| Quick write-up. |
[Jul. 9th, 2006|10:15 pm] |
I visited the The Columbus Astronomical Society to check out a meeting and see what sort of scopes and people would be there. When I arrived at The Perkins Observatory, I was pleasantly surprised to find at least 20 telescopes set up on the lawn, and easily that many more stored inside the observatory. The lecture room was full as well. I asked around, and found the treasurer, who signed my family up for a membership, and then I was off to scout out the assorted telescopes and see what I could glean.
1. 8" Schmidt Cassengrain telescopes were all over the place, even some venerable Celestron 8's.
2. 8" Dobsonians were also well represented.
3. There were a number of home made Newtonian style telescopes on Trackball mounts as well as a very spiffy 4.5" Newtonian on a modified dobsonian mount on a tripod.
4. There was only one other Meade LX series, an LX200.
5. There was one spiffy 5" Achromatic refractor
6. The 8" scopes were really the upper end of what was there.. however, there was a 15" Obsession telescope in the observatory that was not set up.
The actual lack of 'big iron' dobs and such was surprising, though, with the amount of moonlight, the observational options were limited. It seemed that a goodly portion of the people there all knew each other from a long association. They were, however, eager to show off the capabilities of their telescopes, big and small, as well as share the secrets of how they made their own scopes.
I was pleased to find out that my LX10 put in a quite acceptable performance in the face of such a wide array of scopes, and the fellow with the LX200 was pretty much getting the same quality of images I am. I spent a good deal of time sharing my scope as well, and several other newer members picked my brain about telescopes. I answered everything I could, and deferred to the more experienced astronomers when I was asked questions out of my real range of expertise. Trying to focus the telescope for other people while wearing my glasses was a pain, though no one seemed unable to see what they were supposed to see. I definitely see now how different quality eyepieces will radically improve or degrade a viewing experience. My eyepiece set is definitely bush leagues. Acceptable, but nothing to write home about.
The observers broke up about 11:30pm, and headed to the Frishe's Big Boy on Route 23. I met a few of the long time members and grilled one of the fellows there who owns an 18" Obsession scope. I can see that a step ladder is going to be in order, or I will have to seriously consider scaling down to the 14.5-16" Starmaster scopes. I also found out they are going to the CAS dark sky site in two weeks, during the new moon. I am seriously thinking about attending as they said it's quite likely the really big stuff will be out and in use. Hands on experience so I can differentiate between scopes and eyepieces is invaluable.
All in all, well worth the family membership fee. I expect to learn a great deal over the next year, and I hope to continue to improve both my observation skills, and improve on the performance of the equipment I have the use off. |
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| Comments: |
Yay!! :)
I'm glad you finally broke down and joined the club Manfred. :) Sounds like there were a nice array of scopes on the field and you had a good time. Was anyone able to give you some advice on the focusing problem you've been having with your LX?
Well, have to keep moving on...nothing but clouds since last Thursday.
*Hugs*
Clear, dark skies!
Swift Fox
Well, the fellow with the LX200 has a mirror lock, so he does not have the image shift issues I do. I'm pretty much convinced that I'll need to get the microfocuser attachement for the LX10. With it, I can do a coarse focus with the knob, and then do the fine focusing with the microfocuser, which moves the diagonal, instead of the mirror, taking the possibility of mirror shift out of the equation all together. It's about 200 dollars for it, so it's not an insubstantial purchase, but will vastly improve my satisfaction with the scope. Not being able to get the fine details on the planets is really bothering me atm. | |
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