BIG CANYON, little telescope

Just got back from the annual Grand Canyon Star Party, where my little Stowaway again held its own against much larger but often somewhat shabby competitors. I don't know how many times I heard "This is the clearest view of Saturn I've seen!" or "This is the best view here!" or the like. Sometimes I would be asked for an explanation. I'd say there are two ways to improve telescope performance: to make it bigger, and to make it better, and this one goes for better.

When viewing the Milky Way, the Stowaway revealed vast expanses of extremely delicate stars which simply weren't there in many of the cheapo scopes with their puffy star images. Ha!

Joe,

Were you set-up next to the C14?

I was there Monday and Tuesday night while visiting with the family from Florida. If you were the guy set-up next to the C14, then thank you as I got a few peeks of Saturn with your scope. Very very sharp and given how windy it was Monday night the steady image was much appreciated. Wish I would have known it was you so I could have introduced myself properly. What a great bunch of folks, felt like I was among long friends. Wednesday night we visited Lowell observatory and got to see Saturn with the 24" Clark refractor, what a rush!

Thanks for sharing the views,

Angel

Attached Image:

Actually this was probably the worst GCSP for weather I've ever seen. We had only 3 really good nights, a couple marginal ones, and at least 2 total washouts. Typically we have 8 clear nights in a row, or at worst lose one or two to clouds. But I understand things back East haven't been so hot either.

Hi Joe.
Interesting weather we had, wasn't it?
Did you happen to catch the shadow transit of Titan on Monday? Way cool!
Linton