Spot the Space Station Tonight!

[sojourner truth]

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30 degrees to the north from my house isn't possible since we are on lower ground and the higher ground is to the north. I'm satisfied with seeing it the other night. Fortunate to be able to see it for that long.

Would love to view Jupitor and Saturn through your 12" scope. I'm fascinated with the view through my cheap little 4.5" scope.

My 12" scope has been setting in my storage shed for a couple of years now. I am about ready to put it out on the curb, or call that telescope group and donate it to them. It needs a lot of work to get it back into observational peak. The mirrors are covered in shed goo. But it has a lot of extras.

Getting a glimpse of the shuttle every now and again is enough for me as well. The weather is starting to cool down, and that makes observing a bit more... tolerable.

12 " scopes are nice, but what happens is a disease called "aperture fever" where the telescope user realizes that the bigger the lens surface, the more they can see because it gathers more light. I am getting too old to drag it out of the shed and then colomate it, and then set up for a long night of observing. One of my favorite things to look at was the gas nebula in Orions belt and see the towers of creation. From using the naked eye, the area just looks like a fuzzy patch in Orion. The Indians used to call the area the "smoke star", but it isn't a star... yet. It may be, but we cannot see the current light from there for thousands of years yet.

[mac]

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looking at the stars and saw a satellite go over. It almost scared me. Now I am not sure if it was Sputnik or Telstar.

were sputnik and telstar both in orbit at the same time? I was kind of busy doing other stuff at that time........mac

[sojourner truth]

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were sputnik and telstar both in orbit at the same time? I was kind of busy doing other stuff at that time........mac

Yep.. I bet you were. I was still in my state of blissful ignorance before I went over. Still, there are some things I remember with fondness when I look back in life, and these rare quality moments with my dad always draw me closer to him even though he is gone.

I remember everyone being scared to death when Russia got Sputnik up, and the pitiful efforts we first made to try and play catchup.

[Rick]

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My 12" scope has been setting in my storage shed for a couple of years now. I am about ready to put it out on the curb, or call that telescope group and donate it to them. It needs a lot of work to get it back into observational peak. The mirrors are covered in shed goo. But it has a lot of extras.

Getting a glimpse of the shuttle every now and again is enough for me as well. The weather is starting to cool down, and that makes observing a bit more... tolerable.

12 " scopes are nice, but what happens is a disease called "aperture fever" where the telescope user realizes that the bigger the lens surface, the more they can see because it gathers more light. I am getting too old to drag it out of the shed and then colomate it, and then set up for a long night of observing. One of my favorite things to look at was the gas nebula in Orions belt and see the towers of creation. From using the naked eye, the area just looks like a fuzzy patch in Orion. The Indians used to call the area the "smoke star", but it isn't a star... yet. It may be, but we cannot see the current light from there for thousands of years yet.

If you want to get rid of it, let me know! I'll work on it.

[sojourner truth]

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If you want to get rid of it, let me know! I'll work on it.

It's yours if you want it.... It needs to have the swivle base worked on, and it needs to be colomated, but I have the colomation stuff needed. If it is not properly colomated, you will see stars a bit fuzzy and with a coma on the tails of them.

Just let me know when and how you want to do it. PM me if you prefer. I think you have my address, but if not I will provide it. Better to see it used than sitting in my shed. Plus it will give me a perfect excuse to get a new one should I get a wild hair. That is how I got this one. I had an older model 12" and it was getting old, so I donated it to the astronomical society of Central Texas. I would rather see it go to someone who will really use it.

Pretty sure all it needs is some cleaning on the mirrors and basic maintenance to get it back in the game.

[mac]

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My 12" scope has been setting in my storage shed for a couple of years now. I am about ready to put it out on the curb, or call that telescope group and donate it to them. It needs a lot of work to get it back into observational peak. The mirrors are covered in shed goo. But it has a lot of extras.

Getting a glimpse of the shuttle every now and again is enough for me as well. The weather is starting to cool down, and that makes observing a bit more... tolerable.

12 " scopes are nice, but what happens is a disease called "aperture fever" where the telescope user realizes that the bigger the lens surface, the more they can see because it gathers more light. I am getting too old to drag it out of the shed and then colomate it, and then set up for a long night of observing. One of my favorite things to look at was the gas nebula in Orions belt and see the towers of creation. From using the naked eye, the area just looks like a fuzzy patch in Orion. The Indians used to call the area the "smoke star", but it isn't a star... yet. It may be, but we cannot see the current light from there for thousands of years yet.

yep, 6 and a half thousand to 7 thousand light years away from us......that's a prettry long haul. next time you're lookin' at it, look through what appears to be a rifle iron sight up high there and you'll see a real bright star or son......of pretty good size. I would like to know more about that thing than I do today.....mac

[Rick]

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It's yours if you want it.... It needs to have the swivle base worked on, and it needs to be colomated, but I have the colomation stuff needed. If it is not properly colomated, you will see stars a bit fuzzy and with a coma on the tails of them.

Just let me know when and how you want to do it. PM me if you prefer. I think you have my address, but if not I will provide it. Better to see it used than sitting in my shed. Plus it will give me a perfect excuse to get a new one should I get a wild hair. That is how I got this one. I had an older model 12" and it was getting old, so I donated it to the astronomical society of Central Texas. I would rather see it go to someone who will really use it.

Pretty sure all it needs is some cleaning on the mirrors and basic maintenance to get it back in the game.

I sent a PM. I'll have to look up collimating a telescope.

Appreciate it.

[mac]

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I sent a PM. I'll have to look up collimating a telescope.

Appreciate it.

Sojourner: Don't you need a natural horizon to collumnate your scope? is it a Mead?

[mac]

Sojourner: If Rick doesn't take it, and you curb it, and my red ram pickemup puills up, please don't shoot it! It'll prob'ly be one of the sons in law....mac

[sojourner truth]

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Sojourner: Don't you need a natural horizon to collumnate your scope? is it a Mead?

It is a Meade Lightbridge, and it has a laser collomation device on it. I collomated it yesterday in the garage. At least as close to collomating it as I can get.

What collomation does is align the primary mirror with the secondary mirror that reflects the light into the eyepiece. The scope has 2 eyepieces. The best collomation takes 2 people. One looking through the lens while someone else adjusts the collomation screws underneath the primary mirror while observing a star. A well collomated scope will show almost no coma on bright single point objects.

Rick is supposed to come by and get it today at lunch, or after work. If he changes his mind for some reason I will PM you. He lives in the perfect place for non light polluted observations too. One of the things with Dobsonian scopes is light pollution entering from the open sides, so I bought a curtain that fits around it to block out light. Terrible observation weather for the next few days though. That is what happened when I bought it too. Got here, and the heavens opened up for a week.