Started with a 60mm Refractor?

"John "Shecky" Steinberg" wrote

Incidentally, this meeting was supposed to take place in the Catskills,
but The Nevele was booked that weekend and as a native Jersey City boy,
I'm sure you can appreciate the appeal of the chosen meeting place.

I thought it was held at Brown's: Jerry Lewis's favorite resort. ?




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You should have used a paper towel roll. lol

Geeze Bill, where were you when I needed you?

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

"Bill Becker" wrote in message
...

"Eddie Trimarchi" wrote in message
...
60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term loosely now)
was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying glass stuck
to
one end and then because nothing was in focus, I had to imagine what the
objects looked like!

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

You should have used a paper towel roll. lol

Best regards,
Bill

"John 'Put me in, Coach!' Steinberg" wrote

More importantly, what's your take on the Backman/Randolph situation?

I'm tickled for Willie, happy for the Mets. Backman shot himself in the ass
by not disclosing to the Diamondbacks any possible "difficulties" from his
past. I would have enjoyed seeing him as a manager - too bad.

How about those Meade 5000's? Think they'll make it to the playoffs next
year? (Trying to get on topic, or something... then again, not really.)

Look at me - I can play - center field! How about that central field of the
new Nagler, eh?

*yawn*





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(Jon Isaacs) writes:

I wonder how many of you who post and lurk here started with a 60mm refractor
or something similar?

A 70mm spotting scope of Russian make. With an erecting prism and a
turnable ocular lens, switching magnification between 30x and 60x, on
a wobbly alt-az mount. It saw first light (for me, I bought it used),
on my parents kitchen table sometime during 1972-73. Saturn was the
turning point for me, I think. Mars that year (1973) was low in the
sky, big, orange, and mysterious, but telescopically a disappointment
with this instrument. I still have it and use it on terrestial objects
from time to time.

pej
--
Per Erik Jorde

Eddie Trimarchi wrote:
60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term
loosely now) was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a
gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying
glass stuck to one end and then because nothing was in focus, I
had to imagine what the objects looked like!


Wow... I'm surprised you had the time to build it, what with that
50-mile walk to school and back (uphill both ways, of course)
followed by the 10-hour shift down the mine. g

I had several toilet/kitchen/foil roll scopes too, but most of them
were zero magnification instruments, used predominantly for playing
pirates and such.

--Steve

Wow... I'm surprised you had the time to build it, what with that
50-mile walk to school and back (uphill both ways, of course)
followed by the 10-hour shift down the mine. g

Did we grow up in the same town? You know an awful lot about my
childhood....

I had several toilet/kitchen/foil roll scopes too, but most of them
were zero magnification instruments, used predominantly for playing
pirates and such.

Ah yes, but my favorite was the submarine periscope made from two mirrors
and a tube for peeking around corners...and above the ocean surface when
submerged..

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

"Steve Maddison" wrote in message
...
Eddie Trimarchi wrote:
60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term
loosely now) was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a
gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying
glass stuck to one end and then because nothing was in focus, I
had to imagine what the objects looked like!


Wow... I'm surprised you had the time to build it, what with that
50-mile walk to school and back (uphill both ways, of course)
followed by the 10-hour shift down the mine. g

I had several toilet/kitchen/foil roll scopes too, but most of them
were zero magnification instruments, used predominantly for playing
pirates and such.

--Steve

In article ,
Jon Isaacs wrote:
I wonder how many of you who post and lurk here started with a 60mm refractor
or something similar? I would like to see a show of hands, lurkers can Email
me privately...

The first telescope was a 40 mm or so fixed eyepiece scope that I
generally used by sighting out my open bedroom window and propping the
fixed tripod on top of some books. This was enough to show Saturn
being fat, moons of Jupiter, glorius detail in the moon, and spots on
the sun. Wonders beyond compare!

This was after my first real astronomical experience of the 66-67
(whenever the big one was about then) Leonid shower, which I'd viewed
naked eye.

My second scope was several years later, and was a 60 mm. The
chromatic aberration wasn't too bad (a comment having something to
do with my standards and vision, perhaps), and the mount settled
down in only 30 seconds or so after being tapped. No finder; I
sighted things by guess and by gosh down the tube and swept in alt-az.
The really good feature was a zoom lens that took me from something
like 30x to something like 90x. Jupiter gained stripes, Saturn went
from fat to having rings and a moon, double stars opened up, some
nebulae started to appear, and glorious clusters of stars opened up.
I'd also stopped sighting out the bedroom window.

That was the last scope I owned for quite some time. It
didn't survive being loaned to a friend when I was in college.
It was more than sufficient to sustain and nurture my interest
in astronomy specifically and science generally. I wound up
earning a doctorate (diferent field) and occasionally teaching
astronomy (sufficient astronomy courses that you needn't be
gasping) in a local community college.


The concern (" ") about the department store scopes puts me in
mind of beginning runners and attitudes for and about them from
experienced runners. A different thing I do is run and coach
beginning runners. There are always a few experienced folks
(rather fewer than the dismissives here, by the way) who dismiss
beginners who aren't running 'fast enough' or beginners or
experienced runners who are alternating running and walking
in their marathon, or don't have 'serious' equipment.

My touchstone is -- does this approach produce injury or
otherwise get people out of the activity? Run/walk does not,
necessarily. (It may, if it is a couch to marathon in 4 months
program, but the problem there is too fast to the marathon, not
the run/walk.) Not using the 'serious' equipment (mostly
a matter of tech fabrics for the clothing) limits some the
weather or duration of outdooor runs, but again, not an eliminator
or necessarily injurious thing.

Wobbly as my 60 mm's mount was, it did settle down. Even
without a finder scope, I did find things. Even with some
coma and chromatic aberration, I saw Jupiter's stripes and
lunar craters. Rather like not using the tech fabrics, all
the ills of 'department store' scopes are in line of limiting
what you can do -- but not causing injury or preventing anything
constructive.

Conclusion of the analogy: The most important thing for runners
is to get them a) started b) without injury. If a 'crappy'
department store scope can satisfy those two for amateur
astronomers, then it's fine. imho of course.

Of course it's still an excellent idea to talk to an astronomy
club, to try out scopes at star parties, and to generally get as
much free 'coaching' as you can.


I've also finally acquired my first telescopes in ages, a
70 mm refractor and a 20 cm reflector. (I don't count the 20 cm
scope of the school's I used in teaching.) More in a moment or
six.

--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences

(Jon Isaacs) wrote in message ...
I wonder how many of you who post and lurk here started with a 60mm refractor
or something similar? I would like to see a show of hands, lurkers can Email
me privately...

jon isaacs

My first telescope was a 60mm refractor, back in 1958. I used to take
it out on the second floor porch of our house in Brooklyn (New York)
and look at the moon. Thanks to Patrick Moore, I used to sketch what I
saw, a habit that unfortunately has not stayed with me. One night, I
woke at 11 p.m. or midnight, and saw a bright "star" out of my window.
I took the telescope out on to the fire escape and viewed Saturn for
the first time. I was hooked for life.

In those days, Brooklyn College had an 8" refractor in a dome
observatory, and had public nights on occasional Wednesdays. I went
several times while I was in high school. The best view I ever had was
a magnificent view of Jupiter at very high power, with bands, whorls
and festoons clearly visible.

Light pollution was not that bad at the time, as I recall seeing
numerous constellations.

Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman