Dr. Mario Motta Dr. Motta will present his Stellafane talk on how he built a 32″ Relay Telescope and the Observatory that houses it. A Cardiologist and long time member of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Dr. Motta can often be found traveling the globe with his wife chasing Total Solar Elipses. 9:00pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhXOr9vk5F8&hl=en

See Also : canon dslr1

We finally got to try out my sister’s telescope tonight cos my dad brought back the tripod. After much twisting and adjusting and tiring exercise, we finally managed to get a real clear view of the moon! ((((: And I even managed to take a photo of it! Okay so it’s not even a full moon, the picture ain’t all that clear or beautiful. BUT STILL. SO EGGS SIGHTING YOU KNOW.

Here is ze picture!

Not bad for a cheapppp telescope eh?

The moon moves so fast though. x.x We had to readjust several times because the telescope was no longer pointing at it.

GREAT FUN. I WANNA LOOK AT JUPITER ND HER MOONS.

A telescope at the night sky is one of my hobby has been for some years. Since I am a kid, I spent many evenings watching the Milky Way, and asked me how many years? To what extent and how big some of these stars will be? As I get older and kept my interest in astronomy, I decided it was time I bought a telescope. I started buying some and found not only that there are different types, but, of course, different features and accessories. I had no idea there were soDecisions.

If this is your first telescope, the election can be overwhelming, so I have some ideas and some issues that the dealer telescope and ask yourself before you have taken to actually buy the first application. If you already have a separate room, these suggestions still be useful if you buy a new one.

– First, think about why you want a telescope. Join a club of astronomy or planning to join? This has been a passion since childhood? Haveplan as a gift for a budding young astronomer? You can see the space station, as he rushed into the night sky! If you have a lot of use of the telescope, which ensures the best to buy a larger size with more features. Not what you want to limit their opportunities to explore the sky. The better the quality, the more you can enjoy the experience and pursue its interests. If the other party that you have just read the newspaper and discovers that is aboutlunar eclipse this weekend, only a limited area, with fewer features is the way to go. Do not want to put a lot of money for a large telescope with all the bells and whistles for something that we also get the occasional use.

Bend, bounce or both?

– What kind of telescope you should? The 3 types are refractor, reflector and catadioptric, or compound.

A refractor collects light at the end of a long thin tube and curves, or will focus on one eye inLow. E 'popular among the observers, whose main interest is the moon and the planets of our solar system. It offers views, Crisp, high contrast with a magnification higher, and less disturbed by the atmospheric and the reflector or types of compounds. For this reason, it is an excellent choice for the observation in urban areas.

The reflector telescope uses a concave mirror at the bottom of a tube, but see it as a lens on the tip, and to concentrate the light. NewtonReflectors, a common understanding and reflect (bounce), light harvesting on a smaller secondary mirror at the top of the line of concentrated light to an eyepiece on the side of the tube to see how upright and comfortable. These areas are for people in an urban or rural, and perfect, want to go further into the cosmos. They are generally larger and a bit 'difficult large traffic planning.

The third type uses a catadioptricTo collect a combination of lenses and mirrors to concentrate the light. Its design allows for greater openness in the mirror a small space. Like the Newton, the collected light from the mirror at the bottom of the ladder. Unlike the Newton, the tube is much shorter, easier to handle and transport. The reflected light of a secondary mirror near the end of the scope of the mirror, which again focused and thought 's eye at the bottom of the tube. This design is alsonice to see things beyond the next planet.

Location, location, location

– It's true, the real estate industry and it is true in astronomy. If you live in a city where well-lit streets and neon lights on a clear night, you must travel to regions far from the fire. Seriously hinders the attempt to observe the stars. If you must travel some distance to find a good place to practice your hobby, you're a telescope to easily configure and removed.Do not buy a domain that is never out of the window, because they also fight together. A place in the suburbs or the countryside is much more welcoming place. A quiet and idyllic, with no lighting, preferably with some collection is ideal for viewing very small objects in space. Buy a field with a large objective lens (plus lens power gathering more light) and you should refer to almost any location in the Milky Way andEnsure that excited by what you have.

Hobby or passion?

– See You go out every weekend in the stars and planets? Star maps use and location of lots of various constellations? Did you search the objects in deep space on the Internet? Use a CCD (Charged Coupled Device) camera for astrophotography, and if so, then you've probably already an impressive telescope and want to upgrade or buy a new scope or accessories. Moreover, the objective of the newTelescope is an important factor in the decision. You want to collect as much light as possible to provide many details about your photos.

Maybe you want to take the new opportunities in camping with the family. In this case, a lower amount or even binoculars are especially suitable for this purpose. It 'easy to transport, assemble and disassemble, and very portable. Do not buy the biggest baddest telescope on the market, you'll never fit in a backpack!

– Finally, the priceThey are willing to pay for a new field, finally, the nature of the area is bought and the size to be determined. You can spend several hundred dollars for a simple volume, high, if you are just starting. Or you can spend thousands of larger and the equipment more than a model in New York. Your answers to the questions above and your decision will provide a solid platform for decision quality. If you are firmly rooted in astronomy and related fieldsAstrophotography, star maps, etc. They have a good idea of the type of area you want. If this is your first telescope, I hope that these suggestions and ideas have helped. Good luck and have fun stargazing!

See Also : canon dslr1

Are you ever out of range of Isabel and say… “Hey why can’t I see her better?”

Well the people at Target heard your cries:

Enjoy.

♫lauren

Playboy’s Miss November 2002 was actress and model Serria Tawan, seen here in the centerfold posed as a voyeur.

Photographed by Arny Freytag and Stephen Wayda

Note how the light glinting off of the leg of the telescope in the foreground points up a strong diagonal beginning from the bottom left of the composition, that is then intersected by a cross diagonal from the upper left created by her posture and her hand holding one of her braids: together they make an arrow which draws the eye to the undressing couple in the window of the building across the street, who are positioned just above and to the right of the focal attention point of her breasts, making it even more difficult to miss them as the final critical element of the photograph. As your eye moves from left to right, reading the composition, it tells a story: there is a girl. There is a telescope. The girl is using the telescope to look at the couple.

The centerfold was a really good composition. The rest is all over the damned place. Any type of theme with set dressing, poses, or costuming is almost totally absent. Maybe the raincoat is to hint at her being a flasher to boot? Not sure. But it doesn’t get picked back up again even though it’s a fun little kicky erotic detail. Missed opportunity in my book.

From her data sheet

WHEN I GET OLDER:
I want a harem of guys like Hef has women. I want them all diverse. Variety is the spice of life for me.

Get it, girl! I like this lady’s style. If you’re looking to join that harem, you can contact her via her profile on the myspace. In several places on that page, Serria directs you to a website, http://askserria.com, but it is not up and running yet, as far as I can tell.

While the braids are lovely, I like her even better in the above pic, with a gently relaxed weave. She looks younger and very soft and romantic. Even without the bangs, I think this look works better for her than the long braids, and it seems she agrees, as she is apparently rocking it on the reg these days (see below). The only trouble is that it makes her look a lot like phony-evil-queen-witch “ANTM” Cycle 9 winner Saleisha Stowers, who my sister-in-law, husband, and I all unilaterally despise.

Left: Serria Tawan. Right: Saleisha Stowers.

That girl and a competitor, Bianca Golden, were unbelievably cruel to standout contestant Heather Kuzmich of Valpariso, Indiana, who had Asperger’s Syndrome for crissake and still mopped the floor with their jealous asses until Go-Sees, which she only blew because she was not being properly aided. Yes, I have every detail of every cycle of the Tyra Banks reality show “America’s Next Top Model” memorized, and may the good god strike me dead if I ever stop loving the parade of tears, catfights, and girl-girl showers that comprise that gory but gorgeous grand guginol.

Anyway, Saleisha and Bianca were rude, catty, and sneaky about Heather, not to mention super-jealous and totally ignorant of the qualities that made her outshine them week after week, and their insecurities drove them to taunt her and talk about her behind her back like they were twelve and not on national fucking television. Because of that I will forever despise their fake sticky-sweet smiles. Although I was on the Bergie’s website a while ago — just window-shopping; like I could possibly afford something from their store right now — and I know for a fact I recognized Heather modelling some of the dresses in the pictures, so in their snotty, sabotaging, difference-hating faces: time has told, success-wise.

Wow, I think I might need to write some more about Top Model another day. It would appear I have Things to Say.

In other news, Kristy Swanson was on the cover of this one. I have never even seen one episode of the television series, so to me it is she who will always be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even though vampires are lame, passe, and ridiculous as all hell, that movie is so great.

Two albums by the obviously talented K.T. Tunstall.

Eye to the Telescope is the debut album by Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, originally released 13 December 2004 (see 2004 in British music), and re-released 10 January 2005. On 19 July 2005 it was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize in the United Kingdom. Tunstall promoted the album in the United States and Canada in December 2005. The album was released 7 February 2006 in the U.S. Also a special CD/DVD edition of the album was released in September 2006 in America, along with a different cover and a bonus track.

1. “Other Side of the World”
2. “Another Place to Fall”
3. “Under the Weather”
4. “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree”
5. “Miniature Disasters”
6. “Silent Sea”
7. “Universe & U”
8. “False Alarm”
9. “Suddenly I See”
10. “Stoppin’ the Love”
11. “Heal Over”
12. “Through the Dark”

Drastic Fantastic is the second studio album by Scottish Singer KT Tunstall. It was released by Virgin Records on 10 September 2007 in the United Kingdom and 18 September 2007 in the United States and Canada. The album was leaked on P2P networks on 3 September 2007. “Hold On”, the lead single was released on 16 July 2007 in the United States.

On the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, Drastic Fantastic debuted at number nine, selling about 50,000 copies in its first week.

In Scotland, KT beat both Kanye West and 50 Cent to make it to number 1 in the Scottish Album Charts.

Drastic Fantastic charted at #72 in the UK end of year chart selling around 225,000 copies in 2007.

As of August 2008, Drastic Fantastic has sold 215,000 copies in the United States.

1. “Little Favours”
2. “If Only”
3. “White Bird”
4. “Funnyman”
5. “Hold On”
6. “Hopeless”
7. “I Don’t Want You Now”
8. “Saving My Face”
9. “Beauty of Uncertainty”
10. “Someday Soon”
11. “Paper Aeroplane”

Genre: Rock, Pop, Folk

More @ Wikipedia

What if we found a reflective surface in space? Follow me on this one – we could see the past.

When you look up at the night sky, you do not see stars as they are now. You are literally looking into the past becuase you are seeing the light that was emitted from the star long ago, it took time to get to your eye. So, if you are looking at our closest star other than the Sun, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away, you are seeing what it looked like 4.2 years ago.  It took the light which you see 4.2 years to get from the star to you.

Everyday we receive new images of objects in space from our telescopes. What if we one of those pictures comes back with a reflection of Earth? If there is something out there that is reflective and it is angled so that the light bounces straight back to Earth we could literally see the past.

If it is 5,000 light years away, we would see what the Earth looked like 10,000 years ago. 5,000 for the light from earth to get to the mirror and 5,000 more for the light to make it back to Earth. If we kept watching it, we would literally watch the past.

Ok, that is all ‘what if’. Admittedly the odds of finding a perfectly reflective object angled exactly right are astronomical, of course so are the possibilities in the massive abyss of space. Here is where the rubber meets the road. We could shoot a mirror into space. Just put it on a path and let it go with no objective to stop or come back.  Due to the rotation of the Earth and its circumnavigation of the Sun we would only get one image per year, when we are in the exact same place.  It would be like watching a time laps of the history of the Earth in reverse. Admittedly, the real benefit would be slow in coming as the mirror starts close and images are of recent events. Generations for now would have the benefit of seeing hundreds and thousands of years in the past.

The faster we made it go, the faster the history would rewind.

Please, somebody tell me what is wrong with this idea! Because I’m totally ready to do it.

Grab a bottle of wine, a blanket, a pre-roll and some friends(or perhaps just a lucky lady) head for an area with as little light pollution stare at the sky and observe the universe being really cool. It’s the Leonid meteor shower and tonight is going to be the peak viewing night. Hundreds of meteors will be burning up as they enter our atmosphere and it’ll look really really cool. Peak viewing is from 1:30 am EST until dawn. If you have a camera get that thing out point it at the sky, open up that iris and leave that shutter open to get some shots you’ll be proud of. Happy viewing.

On Thursday we got delivery of the 30″ Ritchey-Chrétien from New Mexico. The poor scope had been hit by lightning, and had been out of service for some time. But because of the work of Bob Holmes from we were able to acquire it with the University of Chicago and through Argonne National Labs. Now on to the renovations!

Dave Linton, Bob Holmes, John Pratte, and Jim Conwell inspecting the first of four pieces of the 30" telescope mount

After we moved the four pieces to a lab, we will strip off and test the motors and the electronics to see the full extent of the lightning damage.  I’ll then supervise the students on the cleanup of the mount, getting rid of the rust and re-painting it. Don’t worry guys, the optics are already out…I may be a theoretical physicist buteven I know sandpaper and mirrors don’t mix.

Moving the 4 pieces through the doors was at times "interesting"

The mount in pieces on the lab floor...now the work begins

Ninad Ilic holding the 30" mirror cell

The students are eagar to get started, and when fully assembled the telescope will look like this :

Credit: UC Berkeley

]]> http://scienceguy288.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/a-strange-system-food-what-we-can-do/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:16:02 +0000 scienceguy288 http://scienceguy288.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/a-strange-system-food-what-we-can-do/

I’m all ranted out for now, so I shall bring this series to a close.  I have hinted at a number of things we, the average consumer, can do to improve the system.  So, to finish off the series, I am posting a list created by a professor of Environmental Studies, Dr. Richard Andrus, which I think is completely reasonable to attain.

For personal health-

1. Eat more whole foods and avoid processed sugars & starch.
2. Avoid factory farmed meat, dairy & eggs wherever possible.
3. Eat modest amounts of grass-fed meat.

For the environment-

1. Avoid factory farmed meat.  They cause massive pollution issues from concentration of nitrates and massive erosion from corn & soybean production for animal feed.
2. Buy local. This cuts back of food miles and helps reduce CO2 emissions.
3. Buy unprocessed food, as processing takes huge amounts of fossil fuels.
4. Avoid any processed drinks that come in a non-reusable container. The only reusable containers available currently are glass beer bottles from Canada. Recyclable does NOT mean reusable. Most recycled containers end up in the landfill.
5. Buy organic, as long as it’s unprocessed.
6. Grow, cook and brew your own.

For everything!

1. Purchase as little food as possible that results in profits for corporations. There are two reasons. One is that by law they are bound to maximize profits for shareholders, which means they are bound to take advantage of human weaknesses that attract us to unhealthy foods. The second reason is that a prime way to increase profits is do whatever you can legally do to externalize the costs of your activities. This results in pollution from agricultural fields, abuse of farm workers. contamination from factory farms, abuse of farm animals,and  huge production of packaging solid waste.

Andrus, Richard, PhD. Some Simple Dietary Suggestions. Binghamton University. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

For many years researchers have pondered why our Sun has a negligible amount of lithium compared to other stars in our galaxy. In comparison, our Sun actually has less than 1% of the lithium present in most other stars. Researchers using the ESO’s HARPS spectrograph analyzed over 500 different stars, 70 of which are planet-bearing star systems and compared each one’s lithium content, as well as other light chemicals (in comparison to the atomic weight of iron). It was revealed that star systems which bear planets contain far less lithium than those systems which bear no planets.

Artist’s impression of a baby star still surrounded by proto-planetary material in which planets could form.

Somehow, it seems that systems which host planets provide a way to destroy the lithium over the years. Lithium is thought to have been an abundant element since the big bang and is present in most every star. The anomaly of chemical amounts that vary from star to star has bewildered researchers for over 60 years. So can planets and other planetary bodies affect the star in a way enough to destroy and realign chemical composition within that star? It seems that way. Theoreticians have their work cut out for them trying to figure out what causes the anomaly.

Researchers have undergone this project of measuring and analyzing lithium content in hopes of finding a way to detect star systems which bear planets in a way easier and faster than the current method using the HARPS device. For reference, HARPS is a device attached to the La Silla 3.6″ ESO telescope and studies the “wobble” of gravity and light from stars to detect if the star hosts a planet. If the current research is right, researchers may now use the HARPS device to detect lithium content from a star to determine the likelihood of the said star hosting planets.

The team of astronomers and researchers primarily involved in the project are: Garik Israelian, Elisa Delgado Mena, Carolina Domínguez Cerdeña, and Rafael Rebolo (Instituto de Astrofisíca de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain), Nuno Santos and Sergio Sousa (Centro de Astrofisica, Universidade de Porto, Portugal), Michel Mayor and Stéphane Udry (Observatoire de Genève, Switzerland), and Sofia Randich (INAF, Osservatorio di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy).

Journal Reference: G. Israelian et al. Enhanced lithium depletion in Sun-like stars with orbiting planets. Nature, November 12, 2009. Adapted from materials provided by ESO.

This past Friday evening (November 6th), I volunteered at the Adler Planetarium, to teach mostly 6-10 year old children the basics of recycling water. The theme for the night was exploration. The idea behind the water recycling experiment was not only to teach children the importance of water recycling technologies in space, but also give them an idea of how valuable resources, that we take for granted on earth, would be in space. We allowed the children to experiment with different materials and figure out what materials help filter out impurities the best.

Now this might not seem very much in line with my basic astronomy interest but I do this for several reasons. First off, volunteering at the Planetarium is a good way to make astronomy less of a just-me hobby and interact with other astronomers. Secondly, I do get to do astronomy-promotion which is something I’m very interested in. And thirdly, they pull out the scopes at the planetarium and since it’s right by the lake (i.e. slightly less light pollution, especially towards the east), you can see pretty things in the sky. This Friday of course Jupiter was looking pretty with it’s four moons!

The newly constructed Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) facility at Mt Stromlo

The Mt Stromlo Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) facility is part of a worldwide network of approximately 42 SLR stations with only six located in the southern hemisphere. The Mt Stromlo facility is one of two SLR units managed by Geoscience Australia. The Mt Stromlo facility is newly built after being destroyed in the January 2003 bush fires that swept across much of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The official opening was on 1 April 2004, and after further testing and validating, became operational on 1 December 2004.

Dish & Mover

Originally uploaded by stonewall072

At right, one of the dishes that make up the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array in the Plains of St. Augustine, New Mexico is approached by the large machine used to move them into position.

Another one pulled from the archives. I have a set of 15 photos or so from my trip to the VLA. It’s a awe inspiring thing to drive down the dusty desert roads and see these brilliant white dishes standing like sentinels in the distance and then to stand in the shadow of the giant radio telescopes as they quietly peer off into the depths of space.

The dishes stand 82 feet tall and weigh around 230 tons. The radio telescopes act in unison to produce images of distant stars, nebula, supernovas and other cosmological structures.

The set is bittersweet to me, because shortly after leaving the VLA I wrecked my car on a lonely stretch of New Mexico highway. It turned into quite an adventure for me, but I think that’s a tale best saved for another time.

I know I’ve been kind of Southwestern U.S. focused these last few posts, I’ll see if I can find something a little more eastern for tomorrow’s post.

You walk through the aisles of your local supermarket.  Apples in June.  Watermelons in February.  Oranges in December.  Weird star fruit in….well I don’t actually know if star fruit have a picking season.  So how do we have these fruits and vegetables when it is not time for them to be picked.

Most of our food doesn’t come from the good ol’ USA.  As I previously mentioned, we mainly grow corn.  Most of that is used for biofuels and livestock feed.  So where do we get all this stuff?  Well, where is it warm and rainy all year-round (and cheap to grow)?  Thing South.  We get a vast majority of our produce (when not in season) comes from Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, and Brazil.  If you have time, I suggest you actually go to your local supermarket and ask the manager from where the produce is coming.  99 times out of 100, you will get a blank stare.

As a nation, we have become so disconnected from the very sustenance we need for survival.  Most urbanites think farmer as being synonymous with country bumpkin, redneck, hillbilly, or quaint.  There is a social stigma to be a farmer.  But should those farmers disappear, well, the high and mighty urbanites are in for a world of hurt.  In fact, this may not be as strange as one would think.  Since 1979, 300,000 small farms have disappeared in the United States, and since 1946 the number of people who make their living by farming has been cut in half. Increasingly, large companies like Monsanto and Carghill take over and force farmers out of their land.

Farmers' Numbers Decrease

Back to the food.  So these crops are being grown in countries far away from all of us.  The workers who are spraying the pesticides we previously mentioned, working long hours in the hot sun are probably not being paid very well.  But that is not a problem: we get our watermelons cheap!  The crops are finally picked.  Now what?  The crops are put in an air-conditioned airplane and flown to packaging and distribution centers throughout the United States.  Then, they are shipped in air-conditioned trucks all over the country on our wonderful highway system.  This is hugely energy intensive.  It is estimated that the average American family’s meal has traveled almost 10,000 miles before it reaches the plate (in December, to be fair).   Scientists have clocked energy usage as being 10 calories of fossil fuels for 1 calorie of food.  Talk about inefficient.

The Cosmic Perspective

Perhaps for the purposes of this series the Cosmic Perspective should be retitled to What You Can Do.  Oh well, too late.

If ever there was a simple way to make a difference it is to: buy local and in season!  Simple!

Don’t buy those apples in June or watermelons in February.  Eat what is available in your zone when you plan to eat it.  That might mean doing without some things.  Unfortunately, most Americans are still in the mentality that they want it all and they want it now.  So visit your local farmer’s markets.  Not only will you help support the local economy (that is all the rage), but you will be eating better: better for you and for the environment.  Build a relationship with those great folks who grow your food.  Check out this link to find more links regarding local eating:

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/LocatingLocal.html

I don’t mean that you have to drop oranges altogether.  I have eaten a star fruit.  Guilty as charged.  But all good things in moderation.  Once in a while is fine, every day is where the problem arises.

In her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver notes,

“The main barrier standing between ourselves and a local-food culture is not price, but attitude. The most difficult requirements are patience and a pinch of restraint – virtues that are hardly the property of the wealthy. . . We’re raising our children on the definition of promiscuity if we feed them a casual, indiscriminate mingling of foods from every season plucked from the supermarket, ignoring how our sustenance is cheapened by wholesale desires. Waiting for the quality experience seems to be the constitutional article that has slipped from the American food custom…We have the illusion of consumer freedom, but we’ve sacrificed our community life for the pleasure of purchasing lots of cheap stuff. Making and moving all that stuff can be so destructive: child labor in foreign lands, acid rain in the Northeast, depleted farmland, communities where the big economic engine is crystal meth. We often have the form of liberty but not the substance.”

…at the University of Helsinki earlier this week when people had a chance to visit the 175 years old observatory.

You foreigners might now think that Finnish astronomy is very primitive but observations are no longer done from this site. There is too much light pollution to allow scientific work. What used to be at the outskirts of the city is today a very central location.

The exterior of the observatory is one of the most impressive in the city – and not among the easiest to be photographed.

Hello, Id like to ask a question about your experience with the 16″ Lightbridge. I’ve read some good reviews and bad reviews about it. I’ve read that it is very hard to collimate and that the focuser may not come perfectly perpendicular to the tube assembly from the factory and may need shimming to properly align it.

I’d like to know your opinion on these things and also the quality of the focuser. Is there much flex in the trusses? Have you been able to attain crisp clear focus? Would you recommend this scope, or to rather spend an extra $1000 to get a similar sized Discovery scope?

Thanks!

-Joey

————————————————–

Collimation is an important issue when observing through Meade Lightbridge 16″. Mainly for planets and Moon, because a good collimation gives much better images at high magnification. When moving the telescope, it is usual to get discollimation, so every time you move it, you firstly have to collimate it before observing.

Another disadvantage of this telescope is its weight. It weights a lot and it is not easy to move from one place to another.

Nevertheless starfield views are incredible due to its high aperture, mainly under dark skies. It becomes very easy to observe deep sky objects. It is impressive to observe Dumbell nebula at 200x.

To attain crisp clear focus is very difficult when observing planets or the Moon due to atmospheric turbulence. 16 inches of aperture are very sensitive to turbulence.

I would recommend the telescope if you are planing to be observing always at the same place. It is a very cheap telescope taking into account its aperture.

I cannot talk about Discovery telescope, because I have never watched through one of them.

Regards,

After weeks of waiting, the conditions were perfect to view a near-full moon, high in the sky and with dark skies, not affected by light pollution.

Out came the telescope, set up at the front of the house. I fitted the 20mm lens and aimed roughly for the moon. However, frustration set in as despite the moon being in clear view, I could not get it in view, in the viewfinder. After 10 minutes of panning the scope around the sky, I eventually found it purely by chance and wow, what a view!

With the disc in full view in the viewfinder, all the craters and maria were revealed in sharp detail. Changing to smaller lenses brought more of the moon into view, along with the aiming problem. I’ve come to realise that I have some problem where the red dot finder is completely out of alignment and I need to re-calibrate it so that I can aim the scope correctly.

The 2mm lens is proving to be of limited use at the moment, because even though the seeing conditions at lower levels of magnification were fine, the 2mm lens revealed a shimmer in the atmosphere, so I changed back to a 5mm lens.

Grabbing the opportunity to try some direct digital imaging, I got my camera (a Canon S2IS) out and gently pressed its lens against the lens on the telescope. After some moving around of the camera against the lens and some alterations to the camera focal length and aperture (either f3.5 1/60 or f3.2 at 1/60), I managed to capture the following shots:-

The images have had a little post-processing applied to highlight the dark and light areas of the image, but for a first attempt, I’m pretty pleased and take some inspiration from the attempt.

I must really try and get this red dot finder problem sorted out though…

While cycling home from work this evening it struck me how clear the sky was; signalling not only the coming of winter, but also of opportunities to get the telescope out once more (or at least, to get the telescope out at a sensible hour).

After dinner each of our children trooped out into the frosty air of our back garden, and took a look at the Moon, and Jupiter. Only the eldest really understood what she was looking at – I think we may now have an amateur astronomer on our hands.

While doing it, I pointed our tiny point-and-shoot camera down the telescope eyepiece. Hardly scientific, but the results were pretty spectacular;

The Moon

Jupiter and it’s moons

Apologies for the camera shake, and lack of focus – through the telescope they are pin sharp, blow-torch bright, and incredibly impressive. I really must buy a camera mount, and a manual focus lens.

(For the technically minded people out there, the telescope is an F8 4.5″ Newtonian reflector, and had a 15mm eye piece in)