Star Gazing Fun
A few Highlights from the Georgia Sky View 2007.
As some of you might recall, I spent most of the past weekend at the Georgia Sky View - a small "star party" located at Indian Springs State Park. About 50 or so fellow star gazers showed up, many bringing some awesome (and expensive) telescopes and imaging gear. I was one of the Saturday afternoon speakers, and my talk on A Universe of Galaxies was very well received. Not only that - but I sold all my remaining books Galaxies and how to Observe them,and thus netting a tidy little profit.
:-)
The skies were pretty good throughout the event, especially on Saturday night. I spent most of the time just 'hanging out' with many friends at the star gaze, including the mighty awakenedwarrior, astrocycle and fellow Stooge - "Larry". On Saturday night, the organizers put together a nice 'potluck dinner' with all manner of BBQ'ed meat and other picnic favorites - which left your doctor quite stuffed. As a side note - vast quantities of baked beans was consumed by the attendees and the rubbling mating calls of the "barking spiders" was heard well into the night.
Toys for Boys
A telescope/camera vendor (Camera Bug) had several tables set-up at the main lodge, and the temptation was too great for me to resist. So witness your Doctor's new toy:
It's a Meade series 5000 triple-lensed 80mm f/6 refractor. The lens elements of this small scope (3.1" diameter) is made of special low dispersion glass (or "ED" glass) effectively making the telescope an apochromat or "apo". Being an 'apo' it does not have the annoying purplish halos often visible around bright objects often associated with scopes made with cheaper achromatic lenses. I tested it out Friday evening and it produced flawless images of the Moon, Venus and several close double stars. I plan to mount this scope "piggybacked" to the 12-inch to be used for both wide-field imaging and as a 'guider' telescope for long exposure imaging.
BTW - the cost of the scope and case was only 500 dollars - much lower than the usual 650 to 700 dollars most online distributors have.
Yep, I kicked ass..
OK - so here are more scopes at the Star Party:
Larry using the new 80mm as a RPG launcher..
The awakenedwarrior with his "50 dollar" scope he bought from Fernbank years ago. Other than a lack of paint, it is actually a fine scope that gives great images and tracks well. (This is our camp area and Spawn the Isuzu can be seen in the background)
On the other end of the cost spectrum:
Here is 'Rusty' and his little 130mm Astrophysics refractor on an AP1200 mount. Price tag ~ 12 thousand dollars give or take a few hundred.
Not all scopes were of the 'high tech' variety:
This 10-inch Dobsonian telescope is mostly hand-made, and is built of primarily wood.
As some of you might recall, I spent most of the past weekend at the Georgia Sky View - a small "star party" located at Indian Springs State Park. About 50 or so fellow star gazers showed up, many bringing some awesome (and expensive) telescopes and imaging gear. I was one of the Saturday afternoon speakers, and my talk on A Universe of Galaxies was very well received. Not only that - but I sold all my remaining books Galaxies and how to Observe them,and thus netting a tidy little profit.
:-)
The skies were pretty good throughout the event, especially on Saturday night. I spent most of the time just 'hanging out' with many friends at the star gaze, including the mighty awakenedwarrior, astrocycle and fellow Stooge - "Larry". On Saturday night, the organizers put together a nice 'potluck dinner' with all manner of BBQ'ed meat and other picnic favorites - which left your doctor quite stuffed. As a side note - vast quantities of baked beans was consumed by the attendees and the rubbling mating calls of the "barking spiders" was heard well into the night.
Toys for Boys
A telescope/camera vendor (Camera Bug) had several tables set-up at the main lodge, and the temptation was too great for me to resist. So witness your Doctor's new toy:
It's a Meade series 5000 triple-lensed 80mm f/6 refractor. The lens elements of this small scope (3.1" diameter) is made of special low dispersion glass (or "ED" glass) effectively making the telescope an apochromat or "apo". Being an 'apo' it does not have the annoying purplish halos often visible around bright objects often associated with scopes made with cheaper achromatic lenses. I tested it out Friday evening and it produced flawless images of the Moon, Venus and several close double stars. I plan to mount this scope "piggybacked" to the 12-inch to be used for both wide-field imaging and as a 'guider' telescope for long exposure imaging.
BTW - the cost of the scope and case was only 500 dollars - much lower than the usual 650 to 700 dollars most online distributors have.
Yep, I kicked ass..
OK - so here are more scopes at the Star Party:
Larry using the new 80mm as a RPG launcher..
The awakenedwarrior with his "50 dollar" scope he bought from Fernbank years ago. Other than a lack of paint, it is actually a fine scope that gives great images and tracks well. (This is our camp area and Spawn the Isuzu can be seen in the background)
On the other end of the cost spectrum:
Here is 'Rusty' and his little 130mm Astrophysics refractor on an AP1200 mount. Price tag ~ 12 thousand dollars give or take a few hundred.
Not all scopes were of the 'high tech' variety:
This 10-inch Dobsonian telescope is mostly hand-made, and is built of primarily wood.