--- In amasot@y..., Richard Harding <rharding@i...> wrote:
> Thanks for this Mike.  I am not 100 % sure about the focusing
questions, but enough to know that it will probably lead to a hassle
at the eyepiece.  I have enough problem with focus shift on the C-8
without adding more problems with these binoviewers!  I know that
Todd may think that $500 to $600 is a bargain, but this is the price
of a 31 Nagler!!  I think I'll pass and buy the Crayford focuser for
my C-8 to take the mirror shift out of the formula instead ;o)
> Richard

A binoviewer should not make focus shift on an SCT any worse.

However, it might encourage you to use higher powers which does
make focus shift more annoying.

However, aftermarket C8 focusers should be reasonably cheap. Years
ago Tuthill sold a rack and pinion focuser for C8s that also
eliminated focus shift.

But I think you want all three: the N31, binoviewer and
focuser. You just have to decide what order you want them in.

Ah, the joy of toys.

-ad

ps. Mike is still winning. Time to catch up guys!

Thanks for this Mike.  I am not 100 % sure about the focusing questions, but
enough to know that it will probably lead to a hassle at the eyepiece.  I have
enough problem with focus shift on the C-8 without adding more problems with
these binoviewers!  I know that Todd may think that $500 to $600 is a bargain,
but this is the price of a 31 Nagler!!  I think I'll pass and buy the Crayford
focuser for my C-8 to take the mirror shift out of the formula instead ;o)
Richard

Hi Richard,

Never used a UO binoviewer but this is what Todd Gross says about them:
1. Microscope-head style binoviewers (Celestron-Orion -University Optics):
Adapted from Microscope heads, small prisms with limited clear aperture, 45
degree angle rather than straight through or 90 degree angle. Most will plug
right into a 1.25" star diagonal, some like Orion's screw right onto the
back of a Schmidt - Cassegrain scope. You can adapt Celestron's binoviewer
to fit onto a schmidt-cassegrain like that using their standard visual back.

The disadvantage of this binoviewer is that you cannot easily use eyepieces
much over 18 or 20mm before you will see significant vignetting. The general
light throughput is also not quite as good, and the 45 degree angle can be
somewhat distracting. You cannot easily use these at all on reflectors.

The other major disadvantage is the problem with focus shift as you adjust
the two eyepieces (push-pull) for the different distances required for
different sets of eyes. In fact, even with just ONE user, you sometimes have
to change this interpupilary distance to accommodate different sets of
eyepieces, and here again you will need to refocus every step of the way as
you adjust the width between the eyepieces.

The advantage of this style is the price, they tend to run around $500-$600
or so new, and a bit less second hand. (Orion's list is $649) They come in
and out of availability and when I checked several months ago, the Celestron
unit was not available, the Orion unit was.

The other advantage is that on the Moon and planets at high power, you seem
to be able to get as good performance, or just about anyway, as the more
expensive units. Like all binoviewers, it takes a lot of focus travel to be
able to accommodate them, see further down in this article for details.


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Harding <rharding@...>
To: amasot@yahoogroups.com <amasot@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 10:06 AM
Subject: [amasot] bino-viewer


>Has anyone had experience with the University Optics bino-viewer.
>Though not cheap ($500 US), I am considering purchasing them complete
>with UO orthos (12.5 mm. and 18 mm. ?).  Comments appreciated.
>Richard
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>amasot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>

--- In amasot@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote:

> PS- B.T.W., Attilla, who was that author you mentioned the other
time,
> you know, regarding Photons and interesting scientific theories
> thereof?

I think you mean the "Transactional Interpretation of Quantum
Mechanics". Its certainly much easier to understand than that
collapsing-wavefunction cophenagen-interpretation stuff.

It's written by a cool guy called John G. Cramer. His paper on his
transactional intepretation  of QM is online at:

http://mist.npl.washington.edu/npl/int_rep/tiqm/TI_toc.html

Cramer is an interesting fellow. His homepage is here:

http://faculty.washington.edu/jcramer/

According to some net postings, science popularizer John Gribben
has written a book that explains Cramer's interpretation:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316328197/qid=984348124/sr=1-
21/ref=sc_b_21/105-1697110-8142369

(I've read Cramer's paper. Not Gribbin's book.)


Cramer's interpretation opens the possiblity that every photon
is both everywhere and everywhen. Heavy. The 60's were gooood to
him. :)


-ad

ps.

Hey, Mike. Thanks again for fine food and fine observing.

Sess. #277  9:45-11:00  Mike Wirths' lm=5.5 s=5
Moon near Full       Clear Skies            -4C

A bit Windy, but not in the observatory... ;-)

A most excellent dinner at Mike's home with the much reknowned Butter
Tandoori Chiken and most tasty ever lentil recipe.  Janice, Ingrid,
Attilla and myself were Pam and Mike's lucky guests.  Many thanks to
them for such a feast, and the warm hospitality as well.

An observing session began later in the evening, with Mike, Attilla &
myself attending.  ( Janice had not brought observing garb. )  We
observed with Mike's 'smaller' 18" scope.  Moon, just past full,
reduced limiting magnitude to maybe 5.5

Moon 1:  A very attractive target that we returbed to a few times in
the evening.  Most striking was Tycho's rays - they seemed about twice
as detailed as I had seen them thus far.  Each ray seemed to have
small thin filaments.

Jupiter: Was getting low and so was barely above the northern edge of
the pulled out observatory roof.  Unfortunately, the seeing was only
passable.  It just so happens a moon was emerging and a shadow transit
was in progress with the inky dark shadow located in the middle on of
a belt.  Bino-viewers, sporting a couple of Zeiss lenses I believe,
were added by Attilla - you see so much more with 2 eyes.

Moon 2: This time we looked at many features on the moon at approx.
200x  The most striking thing for me was to notice how the usually
smooth grey mare areas were peppered with literally hundreds of tiny
craterlets.  Rich details, and some hits of coloration - blue-grey vs.
brown-gray vs. white, etc.  Messier A & B Craters with their con-trail
like ejecta was another favourite of mine.  Aristarcus was extremely
bright white.  We also looked at the crater Petavius, which was well
placed for us to see the prominent single radial line within it. I'll
upload and old sketch file called Petavius.gif to the sketches
directory on this group.  Night vision was quite impaired after
observing the moon.

Castor - binary - kind of yellowish to my moon-blasted eyes, but more
accurately whitish-blue to Attilla.  Sep 4.0"  & whitish blue says the
manual.

Gamma Leonis - binary - Sep 4.4" - these actually were yellowish. Tube
currents were noticed when stars placed out of focus.  This was due to
the lowering temperature outside.

Polaris - binary - Sep 18.4  Yellowish primary and whitish-grey
secondary.

Mizar - binary - since we were dooing doubles without any maps, it
needed a visit.  Sep 14.4" - the 18" scope was definitely overkill for
this one.  Still, quite attractive.

Epsilon Bootis - binary - Sep 2.8" & a bit of colour constrast (
yellow - blue-green ).  Two magnitude difference between them makes
them more attractive to my eye.

Muchos Gratias, Amigos!

Roland Prevost( aka Photon Man )

PS- B.T.W., Attilla, who was that author you mentioned the other time,
you know, regarding Photons and interesting scientific theories
thereof?

Geez this group is busier than you know what other group! It maketh me
chuckle!

-Anyhow Attilla's and Richards responses were so thorough that I have little
else to add except that my experience with the Speers is that they are a
good middle of the road quality ep that does well in a slow scope (not too
good in a fast dob though), but can't compare with the Pentax in terms of
quality.
  Zeiss- yes they are the penultimate ep in terms of quality, the Germans
spare no expense in making the best of the best. The Zeiss eps I'm getting
are 54 deg AFOV which is not too bad, they come in 25,16,10mm sizes and are
only slightly more expensive than the Tak el eps. The Canadian distributer
is Maison Astronomie, through the German dealer Markus Ludes. Heres his
website it has a lot of rare, and unusual eps: http://www.apm-telescopes.de/
Some of the better ones are the Nikons,and from what i hear the ultrscan ep.
Zeiss also makes a 90 deg ep but its expensive and has not enough in focus
on fast scopes.
  So we'll have to do some comparsons at my place when the weathers a little
warmer and hands don't freeze from handling eps!
I have to run, I have to start marinating some Tandoori chicken (sorry to
tease you Richard but there will be other times!). I know Rol I told you and
Janice that I'm making butter chicken but the recipe Tandoori so its doubley
rich!

--Nigel hyphen hypen incubator jones-wirths
(Silly Party candidate)
-----Original Message-----
From: r.prevost@... <r.prevost@...>
To: amasot@yahoogroups.com <amasot@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Friday, March 09, 2001 5:36 PM
Subject: [amasot] Re: Drop 10mm Speers for Pentax XL 10.5mm?


>Wow, when people help around here, they REALLY HELP! Merci Beaucoup
>for the links and advice.  I've now read every link, ( and feel
>more confused than before! ).  I guess nothing beats doing a side by
>side comparison.  Perhaps I might be able to do that sometime, if I
>can just manage to pry the 10.5mm Pentax XL from Richard's happy
>fingers.
>
>Zeiss?  Isn't that the German company that makes these really great
>camera lenses?  Mike, you around here somewhere?  What are the Zeiss
>eyepieces like for fine details on the planetary viewing?  Would it
>easily beat a U.O. Ortho, if that was the main purpose?
>
>Anyway, thanks very much for all the help.  Now, instead of not
>remembering accurately the fine details of what you so kindly explain
>to me, I can just look up the relevant postings!
>
>As Janice would say:
>
>Photons 4 Phreedom!!
>
>Rol.
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>amasot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

--- In amasot@y..., attilla.danko@s... wrote:
> --- In amasot@y..., attilla.danko@s... wrote:
> >
> > 13 people rated the 10.5 mm Pentax XL as a 9.85 out of
> > 10 with a 0.35 standard deviation (search for "SMC XL 10.5mm"):
> > http://www.scopereviews.com/page3b.html
> >
> >
>
> Oops. I cut an pasted the wrong link. I mean this one:
>
> http://www.excelsis.com/vote/astro/eyepieces/index.html
>

No No. Forget that one. Try this:

http://www.excelsis.com/vote/astro/eyepieces/Pentax3/


"Amongst our "links" are such diverse elements as:  fear, surprise,
ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and
nice red uniforms - Oh damn!"


-ad

--- In amasot@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote:
> Richard Sent me the following really helpful message, then asked me
to
> post it so that "Attilla can rag" him.  Looks like it's open
season,

Richard, I wouldnt rag you for that. I thought that was an exellent
post on eyepiece selection.

Now, being too easily confused with Hare Krishna at sidewalk
sessions, about that I might rag you. :)

Every sp..m is precious.

-ad

Richard Sent me the following really helpful message, then asked me to
post it so that "Attilla can rag" him.  Looks like it's open season,
Attilla! ;-)

And thanks very much for the advice Richard!

Richard Wrote:...

Hi Roland!!

Your question is complex.  I will try and sort out the various
elements.

Price...I paid $378.00 Can at my door (cost of eyepiece+ shipping
+taxes).  A good eyepiece (pentax, televue, tak etc.) should be about
80% of new ie. .8 x 378 = $302.  So no, $350 is not a good price.
Offer $320 delivered. However, the eyepiece is overpriced if bought
in Canada - $475 new, so I assume the sellor paid the high Canadian
price.

If you are looking for an excellent planetary eyepiece only (and this
is important...we are talking about planetary only) the contenders
are ALL orthos and Taks (a modified ortho).  The argument is usually
between Pentax orthos (.965 format only and discontinued), Zeiss
orthos (I think discontinued) and Tak LEs (Mike has two of these and
they are sharp, but eye relief and field are small).  These are all
premium eyepieces in the same price range as the Pentax XLs (a Tak
will run you $30 US less).  But remember, the wide field you have in
the Speers will not be there.

Speers-Waler vs. Pentax.  I must admit that since eye-relief is so
important to me, that the tight relief of the Speers cause me not to
enjoy the full field.  As to contrast, I think that the speers is
good but not in the class of the Pentax which uses ED glass and I
think that this is the reason for the incredible contrast and colour
rendering for these multiple lens eyepieces.  Apparently, the Pentax
have a far superior edge correction compared to the Speers.  While
this is important for fast scopes, I don't have a fast telescope.  I
think we should go to Mike's and compare our 2 eyepieces in his
scopes...you WILL see the difference.  Howvever this is a moot point
since the used eyepiece will be gone (they sell quickly used).  I
think when you are paying this kind of money, you will want an
eyepiece that:

1. has good edge correction should you ever get a fast scope ;o)
2. holds its value (such as the pentax)
3. has the maximum field for the magnification.

In conclusion, I presently have the following eyepieces:

35 Panoptic
25 Plossel (came with scope...not used)
24 Speers-Waler
21 Pentax LX
20 Ultima (would sell but my daughter Catherine loves it)
18 Speers-Waler FOR SALE
17 Vixen LV wide angle (nice 65 deg. eyepiece but not a Nagler!)
14 Speers-Waler (for sale, I ordered a 14 mm. Pentax!!)
10.5 Pentax
7.5 Orion LV (sale pending to Jean Dorais...the image is not as good
as the image of the 14 speers with barlow)

This is a lot of eyepieces.  I could view very well with the 35, 21,
14, and 10.5 along with my 2 x Ultima barlow.  What I mean to say is
a few HIGH QUALITY eyepieces are worth a stack of lessor eyepieces.
BTW...one place where the Speers are superior to the Pentaxes (other
than price) is in stray light.  The large primary glass of the
Pentaxes picks up the light from surrounding bright lights when
viewing at Chapters.  Your eye glued to the Speers prevents this.

My two cents worth!!

Ricardo

--- In amasot@y..., attilla.danko@s... wrote:
>
> 13 people rated the 10.5 mm Pentax XL as a 9.85 out of
> 10 with a 0.35 standard deviation (search for "SMC XL 10.5mm"):
> http://www.scopereviews.com/page3b.html
>
>

Oops. I cut an pasted the wrong link. I mean this one:

http://www.excelsis.com/vote/astro/eyepieces/index.html

May your wave-front errors be zero.

-ad

Photon man wrote about buying a used 10.5mm Pentax XL for
cdn$350.


>1- Price is reasonable or not?

Hmm. Efstonscience in toronto lists the 10.5mm Pentax
at cdn$449.00. Eagle Optics sells it for us$238 (about cdn$424 plus
shipping). I'd say $350 is a so-so price.



> 2- How does the 10.5 do on planets - were you saying Ortho-like?
>

If you want the very best planetary view, you would probably be
better off with a narrow-field eyepice with less glass. Good
choices are University Optics Orthos, Televue Plossls and
Celestron Ultimas (modified plossls). The best bang for the buck
in that list  is probably the University orthos. If you like used
eyepieces (assuming you can find one) the 10.5mm Meade Research Grade
ortho from the late 70s is one of the best. If you want a modern
eyepice and if money is no object,
consider Takahasi and Zeiss. The advantage of those two is that
Mike will soon have enough of them for us to have a really good
eyepice comparison party at his place. :) (Right?)

> 3- I still have the 10mm Speers-Waller - has comfortable eye relief
> for me.  Ignoring the eye relief, is Pentax 10.5 substantially
better?

Hard to tell without an A-B comparison. Juding by what I have
read, I would guess "probably". But the real question is "is it
worth the extra money to you".

Given the absence of empirical data to work with hmm....

The 10mm Speers is a good eyepice. From what I read, the 10.5mm
Pentax XL is very good. Some people prefer the pentax 10.5mm to
a 9mm Nagler (high praise indeed). The best advice would be to
look through both (which I have not done). However here are a
few web links from people who have at least looked through the
10.5mm pentax:

Short review of Pentax 7mm XL hidden here: (search for
"pentax"):
http://www.scopereviews.com/page3b.html

A comparison of pentax 7mm xl with others.
http://www.cloudynights.com/eyepieces/7mm.htm

A really big personal review of many eyepices with several
references to 10.5mm Pentax XL.(search for "pentax"):
http://www.cloudynights.com/eyepieces/Magnum%20Opus.htm

13 people rated the 10.5 mm Pentax XL as a 9.85 out of
10 with a 0.35 standard deviation (search for "SMC XL 10.5mm"):
http://www.scopereviews.com/page3b.html


In your circumstances, I'd probably keep the Speers and get a
super-high quality planetary eyepice to compliment it.


May billion (or zero) year-old photons saturate your retinas,

-ad

Richard, are you pitching for some kind of group photo or what!?

Once you've recovered from your group hug, and if you're not too
fragile yet, might I ask you for a bit of eyepiece advice? ;-)

There's a Pentax 10.5mm for sale used, listed at the following Web
site ( that Canada-Wide Astro one ).

http://ftp2.ica.net/~pmarkov/2001_mar.htm

The seller asks for $350.00 - mint condition.  I don't remember the
exact details you already gave me, so three questions pop up:

In your opinion...

1- Price is reasonable or not?

2- How does the 10.5 do on planets - were you saying Ortho-like?

3- I still have the 10mm Speers-Waller - has comfortable eye relief
for me.  Ignoring the eye relief, is Pentax 10.5 substantially better?
( you've had both ).

Have a good weekend and say hello to Judith...

Photonically,

Rol

In a similar vein as Mike's MP3, but for persons who might be away
from their computers, and might still wish to use their own voices
to sing an irreverant Monty tune.

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/filmtv/brian.html

R.

PS - Is this really an amateur astronomy group, or is it:
"The Amateur Monty Afficionados Seeking Outrageous Truth?"

Yes Yes you give these people an inch they take the whole bloody lot! ;)

  Now you think I could find a halfway decent shrubbery pic? NO!  useless
internet, virtual trees I found, vast libraries of phylogenetic monographs
and was there a picture of shubbery? NO!

  BUT, I did find a file that was both Astronomy related and QUITE silly!
Check out the new sillyfiles folder!!!

-NI!
-----Original Message-----
From: Attilla Danko <attilla.danko@...>
To: amasot@yahoogroups.com <amasot@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, March 08, 2001 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: [amasot] Re: And then there were 3!!!


>>  Hey Attilla can I upload a whole whack of shrubbery pics???
>>
>
>
>Sigh. I'm afraid so. It's clearly a hole in the charter which implies that
monty
>python is the only acceptable off-topic content. Upload away.
>
>Now we see the violence inherent in the system.
>
>:)
>
>-ad
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Mike Wirths <mwirths@...>
>To: <amasot@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 9:42 PM
>Subject: Re: [amasot] Re: And then there were 3!!!
>
>
>> Hey Richard,
>>
>> With all that booze you'd be a Knight who said Hic.........right then on
to
>> business.......I would like a ....SHRUBBERY!!!
>>
>>  Wow a -5 meteor cool I wish I would have stayed up longer, I did however
>> get some pretty good views of Jupiter, which had a really cool dark barge
on
>> its NEB, the seeing was'nt good enough to take more than about 300X.
>>
>>  Hey Attilla can I upload a whole whack of shrubbery pics???
>> I think this is a great tonic for all the bs lately ie lots of
silliness!!
>>
>> ---Ni ecky ecky vetang
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Harding <richard.harding@...>
>> To: amasot@yahoogroups.com <amasot@yahoogroups.com>
>> Date: Thursday, March 08, 2001 7:12 PM
>> Subject: [amasot] Re: And then there were 3!!!
>>
>>
>> >As for the meteor, Janice and Roland had plied me with prodigious
>> >amounts of alcohol, so I saw nothing!!   Just kidding, the meteor was
>> >bright, but the halo was INCREDIBLE!!
>> >Richard
>> >>
>> >> We looked at the sky when Richard was leaving, just after 11pm, and
>> >> noticed a very prominent and quite large ice haze cicle around the
>> >> moon.  Best one I've seen thus far.  We are talking about 50 to 60
>> >> degrees in diameter.  The band of this circle was perhaps 10
>> >degrees
>> >> wide.  To top it all off, while we were looking up, a magnitude -5
>> >(?)
>> >> meteor zoomed across the circle, under the moon, to end in a bright
>> >> white ball at the opposite side of the circle, near the edge.  Very
>> >> bright, many times brighter than Jupiter.  Nice co-incidence that
>> >we
>> >> were looking up at that time & from that angle, to see such a
>> >diamond
>> >> ring effect.
>> >>
>> >> You never know what you'll see when you look up!
>> >>
>> >> Let Photons Rule! ;-)
>> >> Roland
>> >>
>> >> PS- Ni! Ni! Ni!
>> >
>> >
>> >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>> >amasot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>> amasot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>>
>>
>>
>> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>amasot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

Hey Richard,

With all that booze you'd be a Knight who said Hic.........right then on to
business.......I would like a ....SHRUBBERY!!!

  Wow a -5 meteor cool I wish I would have stayed up longer, I did however
get some pretty good views of Jupiter, which had a really cool dark barge on
its NEB, the seeing was'nt good enough to take more than about 300X.

  Hey Attilla can I upload a whole whack of shrubbery pics???
I think this is a great tonic for all the bs lately ie lots of silliness!!

---Ni ecky ecky vetang


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Harding <richard.harding@...>
To: amasot@yahoogroups.com <amasot@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, March 08, 2001 7:12 PM
Subject: [amasot] Re: And then there were 3!!!


>As for the meteor, Janice and Roland had plied me with prodigious
>amounts of alcohol, so I saw nothing!!   Just kidding, the meteor was
>bright, but the halo was INCREDIBLE!!
>Richard
>>
>> We looked at the sky when Richard was leaving, just after 11pm, and
>> noticed a very prominent and quite large ice haze cicle around the
>> moon.  Best one I've seen thus far.  We are talking about 50 to 60
>> degrees in diameter.  The band of this circle was perhaps 10
>degrees
>> wide.  To top it all off, while we were looking up, a magnitude -5
>(?)
>> meteor zoomed across the circle, under the moon, to end in a bright
>> white ball at the opposite side of the circle, near the edge.  Very
>> bright, many times brighter than Jupiter.  Nice co-incidence that
>we
>> were looking up at that time & from that angle, to see such a
>diamond
>> ring effect.
>>
>> You never know what you'll see when you look up!
>>
>> Let Photons Rule! ;-)
>> Roland
>>
>> PS- Ni! Ni! Ni!
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>amasot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

--- In amasot@y..., "Richard Harding" <richard.harding@s...> wrote:
> Hi to All!!!!!!

So good to see you here, Ricardo of Harding.  Well met!

And so, with Janice online as well ( welcomed her locally ) , now we
are 5!  Heck, with numbers like that, we might just be able to muster
up an asteroid detection line or something.

The sky is not the limit!

Rol

This sounds like a fun place - my 3.1 inch Vista & I are in!!

For my first official act as a member of this discussion group, I will
get me to the nearest Roger's outlet before the moon is next new and
retrieve a copy of the Holy Grail.

Lady J

"My Kingdom for a Horsehead"

In response to the Knight who up until recently said "Ni!":

When you saw that amazing halo in the daytime, too bad you didn't have
one of those chrome hubcaps that people use to take all-sky photos.
Given that this rare ring configuration went all the way around the
sky, it would have made an amazing photo.  Still, I imagine you're not
in any danger of forgetting it either.

Since I started observing, four years ago, it's interesting to note
all the sky events I had never noticed before.  Ice fog haloes,
fireballs, sundogs, Venus' belt, Zodiacal light, etc...   And, on a
simpler level, I'll bet that Janice & I have seen 5X more stunning
sunsets per year than we had previously.  I guess these are just some
of the peripheral bonuses that come with regular observing.

Almost Any Skies!

Rol

--- In amasot@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote:

  > We looked at the sky when Richard was leaving, just after 11pm,
and
> noticed a very prominent and quite large ice haze cicle around the
> moon.  Best one I've seen thus far.  We are talking about 50 to 60
> degrees in diameter.  The band of this circle was perhaps 10
degrees
> wide.

Indeed. Halos are neat. They come in many varieties. The coolest
one I've seen was during the day. It was a cold winter day. It
was nominally clear but there was thin fog all over the sky.
Actually, it was an ice fog. There was a beautiful ring around
the sun perhaps 50 degrees in diamater. However, the cool part
was another ring that didnt center on the sun at tall. It was
paralell to the horizon and went right around the sky at the same
altitude as the sun. The two rings intersecting each other made
for very cool sight. Apparantly the horizontal ring requires
ice crystals suspended in the air to be growing in a particular
habit (crystallographers lingo) that is quite rare.

It was very cool. And a lot closer than 8.5G ly


> Roland
>
> PS- Ni! Ni! Ni!



Attilla of Smeg.

Oops, wrong british-absurdist-humor-reference. ... (sounds of search
engine flipping web pages...) ....



Attilla

PS- "Ekky-ekky-ekky-ekky-z'Bang, zoom-Boing, z'nourrrwringnmmm".

--- In amasot@y..., mwirths@s... wrote:
> -Ni!

Welcome, Oh Knight, to this extremely small, but enthusiastic enclave
of observing buffs!  Be most welcome, Mike of Wirths, for thine good
reputation preceedes thee...

MINI OBSERVING REPORT:
Ricardo of Harding was over here for dinner tonight, and we shared a
pleasant evening.  Even though we spent most of the evening chatting,
and only looked at the sky for 60 seconds, I still have this short
observing report to post:

We looked at the sky when Richard was leaving, just after 11pm, and
noticed a very prominent and quite large ice haze cicle around the
moon.  Best one I've seen thus far.  We are talking about 50 to 60
degrees in diameter.  The band of this circle was perhaps 10 degrees
wide.  To top it all off, while we were looking up, a magnitude -5(?)
meteor zoomed across the circle, under the moon, to end in a bright
white ball at the opposite side of the circle, near the edge.  Very
bright, many times brighter than Jupiter.  Nice co-incidence that we
were looking up at that time & from that angle, to see such a diamond
ring effect.

You never know what you'll see when you look up!

Let Photons Rule! ;-)
Roland

PS- Ni! Ni! Ni!

Anyone know a web page with good long range weather
forecasts for ottawa?

If there is one, I'd like to try getting the calendar items
to automatically link to the right long term weather forcast.

Your cloudy-night coding weenie,

-ad

Hi there,

  I'm new to the region and am anxious to find an astronomy group that
isn't into bullshit politics and ego trips... I think i have found
the right place! ;>)--

-Ni!

Mike the anarchic photon

Monday Feb.26th/2001
Sess# 276  7:30 - 10:30  Farm Road  lm=6.0  s=7  clear -11C

Observing session, by myself, to test out Janice's f/5 80mm Short Tube
Scope, at a darker site.  I used the newly acquired 3x Barlow I
got from Matt Weeks, to achieve higher magnification on the planets
than previous tries, with this small scope.

Venus - Just love venus when it's a very thin crescent like this.
It's so much larger at such times.  Could not detect any variations
in shading on the lit part.

Moon - Crescent shaped as well.  Darker area showing much detail with
earth shine.  Small scope pushed to 96X yeilds a decent view after
all.

Saturn - 2 moons visible, in this small scope.  Cassinni division
visible, colour detected on sphere, shadow on rings.  120x was best
for this one.

Jupiter - caught it just when a moon was touching the surface edge on
the way to dissapearing behing it, I think.  Attractive view, though
with much less fine detail in bands than what I'm used to.

M81&82 - Ahh, this is where the wide field pays off.  I can easily get
a 2 or 3 degree field of view.  These differing galaxies, one oval
and one pencil-shaped, in this wider setting, are most attractive
indeed.

M65&66 - Same pleasure as the 2 galaxies above.  Nice to be able to
see them in a wider field of view, in context with stars all around.
Could not detect the 3rd nearby, fainter NGC.

Gamma Leo - Binary star.  Wow, do refractors, even inexpensive ones,
ever do a good job on binaries.  Two bright little yellowish
ball-bearings with much dark between them.

NGC2903 - An excellent and bright galaxy in Leo that somehow did not
make it onto the Messier list.  Easy to find and quite distinct in
the f/5 80mm Short Tube.

Overall, I'm impressed by how much even a 3" scope can show you.  It's
finderscope is puny, so the strategy for finding things is completely
different than with the SCT8". However, used with a 32mm ep, the
short tube itself becomes a super 16x 3 degree F.O.V. findercope of
it's own.  Pleasant to be under dark skies again.

Rol.

--- In amasot@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote:
> To this group's coder...
>
> Just wondering if this Group's "secret invisible time machine" had
> been utilized once again -- this time to jump to a completely
> different "March 7th", where the phase of the moon is a crescent
> instead of the near full moon that it should be?
>
> All for now,
> A Fuss-pot member,
>
> R.

It seems the time machine used for predicting cloud cover
has gotten mixed up with the time machine used for
predicting moon phases. I shall have to pour cold water
over both of them.

Thanks for pointing that out. Feel free to find more bugs.

-ad

--- In amasot@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote:
> A local astronomy telescope viewing for girl scouts that Janice and
I
> were going to attend will be cancelled due to weather conditions.
> Snow and wind will make it impossible for us to give a sky tour to
> about 10 kids and their leaders, in our community.
>
> We were going to attend as Janice & Roland, gentle amateur
> astronomers.  Maybe another time!
>
> Photons Rule!
> Roland

Too bad about the weather.

However, next time you and Jan are out volanteering as individual
gentle astronomers, feel free to invite your gentle astronomer
freinds along for company (if you feel like it). Or you can just
borrow my green laser.

I think it would be very cool if there was a place for astronomy
volanteers, of all clubs or no clubs, to have a place to ask for
each other's help. Could there be a mailing list or a website or
something?  ;)

Clearer skies.

-ad

--- In amasot@y..., attilla.danko@s... wrote:
> Nice pix you uploaded to the files section. Keep it up. We have 20
> meg of space to use up. :)

OK, Attilla, I uploaded a few of my sketches to this Group in the
directory at the following address:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amasot/files/Astro%20SKETCHES/

I'm hoping this might encourage 'some members' of AMASOT to attempt
their own sketches eventually.  It's just too much fun to pass up!

You get Photons 4 Phree!

Rol

A local astronomy telescope viewing for girl scouts that Janice and I
were going to attend will be cancelled due to weather conditions.
Snow and wind will make it impossible for us to give a sky tour to
about 10 kids and their leaders, in our community.

We were going to attend as Janice & Roland, gentle amateur
astronomers.  Maybe another time!

Photons Rule!
Roland

Nice pix you uploaded to the files section. Keep it up. We have 20
meg of space to use up. :)

-ad

Check it out!

If you visit the Home page for AMASOT and click on the next day or
two, you get the calendar report AND a map of the weather in the
future.  Now "everyone" can have their very own time machines!

Check the cloud cover for observing, without having to hit any
seperate Environment Canada links.  A nice bit of coding, for those in
the know.  And extremely useful too...

Great feature Mr. Danko!

Mr. Prevost

The ones next to the moohphase icons?

There little bits of a satellite picture from the future.

The Canadian Meteological Center runs a big computer simulation
that predicts cloud cover in canada for up to 48 hours in
the future.

The calendar on this group automatically links to the right
CMC prediction page for the evening of the event date.
The little blue icons mark which calendar items are within the
48 hour precdiction range of CMC. If you look closely you'll
see that they are slightly different. They are actually little
bit of the real forcast image. The wiggly black line is
the ottawa river. If you click on the calendar event link,
you'll goto a page with event details and a bigger cloud forcast
map.

The point is that we can use the CMC images to get an idea
if its going to be clear on the night of a starparty.

Seeing 48 hours into the future is pretty cool, I think.

-ad