RTMC report

I attended the RTMC gathering near Big Bear, California over the weekend.

Highlights:

1. Tom Osypowski's (Equatorial Platforms) 24-inch Dobsonian on his aluminum
platform drive is once again the best telescope at the conference. I was
able to see the central star of the Ring Nebula, even under a gibbous moon.
One fantastic and surprisingly portable telescope.

2. I had a chance to view through Celestron's new 20-inch corrected
Dall-Kirlham cassegrain. It seems to work well as I was unable to visually
detect any coma at the edge of a wide field eyepiece. Could this surpass
the mighty Ritchey-Chretien? Stay tuned! A very good engineering effort by
Celestron, however, the $40k price tag puts it out of the reach of most
amateurs. Didn't quite see the central star of the Ring Nebula with this
one.

3. Good talk by Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy web page, except that the
audio/video techs almost ruined his PowerPoint presentation with a
malfunctioning (or just out of range) wireless keyboard. Instead, they kept
on blaming Microsoft for the malfunction.


Lowlights:

1. Sky & Telescope decided to treat all of their major advertises to an
offsite dinner and drinking party which meant that the vendors were not at
the conference Saturday evening (prime time) to demo their products.

2. The conference was a ghost town on Sunday. Anybody giving a talk on
Sunday was just wasting their time. The RTMC organizers could fix this by
simply moving the big Saturday door prize to Sunday, the I guess that that
there are too many "I want in now!" whiners to allow for that. The RTMC
conference is for all practical purposes a one-day Saturday event.

3. I was somewhat dissappointed with the version 6 upgrade to TheSky. Some
very nice improvements in visualizations, but only a few new astronomical
functions. Most of the menu functions are the same. There was a partial
fix with regard to the screen update problem in alt-az mode, but I wish that
they would implement full tracking in alt-az mode. I don't know too many
people who sit and watch the stars drift by in a fixed alt-az position, on
the other hand, more and more Dobsonians are now fully driven. I would also
like to see support for more of the natural satellites in the solar system.

Del Johnson

One thing you forgot to add is that the food was worse than ever!
With a $8 a meal price, I would expect something more than tired turkey loaf
for supper or even worse, dried up hamburger that got set by the side of the
fire for half an hour for a lunch. IN addition, there was a very limited
choice of dressings for the salad bar with the dressings already mixed into
the salad, making everybody take the same oversaturated dressing mix.
I, for one, am not going to bother to buy meals anymore.

--
Bob May
Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less.
Works every time it is tried!

3. I was somewhat dissappointed with the version 6 upgrade to TheSky.

Hi Del:

You might want to think about upgrading, anyway. It's not so much that they
added so many more new things (though there is a lot of new stuff), it's really
a question of 6's incredible degree of customization potential. This is the
first program I've seen that gets close to allowing me to have the sky exactly
the way I want it. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and have
barely scratched the surface of what's possible. Yes, there are some bugs, but
the Bisque Bros have been quick to exterminate them, and I don't think anything
fatal is left. Above and beyond everything else...man is it COOL to watch the
summer Milky Way rise...in COLOR! :-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Rod,

I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees, houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?

Thanks,

Tom

"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...

3. I was somewhat dissappointed with the version 6 upgrade to TheSky.

Hi Del:

You might want to think about upgrading, anyway. It's not so much that
they
added so many more new things (though there is a lot of new stuff), it's
really
a question of 6's incredible degree of customization potential. This is
the
first program I've seen that gets close to allowing me to have the sky
exactly
the way I want it. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and have
barely scratched the surface of what's possible. Yes, there are some bugs,
but
the Bisque Bros have been quick to exterminate them, and I don't think
anything
fatal is left. Above and beyond everything else...man is it COOL to watch
the
summer Milky Way rise...in COLOR! :-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees, houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?


Sky Tools and HNSky can both do this. Sky Tools via a graphical interface
and HNSky via a text file that you enter az/alt points for your horizon.

-Florian

"Florian" wrote in message
...
I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible
sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements
for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees,
houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the
program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of
interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?


Sky Tools and HNSky can both do this. Sky Tools via a graphical interface
and HNSky via a text file that you enter az/alt points for your horizon.

-Florian


Florian,

Excellent. Would you recommend one over the other for a guy just looking to
do some observation planning?

Tom

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 20:53:01 -0400, "Tom Hole"
wrote:

I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees, houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?

Sure, you can do that with TheSky 6. You can either do it symbolically, as you
suggest, so that you have a complex line defining your local horizon, or you can
do it with full realism: TheSky will allow you to insert a panoramic photograph
of your horizon and it will display it very realistically. You can also
configure other visual features to match your location: sky background, lunar
and stellar halos, horizon glow, etc.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

I was at RTMC from Friday Morning.

I was also greatly disappointed at the great vendor vanishings on
Sunday. I decided to leave right after the Sunday evening raffle drawing.

I wanted to buy a few more items, but that was impossible after
everybody packed up.

If the program is the same next year as this one, I will do the same.
I used to stay through Monday morning.

On a positive note, it was nice of Meade Instruments to provide free
wireless internet access at their tent, and I have to give kudos to the
Bisque brothers, who spent over an hour of their time to help me with a
horizon file problem in TheSky Pro 6.

Also noted is that Software Bisque was the only major software vendor
who showed up this year. WHat happened to everybody else?

The food quality at the cafeteria showed a marked decrease in quality
this year. For some reaon they pre-dressed the salads at the salad bar,
which resulted in wilted lettuce. There was no lettuce or tomatoes for
the Sunday lunch hamburgers, and the Saturday morning pancakes were too
small.

Next year should be better with no Moon in the way. I'll still go,
but I may elect to lodge and eat in Big Bear.

Matthew Ota


Del Johnson wrote:

I attended the RTMC gathering near Big Bear, California over the weekend.

Highlights:

1. Tom Osypowski's (Equatorial Platforms) 24-inch Dobsonian on his aluminum
platform drive is once again the best telescope at the conference. I was
able to see the central star of the Ring Nebula, even under a gibbous moon.
One fantastic and surprisingly portable telescope.

2. I had a chance to view through Celestron's new 20-inch corrected
Dall-Kirlham cassegrain. It seems to work well as I was unable to visually
detect any coma at the edge of a wide field eyepiece. Could this surpass
the mighty Ritchey-Chretien? Stay tuned! A very good engineering effort by
Celestron, however, the $40k price tag puts it out of the reach of most
amateurs. Didn't quite see the central star of the Ring Nebula with this
one.

3. Good talk by Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy web page, except that the
audio/video techs almost ruined his PowerPoint presentation with a
malfunctioning (or just out of range) wireless keyboard. Instead, they kept
on blaming Microsoft for the malfunction.


Lowlights:

1. Sky & Telescope decided to treat all of their major advertises to an
offsite dinner and drinking party which meant that the vendors were not at
the conference Saturday evening (prime time) to demo their products.

2. The conference was a ghost town on Sunday. Anybody giving a talk on
Sunday was just wasting their time. The RTMC organizers could fix this by
simply moving the big Saturday door prize to Sunday, the I guess that that
there are too many "I want in now!" whiners to allow for that. The RTMC
conference is for all practical purposes a one-day Saturday event.

3. I was somewhat dissappointed with the version 6 upgrade to TheSky. Some
very nice improvements in visualizations, but only a few new astronomical
functions. Most of the menu functions are the same. There was a partial
fix with regard to the screen update problem in alt-az mode, but I wish that
they would implement full tracking in alt-az mode. I don't know too many
people who sit and watch the stars drift by in a fixed alt-az position, on
the other hand, more and more Dobsonians are now fully driven. I would also
like to see support for more of the natural satellites in the solar system.

Del Johnson

Agreed totally with you on that note, the food really was bad this year.

I wish I would have made the time to look through your refractor. My
setup was across the parking lot at the Combs Lodge.

But I left right after the Sunday Raffle

Matthew Ota

Bob May wrote:

One thing you forgot to add is that the food was worse than ever!
With a $8 a meal price, I would expect something more than tired turkey loaf
for supper or even worse, dried up hamburger that got set by the side of the
fire for half an hour for a lunch. IN addition, there was a very limited
choice of dressings for the salad bar with the dressings already mixed into
the salad, making everybody take the same oversaturated dressing mix.
I, for one, am not going to bother to buy meals anymore.

--
Bob May
Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less.
Works every time it is tried!

TheSky 6 uses photographic horizons that you make with your own digital
camera and panoramic stitching programs. It is really nice.

Matthew Ota

Tom Hole wrote:

Rod,

I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees, houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?

Thanks,

Tom

"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...

3. I was somewhat dissappointed with the version 6 upgrade to TheSky.

Hi Del:

You might want to think about upgrading, anyway. It's not so much that

they

added so many more new things (though there is a lot of new stuff), it's

really

a question of 6's incredible degree of customization potential. This is

the

first program I've seen that gets close to allowing me to have the sky

exactly

the way I want it. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and have
barely scratched the surface of what's possible. Yes, there are some bugs,

but

the Bisque Bros have been quick to exterminate them, and I don't think

anything

fatal is left. Above and beyond everything else...man is it COOL to watch

the

summer Milky Way rise...in COLOR! :-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html