My first night under the stars.

Since January I've been lurking here, browsing various astronomy websites
and buying astronomy books. Due to recent events I now have easy access to
a large, dark, obstruction free field.

A couple months ago I bought a pair of 8x60 binoculars to get started, but I
couldn't properly converge the two images. It was like when you cross your
eyes just a little bit. I thought the binoculars might be damaged so I
borrowed several pair from a bird watching acquaintance and I couldn't get
any of them to converge. I can focus and see with each eye individually,
but when I open both eyes I get double vision. I guess its just another
personal defect!

After months of vacillating I finally sprung for a Hardin Optical 8" Dob.
It arrived with a giant dent in the tube. UPS sucks. So I called Hardin
and their customer service was excellent. They shipped out a new scope the
same day and issued a call tag for UPS to pick up the damaged one so I
didn't have to haul it to the UPS office or pay for return shipping. They
called me about a week after the second scope arrived to verify the
replacement made the trip in one piece. Wonderful customer service
experience, I wish more companies were like this.

The second scope was in one piece, but the box was mangled and when I set
the scope up I couldn't even focus on the moon. Hindsight tells me that
this was probably just a cool down issue, but I jumped to the conclusion
that it was out of collimation due to the rough handling from UPS. I tried
to collimate it as described in the instructions with no success.
Frustrated I ordered an Orion cheshire. When it arrived I made a futile
attempt to collimate the scope without center dotting the mirror. I really
didn.t want to take the mirror out of the scope.

A few days later I was telling a friend about my problems with the Dob and
he said I could indefinitely borrow his son's Orion 70mm f10 refractor.
It.s mounted on an EQ1 with a RA drive motor and red dot finder. He bought
it for his son last Christmas, but the kid was disappointed at not seeing
Hubble quality images and only used it once.

Friday afternoon I picked up the little refractor. While waiting for dark,
I decided to take a crack at center spotting the mirror in the Dob. I
pulled the mirror cell and miraculously got the dot was properly affixed
without incident. I felt swell about the operation until I accidentally
sneezed on my nice new mirror. DOH! It was one of those sneaky, fast
sneezes that take you by surprise. I managed to swerve my head at the last
second and avoided a complete catastrophe, but there was definite speckling
on the mirror. I remembered reading that you shouldn't wash a mirror unless
absolutely necessary so I decided to put the scope back together and see
just how visible the spots were.

The lens cell fit very tightly in the metal tube and it took quite a bit of
persuasion to get it seated properly. In the process I inadvertently
grabbed the finder stalk for extra leverage. That wasn't a good idea. The
dovetail bracket holding the finder snapped. After a brief round of
profanity I finished screwing the mirror cell in place and finally managed
to properly collimate the telescope. WHEW! It was just about dark so I
took the scopes outside and let them cool off.

I found the Dob very difficult to operate without a finder and the sneeze
residue was slightly visible when observing so I spent most of my time with
the refractor or just taking it all in with the naked eye.

I was able to identify the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, North Star, Draco,
Cassiopeia, Hercules, Milky Way, Mars and saw five shooting stars. Mars was
a non-descript wobbly orange dot in the refractor. My highest power EP is
the 9mm plossl that came with the Dob. The atmosphere was swirly so I
didn't get any really clear views. I stayed out for about four hours and
enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I went back for a second round on Saturday night and the atmosphere was
quite a bit smoother. Using the 9mm and a 2X Orion Shorty barlow, I thought
I could make out faint dark patches on Mars, which was pretty exciting! The
refractor had much less residual color than I expected at 77X, but the
Barlow added some at 154X. I'm too new at this to tell whether the
additional color was a result of the barlow itself or the high magnification
on a small scope, it's probably a combination of both. Even at 154X,
which is above the 140X theoretical limit of the scope, there didn't seem to
be any distortion to the image other than the thin band of color around the
edges of the planet. It was fairly difficult to properly focus at this
power, but not impossible.

This was my first real experience under the stars and I'll be back for more.
Growing up in a city and never being the outdoors type, I was really
surprised at how many stars you can see from a dark field. Seeing and
recognizing the vast expanse of the Milky Way for the first time was a
wonder. I actually spent more time looking at things with my bare eyes and
planisphere than with either scope.

The Dob was handicapped due to lack of a finder, so it wasn't really a fair
comparison, but so far I've found the refractor more enjoyable to use. The
RA motor is a great thing to have. You can get distracted by something and
come back to find you object stillneatly centered. The Dob is brighter,
sharper and has all around better views, but I'm not sure I'll have the
patience for the constant nudging and backward, upside down thinking needed
to navigate with the dob. Time will tell.

I've ordered a dovetail base plate for the Dob and an Orion 6x30 right angle
finder to supplement the red eye finder on the refractor. That kid isn't
getting his scope back anytime soon, unless I buy something better to
replace it...

Find your local astronomy club and start attending their star parties for
some real fun and a great way to learn from others more experienced. Check
out the pictures from my club's star party last Saturday at
www.machunter.org. Click on "Observing Sessions".

Hap Griffin

"Fred" wrote in message
. ..
Since January I've been lurking here, browsing various astronomy websites
and buying astronomy books. Due to recent events I now have easy access
to
a large, dark, obstruction free field.

A couple months ago I bought a pair of 8x60 binoculars to get started, but
I
couldn't properly converge the two images. It was like when you cross
your
eyes just a little bit. I thought the binoculars might be damaged so I
borrowed several pair from a bird watching acquaintance and I couldn't get
any of them to converge. I can focus and see with each eye individually,
but when I open both eyes I get double vision. I guess its just another
personal defect!

After months of vacillating I finally sprung for a Hardin Optical 8" Dob.
It arrived with a giant dent in the tube. UPS sucks. So I called Hardin
and their customer service was excellent. They shipped out a new scope
the
same day and issued a call tag for UPS to pick up the damaged one so I
didn't have to haul it to the UPS office or pay for return shipping. They
called me about a week after the second scope arrived to verify the
replacement made the trip in one piece. Wonderful customer service
experience, I wish more companies were like this.

The second scope was in one piece, but the box was mangled and when I set
the scope up I couldn't even focus on the moon. Hindsight tells me that
this was probably just a cool down issue, but I jumped to the conclusion
that it was out of collimation due to the rough handling from UPS. I
tried
to collimate it as described in the instructions with no success.
Frustrated I ordered an Orion cheshire. When it arrived I made a futile
attempt to collimate the scope without center dotting the mirror. I
really
didn.t want to take the mirror out of the scope.

A few days later I was telling a friend about my problems with the Dob and
he said I could indefinitely borrow his son's Orion 70mm f10 refractor.
It.s mounted on an EQ1 with a RA drive motor and red dot finder. He
bought
it for his son last Christmas, but the kid was disappointed at not seeing
Hubble quality images and only used it once.

Friday afternoon I picked up the little refractor. While waiting for
dark,
I decided to take a crack at center spotting the mirror in the Dob. I
pulled the mirror cell and miraculously got the dot was properly affixed
without incident. I felt swell about the operation until I accidentally
sneezed on my nice new mirror. DOH! It was one of those sneaky, fast
sneezes that take you by surprise. I managed to swerve my head at the
last
second and avoided a complete catastrophe, but there was definite
speckling
on the mirror. I remembered reading that you shouldn't wash a mirror
unless
absolutely necessary so I decided to put the scope back together and see
just how visible the spots were.

The lens cell fit very tightly in the metal tube and it took quite a bit
of
persuasion to get it seated properly. In the process I inadvertently
grabbed the finder stalk for extra leverage. That wasn't a good idea.
The
dovetail bracket holding the finder snapped. After a brief round of
profanity I finished screwing the mirror cell in place and finally managed
to properly collimate the telescope. WHEW! It was just about dark so I
took the scopes outside and let them cool off.

I found the Dob very difficult to operate without a finder and the sneeze
residue was slightly visible when observing so I spent most of my time
with
the refractor or just taking it all in with the naked eye.

I was able to identify the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, North Star, Draco,
Cassiopeia, Hercules, Milky Way, Mars and saw five shooting stars. Mars
was
a non-descript wobbly orange dot in the refractor. My highest power EP is
the 9mm plossl that came with the Dob. The atmosphere was swirly so I
didn't get any really clear views. I stayed out for about four hours and
enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I went back for a second round on Saturday night and the atmosphere was
quite a bit smoother. Using the 9mm and a 2X Orion Shorty barlow, I
thought
I could make out faint dark patches on Mars, which was pretty exciting!
The
refractor had much less residual color than I expected at 77X, but the
Barlow added some at 154X. I'm too new at this to tell whether the
additional color was a result of the barlow itself or the high
magnification
on a small scope, it's probably a combination of both. Even at 154X,
which is above the 140X theoretical limit of the scope, there didn't seem
to
be any distortion to the image other than the thin band of color around
the
edges of the planet. It was fairly difficult to properly focus at this
power, but not impossible.

This was my first real experience under the stars and I'll be back for
more.
Growing up in a city and never being the outdoors type, I was really
surprised at how many stars you can see from a dark field. Seeing and
recognizing the vast expanse of the Milky Way for the first time was a
wonder. I actually spent more time looking at things with my bare eyes
and
planisphere than with either scope.

The Dob was handicapped due to lack of a finder, so it wasn't really a
fair
comparison, but so far I've found the refractor more enjoyable to use.
The
RA motor is a great thing to have. You can get distracted by something
and
come back to find you object stillneatly centered. The Dob is brighter,
sharper and has all around better views, but I'm not sure I'll have the
patience for the constant nudging and backward, upside down thinking
needed
to navigate with the dob. Time will tell.

I've ordered a dovetail base plate for the Dob and an Orion 6x30 right
angle
finder to supplement the red eye finder on the refractor. That kid isn't
getting his scope back anytime soon, unless I buy something better to
replace it...

Find your local astronomy club and start attending their star parties for
some real fun and a great way to learn from others more experienced. Check
out the pictures from my club's star party last Saturday at
www.machunter.org. Click on "Observing Sessions".

Hap Griffin

"Fred" wrote in message
. ..
Since January I've been lurking here, browsing various astronomy websites
and buying astronomy books. Due to recent events I now have easy access
to
a large, dark, obstruction free field.

A couple months ago I bought a pair of 8x60 binoculars to get started, but
I
couldn't properly converge the two images. It was like when you cross
your
eyes just a little bit. I thought the binoculars might be damaged so I
borrowed several pair from a bird watching acquaintance and I couldn't get
any of them to converge. I can focus and see with each eye individually,
but when I open both eyes I get double vision. I guess its just another
personal defect!

After months of vacillating I finally sprung for a Hardin Optical 8" Dob.
It arrived with a giant dent in the tube. UPS sucks. So I called Hardin
and their customer service was excellent. They shipped out a new scope
the
same day and issued a call tag for UPS to pick up the damaged one so I
didn't have to haul it to the UPS office or pay for return shipping. They
called me about a week after the second scope arrived to verify the
replacement made the trip in one piece. Wonderful customer service
experience, I wish more companies were like this.

The second scope was in one piece, but the box was mangled and when I set
the scope up I couldn't even focus on the moon. Hindsight tells me that
this was probably just a cool down issue, but I jumped to the conclusion
that it was out of collimation due to the rough handling from UPS. I
tried
to collimate it as described in the instructions with no success.
Frustrated I ordered an Orion cheshire. When it arrived I made a futile
attempt to collimate the scope without center dotting the mirror. I
really
didn.t want to take the mirror out of the scope.

A few days later I was telling a friend about my problems with the Dob and
he said I could indefinitely borrow his son's Orion 70mm f10 refractor.
It.s mounted on an EQ1 with a RA drive motor and red dot finder. He
bought
it for his son last Christmas, but the kid was disappointed at not seeing
Hubble quality images and only used it once.

Friday afternoon I picked up the little refractor. While waiting for
dark,
I decided to take a crack at center spotting the mirror in the Dob. I
pulled the mirror cell and miraculously got the dot was properly affixed
without incident. I felt swell about the operation until I accidentally
sneezed on my nice new mirror. DOH! It was one of those sneaky, fast
sneezes that take you by surprise. I managed to swerve my head at the
last
second and avoided a complete catastrophe, but there was definite
speckling
on the mirror. I remembered reading that you shouldn't wash a mirror
unless
absolutely necessary so I decided to put the scope back together and see
just how visible the spots were.

The lens cell fit very tightly in the metal tube and it took quite a bit
of
persuasion to get it seated properly. In the process I inadvertently
grabbed the finder stalk for extra leverage. That wasn't a good idea.
The
dovetail bracket holding the finder snapped. After a brief round of
profanity I finished screwing the mirror cell in place and finally managed
to properly collimate the telescope. WHEW! It was just about dark so I
took the scopes outside and let them cool off.

I found the Dob very difficult to operate without a finder and the sneeze
residue was slightly visible when observing so I spent most of my time
with
the refractor or just taking it all in with the naked eye.

I was able to identify the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, North Star, Draco,
Cassiopeia, Hercules, Milky Way, Mars and saw five shooting stars. Mars
was
a non-descript wobbly orange dot in the refractor. My highest power EP is
the 9mm plossl that came with the Dob. The atmosphere was swirly so I
didn't get any really clear views. I stayed out for about four hours and
enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I went back for a second round on Saturday night and the atmosphere was
quite a bit smoother. Using the 9mm and a 2X Orion Shorty barlow, I
thought
I could make out faint dark patches on Mars, which was pretty exciting!
The
refractor had much less residual color than I expected at 77X, but the
Barlow added some at 154X. I'm too new at this to tell whether the
additional color was a result of the barlow itself or the high
magnification
on a small scope, it's probably a combination of both. Even at 154X,
which is above the 140X theoretical limit of the scope, there didn't seem
to
be any distortion to the image other than the thin band of color around
the
edges of the planet. It was fairly difficult to properly focus at this
power, but not impossible.

This was my first real experience under the stars and I'll be back for
more.
Growing up in a city and never being the outdoors type, I was really
surprised at how many stars you can see from a dark field. Seeing and
recognizing the vast expanse of the Milky Way for the first time was a
wonder. I actually spent more time looking at things with my bare eyes
and
planisphere than with either scope.

The Dob was handicapped due to lack of a finder, so it wasn't really a
fair
comparison, but so far I've found the refractor more enjoyable to use.
The
RA motor is a great thing to have. You can get distracted by something
and
come back to find you object stillneatly centered. The Dob is brighter,
sharper and has all around better views, but I'm not sure I'll have the
patience for the constant nudging and backward, upside down thinking
needed
to navigate with the dob. Time will tell.

I've ordered a dovetail base plate for the Dob and an Orion 6x30 right
angle
finder to supplement the red eye finder on the refractor. That kid isn't
getting his scope back anytime soon, unless I buy something better to
replace it...