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OpticsBlog – Thoughts and reviews of binoculars, telescopes, scopes, sights, and much more - birdwatching, astronomy, target shooting - pretty much anything related to optics, nature, and life!Sunday, July 31, 2011Telescope observatory at the lakeMy “dockside” observatory site for my astronomy binoculars and telescopes is complete and working, thanks to a lot of hard work by my Bill and my son-in-law, Chris. My deck for the telescope is 8 ft by 10ft and that is more than enough for me to swivel my 12.5” Dobsonian telescope in a full circle with plenty of room to stand. Using a dock on a lake as a platform for a telescope is anything but the norm in astronomy, but, hey, we astronomers tend to improvise as needed. The whole idea of creating such an unusual spot to setup & use a telescope was prompted by my need for a site that offered me a larger chunk of the night sky than I could get from my small backyard surrounded by towering trees. It is a definite improvement. In effect, I have gone from a backyard telescope observing site that offered about a 20% view of the night sky to a lakeside telescope observing site that offers about an 80-85% view of the night sky. I know have a place to observe that is worthy of an excellent 12.5” reflector telescope and expensive telescope eyepieces and other telescope accessories. The view in the pic is to the north and east. I don’t have quite the view to the south, but it is enough to see both Scorpius and Sagittarius and that, of course, is a big plus since these two prime deep-sky observing areas of the sky are not visible from my backyard. Are there issues to using a dock for a place to setup & use a telescope? Yes, but not the one I anticipated, namely the stability of the dock. I can comfortably use up to 200x without much vibration. What I didn’t expect was so much dockside humidity and dewing, compared to higher ground, but that’s an acceptable trade-off for seeing more of the sky. On the other hand, how many astronomers can claim to have frogs singing right under their telescopes? Small spotting scope or big spotting scope?Can a small birding spotting scope in, say, the 60 mm or 65mm class, keep up with the big boys in the spotting scope world when it comes to birding? This is a question I have been asked on many occasions for no other reason than, a smaller spotting scope costs less than a larger spotting scope of the same quality. So, small spotting scope or big spotting scope? That depends, of course, on what you expect from a birdwatching spotting scope, but for me, the answer has been a definite, yes. I’ve owned 80 mm class Swarovski spotting scopes, Leica spotting scopes, Nikon spotting scopes, Zeiss spotting scopes and Kowa spotting scopes, to name just a handful, but I dropped back to an excellent 65 mm class ED spotting scope on a Kowa 663 some years ago to save weight. Saving weight is just what I did, too, because going lighter on the spotting scope also allows you to go lighter on the tripod. Overall, I darn near cut the amount of weight I had to carry in the field in half. Believe me, I have never regretted the decision and I can’t honestly say that going smaller has never once cost me a bird identification, even out on the shorebird flats where performance counts the most for a spotting scope. Keep in mind, though, that I am an experienced birder and have thus been able to makeup in expertise what I have lost in performance by going smaller on a spotting scope. Still, I’d have to say that my little Kowa delivers, at the very least, 90% of what my larger spotting scopes used to do, even at 60x. Hey, girls, let the guys carry the heavy stuff if they want for their birdwatching. We can do just as well with a smaller, high quality spotting scope and have an easier time carrying a spotting scope and tripod in the bargain. Friday, July 29, 2011Cheap spotting scopes, expensive spotting scopesIt is nearly impossible to put in words the difference in image quality between what you see in the eyepiece of an inexpensive spotting scope versus an expensive spotting scope. Seeing really is believing when it comes to spotting scopes and spotting scope performance. What I can tell you, though, is that the difference is markedly more pronounced than what you see when comparing cheap binoculars with expensive binoculars. Why? Whenever you up the magnification on any optical device, you exponentially increase the challenges of maintaining image quality. This explains why a lot of spotting scopes, even some cheap spotting scopes, look pretty good at 20x, but up the magnification to 60x and only a handful of very expensive spotting scopes can maintain that same image quality. You want crystal sharp at 60x, you gotta pay. The good news is that most spotting scope users can do just fine for most spotting scope applications at mid-level spotting scope magnifications of 30-35x and, better yet, you don’t have to spend the big bucks to get decent spotting scope images in this magnification range. Of course, it is human nature to jack up the magnification to 60x when it is available and that’s when folks tend to be disappointed in what they have. As to actually needing and using 60x, yes, there are situations where you need and want this and even more if it was available. For instance, I’ve been out on the shorebird flats on days of exceptional atmospheric seeing conditions with my birding spotting scope and found myself wishing for 80x if I could have gotten it. Such days are rare, though. The truth of the matter is that using an expensive spotting scope with the breathtaking images it produces will make an addict of you. The difference between need and want is a blurry thing and this especially true when it comes to expensive spotting scopes. How to use a telescopeExperience is the best teacher when it comes to actually using telescopes for astronomy, in part, because there is not a whole lot of readily available information out there on how to actually use a telescope. Most manufactures go heavy on technical data and descriptions of features for their various models of telescopes, but they often take a generic approach when it comes to proving detailed info on how to actually use their telescopes. They assume that you already know the basics of using a telescope or will learn, as I said, by experience. So how do you learn how to use a telescope? I have written a couple of short articles that can help you get started. Telescopes FAQ - How to Setup & Use a Telescope and A Dozen Telescope Observing Tips For Beginners are written with the first time user in mind and, of course, I often blog about other ways to become better when using a telescope, right here. There are also some excellent books on the market, as well, so, yes, you can go it alone when learning to use a telescope. As far as I’m concerned, though, the best way to learn how to use a telescope is to stand right next to someone who knows what they are doing at the telescope eyepiece and have them show you. A great way to accomplish this one-on-one method of learning how to use a telescope is to join an astronomy club. I’ve belonged to many clubs over the years and I’d have to say that the vast majority of my fellow astronomers love helping beginners. In fact, helping others to discover what astronomy is all about is typically written into the charter of most astronomy clubs. Not an astronomy club in your area? Check at the local community college or high school science department. Oftentimes you’ll find an astronomer there willing to help. And, of course, if you happen to be in northern Wisconsin on a clear dark night, stop in. I’ll probably have the telescope setup and ready to go. Wednesday, July 27, 2011Rainy nights astronomyRainy days and nights and astronomy may not seem to go together, but you can do a surprising amount of astronomy, even when your telescopes, astronomy binoculars and telescope accessories are all safely tucked away out of the rain. When I’m not looking through a telescope eyepiece, for instance, you can often find me carefully working with my star charts and planning my next observing session. This is more than a chore, however, since I actually LOVE to play with my star charts. That probably explains why I own more star charts than I could ever use, but, for me, working with star charts on a rainy day is the next best thing to being out under a clear night sky with the binoculars or telescopes. Now, folks like me that use printed materials, such as star charts, to do all their navigating under the night sky are definitely a bit on the old-fashioned side. Today’s average astronomer tends to be a bit more digitally minded. Many use computers on their telescopes to locate objects in the sky, rather than star charts, but more than that, a lot of astronomers love working and posting on the internet. That translates to an enormous wealth of astronomy material; anyone with a computer and access to the internet can browse to their heart’s content on various astronomy topics and never see it all, no matter how long the rain continues to fall. Tuesday, July 26, 2011Telescope accessories detailsWhen it comes to telescope accessories, it’s often the little details that make the difference, right down to the material used to construct an accessory. Now, I’m old school enough to regard plastic construction in just about anything as being inferior to metal construction, but around the telescope, plastic construction has its place. One of these is for a flashlight. Astronomers use flashlights with a red lens to preserve their night vision when it comes time to read a star map or check the markings on a telescope eyepiece and so on. Red light is much easier on eyes that have been in the dark for awhile than white light and, in fact, one way to get scolded around a group of astronomers is to turn on a flashlight with a bright white light. As for construction, I insist on a night vision flashlight built with a plastic body. Why? I often use large reflector telescopes with a mirror at the bottom of the telescope tube. That mirror is the heart of the telescope and the prospect of accidentally dropping a metal bodied flashlight on the mirror scares the heck out of me. At least with plastic, the odds of chipping or damaging the mirror are greatly reduced. Also, I tend to put both a flashlight and an extra telescope eyepiece in the pouch of my sweatshirt and, again, I don’t want to risk scratching a lens with a metal flashlight. I also use a counterweight at the top of my telescope so that my telescope does not change position while adding or removing heavy telescope eyepieces. Once, again, plastic to the rescue. I simply take a small plastic beverage container and fill it with just enough water to do the job and hang it via a pouch at the top of my telescope tube. If disaster should strike and my homemade counterweight should fall on the mirror, the partially filled plastic water bottle would be less likely to damage a mirror than a hard-edged metal object. Now you might be wondering why I am so nervous about protecting the mirror on my large reflector telescope. Let’s just say that you could buy a cheap used car for what it would cost to replace it. Monday, July 25, 2011Learning to use a telescopeHad a fun and a challenging time at the telescope eyepiece, last night, in my little observatory on the lake. Those two words – fun and challenging – go together, by the way, when it comes to astronomy or, maybe, it’s just that astronomy attracts the sorts of folks who like a challenge. This could explain why I have met some disappointed folks who gave astronomy a try and eventually gave up on it. Some of them told me they expected to see more spectacular images in their telescopes akin to pictures they saw in magazines, books and the internet; others have told me that the learning curve was just too steep and they just couldn’t spare the time. I understand and sympathize in both cases, but the truth of the matter is that doing a little homework as to the nature of amateur astronomy and what hands on astronomy with astronomy binoculars and telescopes is all about before spending money on binoculars, telescopes and telescope accessories can eliminate such disappointments. First, there are a great many ways to enjoy our wonderful passion known as amateur astronomy and not all of those are centered on how to setup & use a telescope. I know several very enthusiastic amateurs, for instance, that are in it just for the reading and learning or social aspects in the case of several who belong to astronomy clubs; some of them don’t even own telescopes or binoculars, but who’s to say they don’t enjoy astronomy as much as diehard “hands on” astronomers such as myself? Okay, so you’ve just gone through the process of how to choose the right telescope and are now the proud and eager owner of a new telescope. Now what? As far as I am concerned, the whole point of setting up a telescope or peering through astronomy binoculars to see what pictures in books, magazines or the internet can actually show you in more detail and splendor, is to see those very same objects, yourself, with your own two eyes. It’s the difference between reading about some exotic location and seeing pictures of it in a travel brochure and actually going to that location and seeing it with your own two eyes. The first is a passive process; the second an active process. Yes, acquiring skill with binoculars and telescopes in astronomy takes time, but, what the heck is the hurry? You have a whole lifetime to do it or, to put it another way, a whole lifetime of seeing the glories of the universe with your own eyes. That so-called step learning curve is really more of a challenge and personal invitation to begin a journey that knows no end or destination. Enjoy. Friday, July 22, 2011Spotting scopes for day and for astronomyI get plenty of customers who are on a quest to make one spotting scope do everything and, surprisingly, they sometimes come close. It’s just a matter of what tradeoffs you are willing to make to stretch one spotting scope to cover a great many applications. Folks that want to use a spotting scopes both by day and also by night to some astronomy are perhaps the most common customers when it comes to wanting a spotting scope to do it all. Most of these customers choose spotting scopes that use interchangeable standard telescope eyepieces rather than conventional spotting scopes that force you to use what comes with the scope. By using a telescope eyepiece in a spotting scope you have an almost unlimited number of options as to magnification and field of view and that is very helpful for astronomy. Popular choices, here, include the hugely popular Celestron C90 and the larger Celestron C5. Keep in mind, though, that Mak spotting scope designs (C90) and SCT spotting scope designs (C5) have some disadvantages for specific applications. Both designs are slow to focus and this can be a real handicap for both birdwatching and hunting where getting focused, fast, can be critical to success. Nor do zoom eyepieces in these scopes produce practical magnifications for daytime use, so, again, this can be a handicap for applications such as birding and hunting where a zoom is very useful. That said, both of these scopes make great astronomy spotting scopes if mounted on a decent tripod and that's why they are so popular. In fact, all it takes is a good equatorial mount, such as the Omni CG-4 to turn the C5 spotting scope into one a very respectable astronomy telescope. Wednesday, July 20, 2011Astronomy is the greatestI suspect that it must be incomprehensible to people who know me as to how much I love astronomy and, of course, how I could spend so much on astronomy binoculars and telescopes given what little time I get to actually do astronomy. After all, it’s not like I can use my binoculars or setup & use a telescope every night, given the fact that the clouds do move in all too often where I live. Yes, I’ll have to admit that, in terms of time actually spent using my astronomy equipment, my astronomy binoculars and telescopes rank near the bottom compared to my other optical equipment or outdoor equipment. In terms of how much enjoyment I get per minute with the astronomy binoculars or at the telescope eyepiece, though, astronomy ranks near the top of all my interests. When I’m not actually doing astronomy, I am reading about astronomy or thinking about astronomy and these things I do on a daily basis … heck, as far as thinking about astronomy, more like on an hourly basis. Hey, once you have the astronomy bug, you have the whole universe to explore and that can keep a girl busy and happy until she can get out with the binoculars and telescopes, again. It’s this no limit to learning and observing that makes astronomy so dear to me. Astronomy is the greatest in my book. Spotting scopes and shorebirdsSummertime and, oh yeah, it is hot. That’s what summer is all about, of course, and for most of us who love birdwatching, summer is indeed a slower time of the year as far as seeing a huge variety of birds, but there are some exceptions. One is shorebirds. If you are lucky enough to have access to a marsh or wetland and water conditions are just right, you can catch some action with the birding binoculars or birding spotting scope on this group of birds, because, oddly enough, they start to move south as early as July and August. Now, if you are new to birding, don’t let talk about how difficult shorebirds are to identify scare you. Yes, identifying shorebirds has been likened to doing advance degree work in birdwatching, but it can be done. Just accept, at first, that there will be some birds you won’t be able to identify and take things a step at a time. Start by learning to separate birds based on their general groups, such as Sandpipers, Dowitchers, Plovers, Phalaropes and so on. Then you can begin to work on narrowing things down to individual species. It can be a challenge, but, let me warn you, it is also highly addictive. Yes, you can do a lot of shorebird work with binoculars, but if there is one group of birds that seemed to have been designed to be observed with a spotting scope, it is shorebirds. Distances tend to be long and the field marks that distinguish one species from another tend to be small and faint and, most of the time, you don’t have the option to get closer. See you at the marsh. Tuesday, July 19, 2011Refractor or reflector?This week has been a great example of how it takes more than just a clear sky to make it worthwhile to setup & use a telescope or break out the astronomy binoculars. It hasn’t been so much the heat that has been a problem as the incredible humidity. It’s been either heavy duty dew or fog rolling in after midnight and that incredible humidity makes for lousy sky transparency, too. I don’t mind dew so much with refractor telescopes because it is simply a matter or removing the dew from the objective lens with a lens cloth as needed and the lens coatings on the objective of a refractor are pretty tough - it takes a lot to produce a scratch on this type of coating. Oh yeah, the refractor scores some big points with me on nights with a lot of dew because I can generally stay at the telescope eyepiece longer. Reflector telescopes are another story. I hate dew on the primary mirror of a reflector, because a mirror is not something you should touch unless absolutely necessary. Reflector telescope mirror coatings are notoriously soft and easy to scratch, as many a beginner has learned the hard way. Access to the mirror can also be an issue. On my old Dobsonian telescopes with the traditional solid tube, there was no way to easily access the mirror down at the bottom of the tube, so drying the mirror with the hair dryer trick didn’t work. On my new truss tube style Dobsonian, I can access the mirror, easily, and that is a big plus for this design. Still, every dewing leaves a film even when you’ve dried the mirror with a hair dryer and, sooner or later, that mirror is going to have to come out for a real cleaning. That is not a chore I enjoy. On nights of heavy dew, then, I'll take a refractor telescope, thank-you.
Monday, July 18, 2011North woods wildlifeWe do have a Loon on our lake, though it appears to be a single Loon and not a pair. I heard it calling the other night after dark and have since seen it in my Nikon Premier LX 10x25 compact binoculars while out fishing in the kayak. At some point I would love to get a pic via some digiscoping with my spotting scope and digital cameras, but that’s the only method I will pursue. I will not try to get closer to this bird in the kayak for the sake of taking a pic with conventional digital cameras and risk scaring it off to another lake. This is now “our” Loon and I want to keep it that way. A north woods lake without a loon is, well, just a lake. A Loon makes it a north woods lake. Beavers are also common residents of north woods lakes and it looks like ours have returned. I say returned, because it’s obvious they have been here before, given all the old beaver sign, including old damns on the inlet and outlet streams, several old lodges and feed beds. At one point, our little lake must have been a beaver Grand Central Station, given all the old sign. Haven’t spotted one in the binoculars or spotting scopes, yet, but I suspect that is about to change. I was working my up the lake toward the inlet stream where it meets the lake and was all set to scoot my kayak over the old damn right at the mouth of the inlet stream to some fishing. The area behind the old damn, in particular, has been an excellent spot for Largemouth Bass this year. When I got to the damn, though, I was a bit surprised to discover that it had been freshly repaired and raised. I still managed to scoot the kayak over the damn and make my way upstream and, sure enough, I could also see that an old beaver lodge had been freshly repaired. The beavers had returned. By the way, the extra work it took to get the kayak over the damn was well worth it. Just behind the freshly repaired damn, I caught and released one of my best Largemouths, ever– a 22” beauty. Not bad for a hot sultry Wisconsin afternoon, eh? Friday, July 15, 2011Telescope accessories junkieNow that I have my large telescope needs met via my 12.5” Obsessions Dobsonian telescope, it’s time to turn m attention to my small 80 mm refractor telescope and get it setup with the right telescope accessories to take advantage of its excellent optics. This is long overdue due, in part, to squeezing the budget for my new large telescope. First up on needed telescope accessories is a decent mount. Right now my small telescope sits on one of those old camera tripods. This particular tripod is certainly heavy enough to handle the load, but it is a pain in the butt to use. The panning motions are anything but smooth, so I added a universal slow motion control under the telescope, but this sits the telescope up higher off the tripod and that makes for a less balanced and steady load. Right now, my first choice for a replacement is a Vixen Porta II. Not only is the mount stable, it has built in slow motion controls. Next, this little telescope is in need of a finder scope. I waste too much time trying to line up objects in the night sky in the telescope eyepiece, especially when those objects are high above the horizon. Any finder would be an improvement, even something as simple as the Celestron Star Pointer. Next, more eyepieces. This particular little telescope does not like barlow lenses and I don’t like them either when using a diagonal. A barlow under a heavy eyepiece is a precarious load to balance when stuck in a right angle diagonal, especially a right angle diagonal used with a small telescope. This makes for a combination that sits the telescope eyepiece at a shaky height above the telescope axis. Right now, I am looking at adding another Televue Radian or two or perhaps one of the new Televue Delos eyepieces. Seems like we astronomers never stop with the purchases. We are serious telescope accessories junkies. It is fun, though, at least until the bills come due. Thursday, July 14, 2011Moon maps and moon booksOkay, one more blog on the moon, since I seem to be shooting for the moon, these days. Okay, what else do you need when you have been careful to choose the right telescope and maybe some telescope accessories to begin observing the moon? You’ll figure it out soon enough once you’ve gone to the trouble to setup & use a telescope when that moon is out on a clear night, but to make things easier, I’ll just tell you. You need a good moon map to use right alongside the telescope eyepiece. The good news, here, is that there are many, many moon maps out there that can be used alongside a telescope. In fact, you can go online and find several virtual moon maps, such as the Virtual Moon Atlas and download them for free. You can then print a map specifically for a night’s observing or even take your computer with you. Myself, I much prefer a map and, so far, my favorite is the Sky & Telescope’s Field Map of the Moon. If you use a telescope with a diagonal and that means refractor telescopes, Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes and Maksutov telescopes, get the version of this map that gets you the same reversed left and right image your telescope produces. Best of all, this map is specifically designed for the telescope user in mind. Great product. You should get more than just a moon map, however, because understanding what you see is a big part of getting more out of any observing, including lunar observing. My absolute favorite, here, is The Modern Moon, a Personal View by Charles A. Wood and for some absolutely breathtaking lunar photography, he also co-authored The Kaguya Lunar Atlas. If these two books don’t whet your appetite to get out and point a telescope at the moon, nothing will. Okay all you need is a clear night and the moon in the sky. Enjoy. Tuesday, July 12, 2011More moon telescopesSo, you want to observe the moon with your telescope? That’s great, because when it comes time to setup & use a telescope, the moon is a very cooperative target. There is enough to see on Luna to keep you at the telescope eyepiece for years. There are some things to keep in mind about telescopes used for viewing the moon. First, telescope mounts. If you have motorized tracking or even a computerized telescope that offers a lunar tracking mode, great, but you can still effectively use your mount if it doesn’t. Yes, the apparent motion of the moon across the sky is different than it is for stars or even planets, but it isn’t enough of a difference to matter for tracking purposes. Just use what you have. I use manual mounts, no electronics, no computers or motors for all my astronomy including the moon and I do just fine. In short, you can use any kind of telescope mount to observe the moon, nothing special needed. Another advantage of observing the moon with a telescope is that it doesn’t take much in the way of telescope size, either, and that can keep the price down. After all, the moon is a very bright object as astronomy objects go, so big telescopes with their capability of seeing faint objects are somewhat overkill. I use an 80 mm refractor telescope for nearly all of my moon work, even though I own a much larger telescope. Larger telescopes do offer better resolution and handle higher magnifications better than smaller telescopes, though, so don’t be afraid to use a larger telescope if you have one. As with telescope mounts, any telescope can be used to observe the moon. The best time to observe the moon? Definitely NOT when it is full. Shadows create detail - shadows are good - but no shadows when the moon is full. A partially lit moon is what we want, then, and the best area to view is along the terminator – the boundary area between the lit and unlit portions of the moon. Yes, there are always a moon filter for cutting back on glare and excess light, but I much prefer the view without a filter. So what are you waiting for? When it comes time to choose the right telescope for the moon, really not much to choose. Make that decision based on other things you want to observe. The moon will be waiting no matter what telescope you choose. Monday, July 11, 2011Tripod spills and tumblesSometimes the unthinkable does happen with telescopes, spotting scopes, long range observation binoculars, digital cameras or just about anything you put on a tripod – something causes the tripod to tip over and your precious optical equipment goes crashing to the ground. It’s something we don’t even dare to visualize, but it does happen, despite our best efforts to baby our equipment. It’s happened to me and in every case, it was operator error or negligence, not defective tripods and I am one very careful gal with my optics. It can happen to anybody. Digital cameras are probably the most vulnerable when it comes to a tripod spill. All those circuits, motors and electronics are as fragile as eggs and none of my digital cameras has survived a direct hit with pavement, a rock, or other hard surface. So far, it’s been replacement time for my digital cameras that have taken a tumble. My old film SLR cameras, on the other hand, are akin to tanks and, though dented and bruised, I still have more than one of these fine old cameras that takes great pictures, same as always. Nothing beats an old manual focus, all metal film SLR camera when it comes to durability, but, then, most of these cameras from an earlier day were made to last a lifetime, unlike the overwhelming majority of digital cameras on the market. Telescopes and tumbles don’t go together, either, though some telescope designs are more durable than others. Reflector telescopes with their critical aligned mirrors always require re-collimation of the mirrors and, in worst cases, you may even have to re-insert mirrors in their cells. Reflector telescopes need careful handling, always. , on the other hand, as well as spotting scopes (which are typically small refractor telescopes), are much tougher and more likely to survive a spill with nothing more than a scratch or dent to show for it. Not a good thing, of course, but I’ve always been back in business in seconds when I’ve had one of these take a tumble. As for optics, a scratched lens or telescope mirror may bring tears to your eyes or make you squirm in agony, but only rarely does a scratch actually affect performance. Okay, you’ve just seen your precious telescope, spotting scope or digital camera take a tumble. Don’t panic, it’s not the end of the world, it happens. Take a deep breath and get your head into damage control mode ASAP. Most of the time your optic will survive. Moon telescopeThe moon will be full this week and, in fact, the moon will dominate the night sky for the next couple of weeks. That’s a good thing, despite some popular notions about the full moon making people crazy (lunatics). It’s also a good thing in the minds of some astronomers, though astronomers that actually look forward to seeing the moon in the sky are still in the minority; many deep-sky astronomers who use large telescopes to see very faint objects have a less than flattering opinion of the moon for the way moonlight makes these faint objects difficult to impossible to see. I used to be one of those astronomers and, yes, I had some unrepeatable words for what I thought of the moon at times. My required presence due to a job in the Chicago suburbs changed all that, however. Light pollution, even on a moonless night, was so bad that hunting faint objects for the telescope eyepiece was nearly, but not quite, a hopeless task. If I wanted to setup & use a telescope on a regular basis (and I did, of course), then, I had to take advantage of what I could see in spite of all that light pollution. That meant the planets, for one. There is only so much detail that can be seen on planets, however, and really only three planets that show any detail at all in the telescope eyepiece, those being Mars, Jupiter and Saturn and, typically you only get to see one of those on a given night and, in some years, not even that. Observing planets in telescopes can sometimes be a short-lived exercise, unfortunately. So, by far, the moon was my most observed object, both in the astronomy binoculars and telescopes out of sheer necessity. That’s when I happily rediscovered something I learned back when I first started using a telescope – the moon offers more detail in binoculars or telescopes than any other celestial object and perhaps more detail than just about everything else you can see in the night sky put together, especially if you have a large telescope (though a small telescope still does a great job as a moon telescope). Even better, the view changes on a nightly basis due to the way light hits move across the moon differently each night. Okay, bring on the moon, I say. I even have a small telescope setup just for viewing the moon, but, who knows, maybe I’ll pull out the big stuff for a look, too, though I’ll need a filter to cut down on the light. Friday, July 08, 2011Storing binoculars, digital cameras and more When we bought our home in the north woods, a little over a year ago, we negotiated to include a wonderful breakfront cabinet as part of the purchase. I had plenty of crystal and fine china, but nothing to store it in, so the breakfront was the perfect solution. Well, almost. If you visit us sometime, you’ll quickly notice that the breakfront is now filled to the brim and, in fact, is overflowing, but not just with fine china and glass, but with digital cameras, old film SLR cameras, compact binoculars, astronomy binoculars (bottom cabinets), miscellaneous telescope accessories and, well, you get the idea. Give an optics gal like me some prime storage space and she will fill it with optics, of course. Why bury your binoculars and cameras in a drawer when you can have them on display, right? As you can see from the pic, too, I am not one of those everything in its place types. My optics share space with the china and crystal in a rather haphazard fashion, but I know where everything is and that’s what counts. I can grab one of the cameras or binoculars on a moment’s notice because the breakfront is only a few feet from my kitchen table where I do most of my writing. That’s a good thing, living as I do right in the middle of the north woods where there is plenty see and photograph right in my own yard. Thursday, July 07, 2011Computers on telescopesThose of us who eschew computers and digital aides for locating objects in the night sky with our telescopes are a vanishing breed. We “star hoppers” who navigate the old fashioned way – with a star chart, instead of a computer – are holdouts from an earlier day when the thought of individuals owning their own computer was science fiction. Heck, only NASA had computers back in the day when I first decided to setup & use a telescope. In those days, you learned the night sky until it was as familiar to you as your own backyard, not by choice, but by necessity. You learned how to relate what you saw on a star map to what you saw in the sky if you wanted to see anything with a telescope or astronomy binoculars and that was that. Yes, it presented a pretty steep learning curve, but with experience came a new found satisfaction in being able to find anything printed on your star map. The hunt to get some hard to locate objects in the telescope eyepiece then became a big part of the game and when successful, very satisfying. I still get a big kick out of doing this, today, some forty years, later. Now I’d be the last one to argue against using computerized telescopes or adding DSCs (digital setting circles) to telescopes if for no other reason than these telescope accessories allow astronomers, especially beginners, to find celestial objects under even the most severely light-polluted sky. This is important because learning to star hop as I did is all but impossible under light polluted skies simply because the stars you need to use as guideposts for this technique are rendered invisible by light pollution. Computers on a telescope don’t need dark pristine skies to locate objects, though, and have thus made astronomy practical for thousands of urban and suburban astronomers who might otherwise have given up on astronomy as being too difficult. How could I possibly criticize that? All the same, using a telescope would not be as much fun for me if I allowed a computer to rob me of the pleasure of locating difficult to find objects. I'll just stick to the old ways. Tuesday, July 05, 2011Telescopes and observing spotsThe second part of my “get the most of my new large telescope plan” is now complete. That means that I not only have a place to conveniently store my 12.5” Dobsonian telescope, but I also have a spot to use this big telescope that provides a large window on the sky. I live in the north woods and, like most of the homes up here, the forest extends right into our yard. We do have a small lawn in front of the house and it does create just enough of an opening in the trees to get objects high overhead in the telescope eyepiece, but that still cuts me off from at least half of the sky. That makes my yard as less than ideal spot to setup & use a telescope. Why mess with telescopes if you don't have a good spot to use them? My recently completed telescope observing site is actually on our dock on the lake, but to make it large enough to accommodate the telescope, Bill had to widen it (with approval by the DNR, of course). That was a lot of work on his part, but I have a saint for a husband and say a prayer of thanks everyday for him. Now a dock is not a typical spot to setup & use a telescope, but a our lakeside location does provide an immense view of the sky, so I’ve had to get a little creative to take advantage of this. My biggest concern about using a dock was the possibility of me producing vibrations and as moved around and that, of course, would be picked up and magnified by the telescope, thereby ruining the view in the telescope eyepiece. We solved this issue by making creating two separate section, one for me to stand on and the other for the telescope. This allows me to move as needed on my dock section with no effect on the telescope. I have to say that using a telescope like this, right on the lake, provides a unique observing experience. The ambience is quite unlike anything I have ever experienced, but it is a real treat to have singing frogs for company when you are using a telescope, I assure you. Fun with small telescopes Now that I am back into Dobsonian telescopes and seriously hunting fanit deep-sky objects, you might think that my comparatively dainty 80 mm refractor telescope is collecting dust. Not so. I can always find work for telescopes with great optics, regardless of size and those small telescopes are fun to use, by the way. As for performance with small telescopes, it’s just a matter of selecting objects that are appropriate for their small apertures. First, what small telescopes are not. Small telescopes are not about hunting objects with low surface brightness or objects that require magnifications much over 200x. After all, you can only expect so much from beginner-sized refractor telescopes and reflector telescopes. Okay, fine, but that still leaves a ton of objects that have plenty of image brightness for small telescopes and most of those objects can be easily seen with magnifications that are appropriate for small telescopes. My favorite small telescopes are small telescopes with short focal lengths. Add a low power (long focal length) telescope eyepiece to some of these and you have field of view that can rival that of some astronomy binoculars and often do it with more magnification to boot. That makes them ideal for viewing larger star clusters and bright nebulae. Change out that low magnification eyepiece for a bit more magnification and you have a great telescope for observing the moon. No, small telescopes can’t do the job of big telescopes, but for some jobs, they do just fine. Monday, July 04, 2011Large grab and go telescope  Here's another one to add to your Dozen Telescope Observing Tips for Beginners. A telescope you can’t conveniently use is a telescope you might as well not own, because, sooner or later, that lack of convenience will get the best of you. Oh sure, our enthusiasm carries the day when our new telescope arrives and we eagerly drool over all those high tech features advertised to practically put the sun, moon and stars in our lap. At first we may not even notice the time and effort it takes to setup & use a telescope that may not be a good match for our observing style and needs, but the clock will be ticking. The day will come when it is just too easy to say no to some astronomy when the night sky is clear, all because it’s just too much darn work to mess with our telescope. That’s the day when we discover we now own a very expensive dust collector. It doesn’t always have to end this way, however. Sometimes it’s just a matter of taking the next step and tipping that convenience scale back the other way. I recently bought a superb example of one of those truss-tube Dobsonian telescopes and, although this 12.5” telescope has been proven to be at the limit of what is manageable for this old gal (meaning I can just barely lift all the component sections), it was definitely not convenient to move in and out of the house every time I wanted to observe. In fact, I would describe the process of moving this telescope as being just short of a nightmare, what with having to move furniture, putting the dogs in the pen as I wheel the telescope through the yard, not to mention assembly, re-collimation and all the other chores needed before looking through the telescope eyepiece. After the several trips needed to get all the components of the telescope out in the yard and rounding up all the telescope accessories for a night of observing, I am one tired gal before I even look through the telescope eyepiece. In this situation, a grab and go telescope this is definitely not. The solution was simple. I had my Bill construct a telescope shed out in the yard at a point that was midway between my two favorite observing spots and, yes, I do need several observing spots due to my restricted sky viewing area. The scope will stay there 365 days a year, so no cool down issues and, because the telescopes is equipped with wheel barrow handles, just a matter of opening the door to the telescope shed and wheeling the telescope anywhere it needs to go on a moment’s notice. Best of all, the scope stays completely assembled and collimated. Voila! I now have a large grab and go telescope. |
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