Some reflections on Mars and new Skyview telescope.

Well, first off, Orion is having some serious inventory problems so I
ended up purchasing their 8" Skyview, a newtonian on an EQ mount.
If you want to buy a Dobsonian larger than 4.5", forget Orion until
December. Their Epic eyepieces are also gone, but are still being
advertised.

I am happy to have the EQ mount, but I must say as a rather large man
who lifts weights, I still find my self chuckling at how unwieldy this
thing is to move about. It may only weigh 65 pounds or so, but it is
bulky and awkward to move. A minor or an older person would probably
want to think twice before purchasing one of these.

Now, Mars... uh, filter suggestions please. It is way too bright in
this scope, in fact it is even a tad too bright in my 70 mm.
refractor. It is so bright it is washing out it's own features.
I never read a warning about this in the past six months, but I
suspected it might occur as I observed two weeks ago.

One thing that does disappoint me is that the larger aperture appears
to worsen the light pollution problem immensely. In targeting the
Andromeda Galaxy tonight, low in the sky I admit, the view was no
better than in my 20x70 binoculars. In fact, it was a tad worse (eyes
not dark adapted). I then moved to M13 overhead, and once again the
view was on par between the two. When I upped the magnification to
200x, that darkened the field a tad but I was only able to resolve the
outermost stars. I have read in dark skies you can do this at 4" of
aperture. In fact, I just read an 8" will perform like a 3" in light
polluted skies. Now, I do believe it. God damn it... I live on the
coast of Ocean County, New Jersey, there are not any good spots for
quite some ways. And, I do not want to transport this thing for fear
of getting the optics out of whack. I guess I may have to try though,
I do have a number of nature preserves near to me 10 miles to the
north.

One pleasantry is that the right angle star finder is a pleasure to
use. Targeting M13 would have been next to impossible without it
tonight. With even the modest 6x30 finder, I could easily spot the
triangle formation of two stars with M13, and could detect the cotton
fuzz ball of M13 in the finder. I am impressed.

So, if anyone would care to suggest a filter to dampen down the
brightness of Mars, I would be appreciative. I am not looking for
exotic suggestions to bring out clouds or other features, I just want
to cut the brightness down while not altering the color spectrum.
Albeit I will probably have to wait two years to buy it, I have spent
all I wish to at this point. I will hope for some light clouds to
solve my dilemma.

Damn, I always saw light pollution as a nuisance before, now that I
have a better scope it is downright intolerable. Irony... but I am
still going out later, as will most people in the Northeast. Finally,
we have clear skies and no visible Moon to speak of. Saturn will be
rising along with Orion and Taurus, and you know I have got a list of
stuff to target there.

To all the folks who pollute our skies with your lights without a
ca screw you. You are an enemy of all that is beautiful in our
skies. I despise you like little worms. You are maggots. I hope you
get gnats in your coffee.

- Livingston

Addendum: This night is about the best I have ever had. The skies have
darkened considerably.

Mars is still a wash out, even in the 70 mm refractor. Too bright.
I will actually appreciate high humidity and some hazy skies for that
one.

But, I return because I had some exciting observations. At least for
me.

For the first time in three years of observing, I could see the
Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye, with averted vision. It looked
much better in a Plossel 40mm wideview eyepiece on the 8" high up, and
with the skies darkened. I think I may even be catching a very faint
glow of the Milky Way. Could be high clouds though, I do not want to
be mistaken. But, best of all, for the first time I spied M33. As I
was observing m31 in my 20x70 binoculars, it occurred to me to star
hop through the three guide stars in Andromeda the other way and to
look for it. It was farther than I thought it would be (everything
always is), but there it was, an unmistakable ghostly haze against the
dark background.

Perhaps one of you might confirm it for me. M33 was sitting in a
distinct square of stars, in fact I would call it a parallelogram.
Three were of a very similar magnitude, yet the one most northerly was
a tad dimmer. I know I got it, just want to make sure.

Oh well, beginner euphoria, but before you laugh at me just remember
the first few times you had sex were the best, so don't be so haughty.
I am in a very good state of mind right now. If this is what light
polluted skies are like with no Moon on a good night with a steady
atmosphere, than I MUST find a place to go to get away from the light
polluting maggots. I had no idea how bad this problem is, for I have
never been outside of it. But, once I eat T-Bone, will I ever enjoy
London Broil again...

The Orion Nebula and Saturn are what is left for me tonight. If you
live in the Northeast, I suggest going out tonight if possible. In
three years, this is the best seeing I have ever had. Now, if someone
in Ohio could turn off the lights again with the Moon out of the
way...

For any one who avoids high magnification, well I pushed my scope to
525x on a bad night last night just to test it, and on the Moon it
works well enough. Has any one ever tried a 3x Barlow? I have a 2x,
and figured the 3x could not be very functional. But, perhaps on the
Moon you can go quite far pumping past your theoretical magnification
limit. Since I used a 3.8 mm eyepiece with the barlow to get that
high, I really cannot go too much farther without extending the focal
length some more.

- Livingston

On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 02:52:44 GMT, (Livingston) wrote:

Well, first off, Orion is having some serious inventory problems so I
ended up purchasing their 8" Skyview, a newtonian on an EQ mount.
If you want to buy a Dobsonian larger than 4.5", forget Orion until
December. Their Epic eyepieces are also gone, but are still being
advertised.

I am happy to have the EQ mount, but I must say as a rather large man
who lifts weights, I still find my self chuckling at how unwieldy this
thing is to move about. It may only weigh 65 pounds or so, but it is
bulky and awkward to move. A minor or an older person would probably
want to think twice before purchasing one of these.

Now, Mars... uh, filter suggestions please. It is way too bright in
this scope, in fact it is even a tad too bright in my 70 mm.
refractor. It is so bright it is washing out it's own features.
I never read a warning about this in the past six months, but I
suspected it might occur as I observed two weeks ago.

One thing that does disappoint me is that the larger aperture appears
to worsen the light pollution problem immensely. In targeting the
Andromeda Galaxy tonight, low in the sky I admit, the view was no
better than in my 20x70 binoculars. In fact, it was a tad worse (eyes
not dark adapted). I then moved to M13 overhead, and once again the
view was on par between the two. When I upped the magnification to
200x, that darkened the field a tad but I was only able to resolve the
outermost stars. I have read in dark skies you can do this at 4" of
aperture. In fact, I just read an 8" will perform like a 3" in light
polluted skies. Now, I do believe it. God damn it... I live on the
coast of Ocean County, New Jersey, there are not any good spots for
quite some ways. And, I do not want to transport this thing for fear
of getting the optics out of whack. I guess I may have to try though,
I do have a number of nature preserves near to me 10 miles to the
north.

One pleasantry is that the right angle star finder is a pleasure to
use. Targeting M13 would have been next to impossible without it
tonight. With even the modest 6x30 finder, I could easily spot the
triangle formation of two stars with M13, and could detect the cotton
fuzz ball of M13 in the finder. I am impressed.

So, if anyone would care to suggest a filter to dampen down the
brightness of Mars, I would be appreciative. I am not looking for
exotic suggestions to bring out clouds or other features, I just want
to cut the brightness down while not altering the color spectrum.
Albeit I will probably have to wait two years to buy it, I have spent
all I wish to at this point. I will hope for some light clouds to
solve my dilemma.

Damn, I always saw light pollution as a nuisance before, now that I
have a better scope it is downright intolerable. Irony... but I am
still going out later, as will most people in the Northeast. Finally,
we have clear skies and no visible Moon to speak of. Saturn will be
rising along with Orion and Taurus, and you know I have got a list of
stuff to target there.

To all the folks who pollute our skies with your lights without a
ca screw you. You are an enemy of all that is beautiful in our
skies. I despise you like little worms. You are maggots. I hope you
get gnats in your coffee.

- Livingston