Robert,
I was telling Ken that Orion ships to FPO addresses, which is how I got my
scope. It's the first one I've ever purchased and it only took about 2
weeks to have it delivered. It's an XT6 Classic Dobsonian, which I figured
to be a good beginner scope.

You may want to get some lessons on the rain dancing since it would seem
that you have only been able to produce a significant amount of clouds. :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: RACAstronomy@yahoogroups.com [mailto:RACAstronomy@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of asellus.borealis
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 13:58
To: RACAstronomy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [RACAstronomy] Re: Hey Everyone! Looking for some friends and
possibly some help!

Hi Ken and Salvatore,

My name is Robert, the currently jobless RAC "webmaster", living in
Nanjo-City, the Wild South of Okinawa.

If you have a military address on this island then any shipment can be
treated as US national freight.

Since I am not related to US military, I have chosen a Celestron Nexstar 5i
which offers a favorable combination of aperture and portability. Celestron
ships worldwide.
Nowadays, the larger Nexstar SE 6 has the same price tag.

My workhorse is a Watec N120 mounted with second hand camera lenses and
connected to a TV monitor via a composite video cable. An old Celestron
Nexstar GT mount upgraded with the latest handcontrol firmware performs
tracking and GoTo.

This monochrome CCD camera is identical with the StellaCam II
(http://www.astrovid.com/prod_details.php?pid=6
<http://www.astrovid.com/prod_details.php?pid=6> ) The newer model,
StellaCam III, comes with even more impressive specifications.

However, this setup is not suitable for planetary observation and
photography where USB webcams come in more handy.
The Watec/StellaCam is best for deep sky and wide field observations while
you could enjoy the sky with your family in front of the TV :-)

Just another equipment idea.

As for the duration of clear sky intervals, I am as helpless as you are.
Actually, I am growing vegetables and performed rain dances since this area
didn't see any noteworthy rain for two months :-)

Cheers
Robert

--- In RACAstronomy@yahoogroups.com <mailto:RACAstronomy%40yahoogroups.com>
, "Hiroshi- desu!"
<samuraiken@...> wrote:
>
> Salvatore,
>
> Nice to meet you!
> Currently i do not have a telescope with which to use, and am
having a bit
> of trouble finding a company that will ship one here (Meade
apparently has a
> policy with all it's dealers that it will not ship to other
countries
> outside of the US). What kind of equipment do you have? I've been
using my
> digital camera on some clear nights to take some 1 minute
exposures, and
> while some of it looks pretty nice, it's still pretty limiting on
what you
> can see with it. I live near camp courtney, and while there's a
bit of
> light pollution there, it's not very hard to just romp off
somewhere near a
> farm and start gazing up at the sky. If only it would stay clear
for more
> than a day!
>
> Ken
>