M15, Perseus double cluster,...

Inge S

Thanks Dave! It's nice to have you provide "one-stop shopping" for all of us with these lists. I just print and go. Of course, I am not able to hit all of these just yet but it is great to stretch my horizons and of course I love anything that's in Cassiopeia! (Maybe because that's what I named my daughter. LOL)

Dawn