Astromart

September 25, 2013 04:38 PM Forum: ASTRONOMY

your most used scope

I love the idea of observing with Bertha Butt, 18" truss Dob, but ususally I'm too tired after work and too many other things to take care of, or maybe some clouds, or high numidity. Even the TSA 102 + equatorial mount + binoviewer + power tank seems too much effort. So, on most clear nights I grab my wife's AT66 on Dwarf Star mount and CF tripod (8 lbs total!!) and I'm out the door.
Tonino.

January 2, 2014 08:23 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

First Object Photographed By 200" Hale Scope

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

Is that first image taken by the Hale telescope available? I presume the color image in the first address you list is not it, right?
It does look like a sail! What aperture did you use to see it (under dark skies)?

September 9, 2014 06:07 AM Forum: ASTRONOMY

Beta Scorpius A

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

I may be wrong, but from my recollection it's a double with each star being a spectroscopic double, so visually it should look like a reasonably wide double. I'll have to go and check on this ....

September 11, 2014 10:46 PM Forum: ASTRONOMY

Re: back to your roots

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

I don't know if I'll ever be ready to go back to my first scope, as it was a one-inch aperture surveyor scope. But I remember reading, when I was a teenager, a report of someone from Australia I think, who said he used his home-made two-inch refractor and after many years of observing he had not yet run out of new targets. I wonder if I could be satisfied with a one-inch aperture again ....? Probably not, but I do enjoy taking the AT66ed out often enough, 9 lb complete setup including two eyepieces, while the 18" reflector sits pretty in the room.

September 24, 2014 01:58 PM Forum: ASTRONOMY