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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!Wednesday, November 30, 2011Winter, telescopes and astronomy binocularsThe astronomy gods smiled, Tuesday night, and after three weeks of nothing but clouds, the sky cleared. After dinner, I wasted no time gathering my telescope accessories and pulling the big Dobsonian telescope out of the shed. Cold or no cold, this gal was going to do some astronomy. I do prefer to have an observing plan and, typically, I concentrate on one area of the sky or I pick a particular class of deep-sky object and stay with it. Not so, Tuesday night. It had been too long since I looked through a telescope eyepiece and I was maybe just a bit frantic to see it all. I had a good night, though. Saw Jupiter, many, many star clusters, galaxies and nebulae. After two hours, though, my telescope and I were coated with frost, so I packed things up and headed back to the house to warm my frozen feet and fingers. I might have been a human icicle, but I still had the urge to do more observing, so I grabbed my Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe and headed back out under the sky. Glad I did. I don’t think I have ever seen that great trio of open clusters in Auriga, M37,M36 and M38, so bright and so glorious. Okay, now that I’ve had a good night of astronomy, I’m ready to settle down and go back to my usual routine when it comes time to setup and use a telescope - assuming, that is, I don’t have to wait another three weeks for a clear night. Tuesday, November 29, 2011Astronomy between the cloudsHad a partially clear sky, the other night - there were clear patches of sky among the clouds - but was there enough clear sky to make it worthwhile to setup & use a telescope? Would the clouds clear out or were they going to stay? Was there any point of locating an object in the telescope eyepiece only to have it blotted out by clouds seconds, later? The fact that I wanted to fight the clouds to find a clear patch of sky shows how desperate I was to get out an do some astronomy. It’s been one very long stretch of cloudy weather, up here in the north woods, let me tell you. The good news is that it doesn’t take much observing time to get my dose of astronomy relief, but was I wasting my time by setting one of the telescopes? The astronomy binoculars proved to be a better solution. With the binoculars, I could play tag with the rapidly moving clouds and quickly move to another patch of clear sky as needed. As it turns out, the clouds eventually won the battle, but not before I had a chance to see M37, M36, M38 in Auriga and, of course, the Pleiades in nearby Perseus. Relief, at last! Still waiting for a night perfectly free of clouds, though. When it happens, just watch me get the big telescope out and go to work. Saturday, November 26, 2011Shooting accessories at the rangeFor our anniversary, Bill and I decided to make a trip to the shooting range to give our handguns a workout. Okay, that may not be the most romantic way for some folks to spend an anniversary, but it works for us. We love sharing our interests and target shooting – punching holes in paper or toppling metal silhouettes - is one interest that I’ve had as long as my birdwatching and astronomy. I’ve always needed a challenge to maintain an interest in something and when it comes to the shooting sports, it doesn’t get much more challenging or interesting for me than shooting a handgun and when I’m talking shooting a handgun, I mean shooting a handgun, well. Forget the baloney you see on TV and the movies. No one just picks up a pistol and starts shooting it well. Mastering a handgun is a matter of practice, practice and more practice. It’s typically a process that is years in the making. In ignorant hands, a handgun is more dangerous than useful. I won’t have handguns in the house with someone who doesn’t know how to use one, safely. That’s why Bill and I have taken a safety class, together, and joined a shooting club where we can shoot at a well-designed NRA approved shooting range. Having a safe place to shoot is also very important to me. If there is an easier pistol to shoot to learn all the basics than a Ruger 22 auto in one of it’s many forms, I don’t know what it is. I mounted a silver Tasco Propoint on the latest version of the little Ruger, the Ruger MKIII Competition, but I don’t get to shoot it much because my husband just can’t put it down. For someone new to handguns, he shoots it very well, indeed. The red dot is definitely easier for him to handle than iron sights. That’s okay, because I needed to put some of our other handguns though their paces. Can’t put a red dot scope or a pistol scope on either of my little Ruger Sp101s (22 LR and 327 FM) or our new Ruger SR1911 (love it), but, that's okay. I still love to shoot iron sights and will continue to do so until my eyes just plain give out. When the eyes start to go, I’ll go with one of many other Rugers that are more scope mountable and add another red dot or, one of my favorites, a Leupold 2x. Seems you always forget something when headed to the range. When it comes to shooting accessories for range use, nothing beats a target spotting scope or, if the range is short enough, even binoculars to score targets. Guess what we forgot to bring? Oh, well, the walk to score the targets did us both some good. Fortunately, our range supplies benches, targets and shooting bags or who knows what else we might have forgotten. See you at the range. How to buy a telescope, how to buy a microscopeChristmas/holiday time is time to buy a telescope or maybe time to buy a microscope. More telescopes and microscopes are sold this time of year than the rest of the year put together. And why not? An interest in astronomy or microscopy is an interest that can last a lifetime. That’s the good news. The bad news is that some models get short in supply as the season moves, along. So, if you’re going to buy a telescope or buy a microscope, the sooner the better. Inventories run low as Christmas approaches. If you’ve taken the time to choose the right telescope or find the perfect student microscope, it might not arrive in time if you wait. I’ve been in the retail telescope and microscope business for years and I’ve seen it happen every year. Need a little coaching on telescopes? Try my Telescope First Questions or my How to choose the right telescope. For microscopes, try Microscope Guide for Beginners and my Microscopes for Students. Thursday, November 24, 2011All I want for Christmas ...… “And the sky is not cloudy all day.” One thing for sure, those words from Home on the Range do not describe the weather, of late, in northern Wisconsin. Once again, our weather is stuck in a gray, wet and gloomy pattern as I anxiously wait for a clear night to use one of the telescopes or astronomy binoculars. It’s getting to be more like, “All I want for Christmas is a clear sky.” The weather, of course, is the proverbial fly in the ointment for amateur astronomy. No matter how good your telescopes and binoculars – and I do have some good ones - they’re only good for collecting dust when the clouds roll in and park for an extended stay. So why do we amateur astronomers invest so much time and money in our pastime, especially when so many of us live in locations where the skies are, indeed, cloudy all day a good percentage of the time? The answer is simply that we love what we do. Amateur astronomy is such an all-consuming pursuit that we are willing to wait, though, okay, not always gracefully, for the next clear night to setup & use the telescope and, once again, see the endless wonders of the night sky in a telescope eyepiece. Yup, I’m still waiting … and waiting … and waiting. Wednesday, November 23, 2011Happy ThanksgivingHappy Thanksgiving! My list of blessings is a long one, so I’ll just go with the ones on the top. I am grateful for my home and, right there at the top of the list, my husband. Our home is right behind him on the list, since we’ve worked side by side to make it our own. Without my Bill, though, it would just be another place to live, as far as I am concerned. I love you, Bill. My Bill is something special, let me tell you. Not too many husbands would understand a gal who has such a passion for all things outdoors and all things optical. He’s always supported me in my many interests. When we’ve been able to afford it, he’s been right there with me when I need to buy binoculars, more telescopes or telescope accessories. Believe it or not, he doesn’t even cringe when I say, “Bill, I could sure use another telescope eyepiece.” Even better, though, my Bill takes an interest in the things I love to do. He’s right there with me to look through my birding binoculars, my spotting scopes and my telescopes. Nothing beats sharing the things you love to do with the one you love. I am blessed. Tuesday, November 22, 2011Spotting scopes for target shootingTime to buy another spotting scope? Maybe so. We recently joined a shooting range to do some pistol shooting and the spotting scopes I have are really overkill in terms of size for the maximum fifty yards we’ll be shooting. When you have to carry the pistols, ammunition and all the other shooting accessories it takes for a fun session at the range, who wants to pack a big spotting scope and tripod. No thank-you. For fifty yard scoring, you don’t need much when it comes to spotting scopes for target shooting. Nearly any spotting scope will do, but or the sake of portability and convenience, we’ll probably try for something in a 50 mm scope. A little Nikon Fieldscope would be ideal. We’ll let the rifle shooters down the line at the 200 yard range deal with the big 80mm spotting scopes. Yup, target shooters are very much like astronomers – there is always something else to buy. I just happen to be both. Monday, November 21, 2011Winter astronomy I love astronomy in the winter. Looking through the telescope eyepiece or the astronomy binoculars on a cold, clear winter night is a thrill in itself. That cold winter air makes for some of the best observing for the faint, deep-sky objects that we all love to see in our telescopes and binoculars. Winter astronomy, of course, has its challenges. Operating a telescope when the temps are in single digits or below is a different ball game than operating a telescope in shirt sleeve weather, especially here in northern Wisconsin where I live. Fortunately, using a telescope in the winter is just a matter of being prepared for the cold and knowing how the cold affects your telescope and telescope accessories. Believe me, if you’ve never had a chance to setup & use a telescope on a cold winter’s night, you will learn this truth very quickly. The only thing about winter astronomy that you can’t overcome with a little preparation is snow cover. As much as I love snow for my skiing, snow is a negative for my astronomy. Snow reflects a lot of ambient light back into the sky, more so than bare ground and that little bit of extra light can make it tough when you’re trying to see the very faint stuff in the night sky. Snow or no snow, though, you just haven’t lived until you’ve seen the Orion Nebula in a big telescope on a dark and cold winter night. Stay warm. About the pic: Will soon need to fire up the snow blower just to get my large telescope out of its shed. Friday, November 18, 2011Digiscoping tips  When it comes to digiscoping – taking pics of birds by holding small digital cameras over the eyepiece of a spotting scope – some types of birds make much better subjects than others. If you are new to bird photography, you can better your odds of getting a sharp pic by carefully choosing the kinds of birds to frame in the camera. Out in the field, wading birds such as herons, egrets and cranes make wonderful subjects for digiscoping. They’re big birds and their habit of remaining motionless as the hunt makes for a great photo op. Waterfowl – ducks and geese – are also good as they sit on a lake or pond, assuming they are not being tossed around too much by waves. They're also a treat to observe in the birding spotting scope, even if you are not taking pics. In the yard, at the feeders, it’s tough to beat woodpeckers. They’re also large, relative to a typical songbird and once engaged in feeding, they tend to stay put, unlike many other visitors to your feeders. See today’s Binocular Blog for more of my woodpecker pics. When you’ve had experience with these bird groups, then it is time to try your hand with more active and fidgety birds – if you have the patience, that is. (Let me tell you, Chickadees will drive you nuts.) Thursday, November 17, 2011Short focal length refractor telescopes There was a day when refractor telescopes necessarily had very long focal lengths. These long focal length optical systems were needed to minimize optical defects inherent in the refractor telescope design of the day, but those same helpful long focal lengths also made for long, unwieldy optical tube assemblies and narrow fields of view. True, there were small refractors with short focal lengths available – if you didn’t mind putting up with poorly corrected optics. Today, thanks to technology and advances in refractor optics, we can have our cake and eat it, too, when it comes to refractor telescopes. Modern semi-apochromatic and apochromatic (APO) optical designs deliver superb optical correction in some very short optical tube assemblies. Short optical tubes make for a more convenient and portable telescope, of course. I can easily lift my little f/6 LOMO triplet refractor (see pic), tripod and all, with one hand and walk out into the yard. Can’t quite do that with my vintage f/5.3 102mm Televue refractor telescope, but it is darn near as portable. When it comes to grab and go telescopes, I am covered. The thing I like most about short focal length APO refractor telescopes, though, is the awesomely wide fields of view they can deliver. With my little LOMO triplet refractor and the right Televue Nagler eyepiece, I can get fields of view that rival what I get in some of my astronomy binoculars and those wide fields of view come with higher magnification to boot. Oh, yeah, nothing like these short focal length refractors with wide-angle eyepieces aboard for framing some of the wonders of the night sky. Wednesday, November 16, 2011The view in telescopes and binocularsWhen astronomers talk shop about what they see in the telescope eyepiece or the astronomy binoculars, it’s typically a conversation about what they see as opposed to how they see it. Still, how we see things in the telescope eyepiece, specifically, how objects are framed in the telescope eyepiece or binoculars, has a big impact on how much we enjoy what we see. Take that wonderful open star cluster, the Pleiades, for instance. Now this heavenly gem is a treat no matter what you use to view it, but I like using some instruments to view it more than others. In my 7x50 astronomy binoculars, the cluster only fills a small portion of the field of view. Not bad, but a little more magnification, please, to fill that field with stars. My Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe does a better job of filling the field, but not quite what I want on this star cluster. Nope, for the Pleiades, I get the biggest kick seeing it in my small LOMO triplet refractor at 22x using a Televue Nagler 22.0 mm eyepiece. That big wide field provided by the Nagler eyepiece is just chock filled with stars from edge to edge. The view takes my breath, away, it truly does. That same refractor and eyepiece combo, though, is just not right for the nearby Alpha Persei star cluster, otherwise known as Melotte 20 or Collinder 39. The cluster just won’t all fit in that little scope with that telescope eyepiece, but, boy oh boy, does it fill the field of view in the Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe. In fact, it is one of my all time favorite things to see with this astronomy binocular. Superb sight! Yup, how we see things in the telescope or binoculars is just as important as what we see. Take a little time to frame those glorious objects to see them at their best and you'll be a happier astronomer. Tuesday, November 15, 2011Deer hunting season We have deer in our yard, almost on a daily basis and through all seasons of the yard. They’re fun to watch with or without the binoculars and they always make good subjects for our digital cameras. It’s at a point where we recognize individuals, now, and a couple of the does have had twin fawns these last couple of years. That’s just it. All we have are does. It is very rare to see bucks. Rare or not, though, I did see a fork horn buck this week down in the bog. Not surprising, since this is rutting season and there is no shortage of does in the area to attract the bucks. Or maybe the buck somehow knew that this weekend is the start of rifle deer season and he would be safe in our yard. Not that I have anything against hunting, mind you (I still have a taste for venison), but even if I was still hunting as I once did, I wouldn’t shoot anything in my own yard. That just wouldn’t be right as tame as the deer have become. Nope, Bill and I are content to use rifle scopes and other gun accessories on our target guns and punch holes in paper targets, these days. No closed season on paper targets. That's why we joined a local shooting club. Best of luck to my deer hunting friends, this weekend, though and, if you need to share some venison ....
Monday, November 14, 2011Binoculars and the moon Finally, a clear night and a little lunar observing, but this time with the astronomy binoculars, instead of one of the telescopes. Yes, I know, you can’t see anywhere near as much lunar detail with astronomy binoculars as you can when looking through a telescope eyepiece. By telescope magnification standards, the 10x I get with my Nikon Astroluxe 10x70 is meager, but even so, observing the moon with binoculars does have its advantages. One advantage is that binoculars give you the same natural perspective that you get with your eyes. Images are right side up and correct right to left, just as you see things when not using binoculars. In telescopes, depending on the type of telescope and telescope accessories used, images are either upside down or reversed right to left. This can make it a bit awkward when reading moon maps, though I do have some moon maps setup with telescopes in mind. Still, I like being able to look back and forth at the moon with and without binoculars. The low magnification of binoculars also provides a big picture view of the moon. This allows you to take in all of the features at a glance, much as you get when you look at the average moon map. This big picture view is also quite lovely. The moon framed against a backdrop of stars or the moon close to another bright object, such as a bright planet is often a breathtaking sight. Of course, I still setup & use a telescope when it comes time to get down to fine details and close-up views, but, now and then, I like to take a step back and actually see the forest for the trees. Last night was such a night. Friday, November 11, 2011Telescope cool down time We had snow, last week and there has been ice on the lake every morning. Winter is here, no matter what the calendar says. For my astronomy, these cold winter nights offer some of the best viewing of the year in the telescope eyepiece or astronomy binoculars. Cold air on a clear winter night also tends to be dry air and that means excellent sky transparency. Nothing like the view of a dazzling open star cluster on a cold winter night! Winter, of course, also has its challenges when it comes time to setup & use a telescope. If you store your telescope indoors, for instance, you’ll need to park it at your observing site, outdoors, and then wait for the optics to cool down to air temperature - if you expect your telescope do perform at its optical best, that is. The mirrors or lenses in your telescope are actually flexing and changing shape as they cool down and that makes for very poor images. For small telescopes, cool down time is often as little as ten or fifteen minutes, so moving small telescopes indoors and outdoors is practical. For a large telescope, though, cool down time can be as much as an hour, depending on the size of the telescope, so that is quite another matter. Avoiding this cool down time is yet another good reason to store a large telescope outdoors or at least in your garage. My husband built a little shed just for my 12.5” Dobsonian telescope and not having to mess with cool down time was one of the reasons I asked him to build it for me. (He calls it our telescope outhouse for obvious reasons.) What could be better than a shed built just to store a large telescope? An observatory with a removable roof, of course. My Bill could definitely build one, but it may take a little bit more whining on my part. For this winter, a shed is just fine. Wednesday, November 09, 2011Wide-angle telescope eyepieces When it comes to telescopes and spotting scopes (small telescopes for daytime use), I’m addicted to big, wide-open fields of view and I’m willing to pay sometimes insane prices for telescope eyepieces and/or spotting scope eyepieces that provide those spacious views. I say addicted because I could do just as well in terms of seeing what I need to see with standard field of view eyepieces, though, yes, I could make a weak case that a wider field of view means I have to move the telescope or spotting scope less to keep the target in sight or that a wide field of view makes it easier to find what I want to see. Those are not my reasons for buying these expensive wide-angle eyepieces, though. The truth is that I simply love the feeling you get when you look through a wide-angle telescope eyepiece such as a Televue Nagler or Televue Ethos. It’s a subjective quality that some of us astronomers call immersion. You feel like you are right there, as opposed to looking through a tube or tunnel that comes with viewing through standard angle of view eyepieces. Truly, it is something that has to be experienced to be appreciated. I warn you, though: if you’ve never looked through one of these ultra wide angle telescope eyepieces, you, too, may become addicted to the view. Tuesday, November 08, 2011Spotting scope for the lake It’s nice to have a lake to watch, especially from the comfort of your home. What is it about lakes that so makes me want to grab the binoculars or spotting scopes and take a look? It’s been like this all my life. Could be my Norwegian blood or maybe it’s just all those years of looking through a birding spotting scope at a local marsh or lake to do some birdwatching. Whatever it is, lakes draw me and my optics like a magnet. Show me a lake and I automatically reach for the birding binoculars or my spotting scope. Yesterday, for instance, I watched a pair of otters through the spotting scope. The otters have been making daily appearances on our lake, this last month, though I doubt they’ll stick around when the lake freezes over. I also spotted a pair of Bald Eagles working low over the shoreline. No ducks, though, at least not yesterday. Better go take a peek though the spotting scope in case there are some on the lake, today. I've got a lake to check. Monday, November 07, 2011Pistol scope or red dot sight?My husband and I joined a local shooting club/range to do a little informal target shooting and why not? It’s fun and something we can do together, plus I know the basics of safe gun handling and shooting - in my younger days, I actually did a little amateur level small-bore handgun and rifle competition shooting. Since we already own a nice little 22 rifle with an excellent 4x riflescope in the Nikon Prostaff Rimfire 4x32, we decided to add a nice 22 target grade handgun to take to the shooting range with it. We decided on the Ruger Competition MKIII. Can’t beat this 22 handgun for the money (I owned an older version, years, ago). It’s rugged, durable and oh so accurate. It’s also one of the few 22 pistols on the market that come ready to go for mounting pistol scopes or red dot sights. That’s important to us because our old eyes ain’t what they used to be when it comes to using iron sights. At this point, I will probably go with a good red dot sight. No magnification means easy to steady and the red dot means no need to see both front and rear sights as when using iron sights. Myself, I prefer pistol scopes to better bring out the accuracy of a good handgun, but Bill has never shot a scope-mounted pistol and using magnification on a handgun takes some experience to handle well. For informal, fun target work, the red dot will do just fine. Now to look at holsters or, more likely, one of the lockable, waterproof cases to transport the pistol and shooting accessories to the range. Saturday, November 05, 2011Fun with small telescopes More fun with small telescopes the last few days. With the moon up, the name of the game has been the moon and planets. The deep-sky hunting for galaxies and nebulae with my large Dobsonian telescope will have to wait for evenings with no moon . In the meantime, my small refractor telescopes are doing a great job of keeping me busy. Friday night, I used the small 80mm LOMO triplet refractor to see the shadow of Jupiter’s moon, Io, as it crossed Jupiter’s surface. Using a Televue Radian 3.0mm eyepiece for 160x, the shadow was clearly visible as a small dark dot. This was a great example of how knowing what we are seeing in the telescope eyepiece makes all the difference. Of and by itself, there is nothing spectacular about seeing a dot, even a dot on a planet like Jupiter. Understanding, though, that the dot is actually a shadow of one of Jupiter’s large moons adds the perspective you need to appreciate what you are seeing. My thanks to Sky& Telescope for the heads up on this event, by the way. Having a target in mind when you setup & use a telescope also makes for more enjoyable observing. If the sky stays cloud free, I’ll be back at the telescope again, tonight. Friday, November 04, 2011Telescope eyepiece views When I was a young and eager amateur astronomer, there were nights when I stayed glued to the telescope eyepiece for the entire night and I do mean right after sunset to right before sunrise in the morning. I am still every bit as eager an amateur astronomer, now, some forty plus years, later, but I no longer have the stamina and, especially, the eyes for all night sessions. Two hours working the telescopes or astronomy binoculars currently describes a “serious” observing session for me. Any longer and these old eyes start to blur a bit. A great many of my sessions with the binoculars and telescopes are much shorter, sometimes as short as a half hour. That’s enough, though, to recharge my astronomy batteries and keep me going through a long string of cloudy nights. In the end, it’s not the number of things I see in the telescope eyepiece that I remember; it’s the beauty of what I see in the telescope that I remember. May it always be so. Small telescopes for the moonAfter almost two weeks of cloudy nights, the sky cleared, last night, so here comes Joanie and her telescopes, of course. Last night was small refractor telescope night. With the quarter moon filling the sky, it was time for lunar observing, rather than hunting for the faint stuff with the big Dobsonian telescope. Not that you can’t observe the moon with a big telescope, of course, but a small telescope, especially an optically excellent small telescope, will do a great job on the moon and do it with a lot less fuss and effort. My 80mm LOMO f6 triplet Apogee Ortho-Star refractor telescope is such a telescope. It’s currently the smallest telescope I own and it also serves, nicely, as my birding spotting scope when I don’t have to carry it too far. As for astronomy, it won’t show the faint stuff like my big Dobsonian telescope and won’t resolve quite as much detail as my slightly larger Televue Refractor, but if you love seeing stars as crisp pinpoints of light with no false color, right to the edge of the field, this small refractor telescope will make you swoon with pleasure. As for the moon, no color fringing at the edges of the moon as you get with lesser quality refractors. That’s no small achievement, by the way, for a short focal length refractor. Last night, the small crater, Conan, embedded near the spine of the Apennine Mountains, caught my attention. There were, of course, more obvious craters in the neighborhood, but Conan is such a break in the features of the mountains, it drew my eye. At 132x in the small refractor, the crater was almost spooky. Near it, there is a gap between some of the peaks in the Apennine which stood out boldly, thanks to the way the shadows fell. All in all, a great night of lunar observing with a small telescope. There is a time and a place in astronomy for large telescopes, but there is also a time and a place in astronomy for small telescopes, especially excellent small telescopes. Wednesday, November 02, 2011Televue Ethos and Televue Nagler With the excitement over the new Televue eyepieces, namely the Televue Ethos and Televue Delos, there is a ready and eager used market for amateur astronomers who want to sell their older model Televue telescope eyepieces for the new models. That works for me, because I actually prefer the older Televue Nagler eyepieces to the new Televue Ethos eyepieces. Don’t get me wrong. The Televue Ethos is one awesome telescope eyepiece. It’s beyond belief, in fact. All amateur astronomer owe it to themselves to take a look through this eyepiece. Unfortunately, the Ethos just doesn’t have enough useable eye relief for me when I am wearing my glasses. As a result, I don't see to any more field of view with the Ethos than I get with the long eye relief T4 models of the Naglers. This is important to me because I wear my glasses for all of my observing. Then, too, I am so used to using Televue Naglers in my telescopes I feel a bit lost without them. That’s a very sweet feeling to have, by the way. As for my new Nagler, it is the Televue Nagler 12.0mm T4. It is both a famous and infamous eyepiece in the telescope eyepiece world. Optics, as with all Televue Nagler eyepieces, are superb. On the other hand, it is known for its kidney bean effect - you'll get a blinking effect at the edge of the field if you fail to have the pupil of your eye directly over the sweet spot on the eyepiece. This effect is much worse for some observers than others. I have no problem with it at all, perhaps because I am so used to using compact binoculars that also require you to place your eyes precisely over the eyepieces to use them effectively. On to my next Nagler. Tuesday, November 01, 2011Clear skies for astronomy I’ve lived in both the eastern half of the country and the western half of the country – coast to coast and many points in between. Some locations have been better than others when it comes time to setup & use a telescope or uncase the astronomy binoculars, but even when trapped in the big city for the sake of a job, I never quit working the night sky with my binoculars and telescopes. Like most amateur astronomers, I’ve always worked with what I had available as to observing opportunities. Right now, we live in northern Wisconsin. On an astronomy observing opportunity scale of 1 to 10, I’d rank it right in the middle or a bit less at 4 or 5 in terms of cloudy nights versus clear nights. Like most eastern locations, when the clouds do roll in, up here in the north woods, they tend to park themselves a lot longer than I would like. Out west in the plains states and intermountain areas, weather systems move faster as a general rule, so you usually don’t have to wait as long for the clouds to leave. If we had chosen a place to retire strictly on the basis of my astronomy, then, we would have chosen a much drier climate somewhere out west. Leave our north woods, though? Never. Some cloudy nights are a small price to pay for living in paradise. |
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