Charlie in Dayton
18-September-2006, 03:22 AM
I haven't the slightest notion of why The Fates have been so good to me recently in matters astronomical...winning a monster pair of astronomy binoculars last June at Apollo Rendezvous...getting the mount and tripod for same at a greatly reduced rate...finding a pair of zoom eyepieces for same at an astonishingly low price...
Recently, I was able to try out an electronic eyepiece on one side of The Beasts, just to see if it worked. The b&w images of Luna were staggering in their scope (well, my 'scope, actually...ahem...). I had one of the required little battery powered TV sets at home, but alas, it had no video input jack. Howsomever, another family member DID have one with the A/V inputs, and since they never used that feature, they agreed to a straight across swap. Add a double handful of generic grocery store alkaline D cells, and we're ready to go...
So just for the heck of it, I decided to head to Cincinnati this weekend to converse and hobnob with my fellow wizards down at the Cincinnati Astronomical Society's (http://www.cinastro.org/) astro get-together Scope Out (http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/scopeout/index.html). I'd talked to one of the organizers the week before at a stargaze, and he'd said it was perfectly fine to bring The Beasts (a set of Oberwerk BT-45-80 astronomical binoculars) along and let people view.
I got there late in the day, but with plenty of time to shake hands and catch up on old times with friends. I wandered by the FOTO (Friends Of The Observatory -- the support group for the Cincinnati Observatory Center (http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/)) booth, where they were selling various whatnots of astronomical observing origin for the benefit of the site. Looking thru one box, I ran across a couple interesting little items, before finding a cased Meade nebula filter in the bottom of the box. I asked the price, and the lady said "you can have the whole box for $5..."
Hold it...
I had to ask if she was sure of that, and if she knew just what was in there. Checking, she blanched...there were a couple things in the box that shouldn't have been. Giving her the chance to check the box for what didn't belong, I told her that I'd be back later, and if no one had bought it, I'd go five bucks for the box of stuff.
It was time for Door Prizes...and be darned if my name wasn't drawn for a gift certificate from Lumicon. Nebula filter time...
An overheard conversation led to the possible sale of a 130mm Newt and GEM I have at home that's just collecting dust. The young lady was humorously bemoaning the fact that since she didn't win the BIG RAFFLE PRIZE (ETX-90), she was gonna have to start sticking large quantities of cash back for a scope. I introduced myself, said I had a spare scope at home that someone ought to get some use out of, and gave her all the details, my name and phone number, and quoted her a good price (to be even bettered if her and mom came up and got it and saved me the shipping). I'm hoping for a phone call on this sometime this week...
The show drew to a close, and people began arranging for the more caloric and educational portion of the evening. I hadn't planned on attending the banquet, so I was asking where the nearest fast food joint was. One of the people I asked was the lady at the FOTO table...seems no one had wanted the box of stuff, and when I asked about it, she said as a reward for my honesty, just take it! (Anyone need a 20mm or 4mm .965" eyepiece? I have five of each, among other things...I'm keeping the 1.25" 10mm and 8mms that were there, along with the 12V AA battery packs...) While sorting thru the box, I was talking to a group up out of Lexington about this'n'that'n'the other...one guy commented that a T-mount in the box would fit his setup for photography. Not needing any of that stuff, I sorted out any and all photo stuff (filter adapter rings et al) and just handed 'em over -- hey, he can use 'em more than I can. We were getting ready to go our separate ways, when the leader of the group commented that one of their bunch hadn't been able to make it, and they had a spare banquet ticket if I was in the mood.
Yeah...like any self respecting star gazer is gonna turn down a free meal and astro-lecture...
Post-lecture, Telescope Row was in full swing, with Lonnie Puterbaugh and The Astronomy Channel (http://www.theastronomychannel.com/) telescope and multimedia presentation (you HAVE to go to his website and check it out...stunning, to say the least) being the center ring attraction.
We viewed and cussed and discussed to after one...a pleasant time was had by all.
It was 3:30 ayem when I made it home, just in time for Luna to pop up over the hill at the end of the street. It took a minute, but The Beasts and the electronic eyepiece and battery TV were set up, for some excellent last quarter waning moon terminator images. Numerous half-craters and peaks in the light/mountain bases in the dark were seen. Some small adjustments of brightness/contrast on the TV/Camera setup will be tried, quite possibly along with a variable polarizing filter on the camera to cut the glare a bit.
This was one heckuva weekend...I'm just livin' right, I guess...
Recently, I was able to try out an electronic eyepiece on one side of The Beasts, just to see if it worked. The b&w images of Luna were staggering in their scope (well, my 'scope, actually...ahem...). I had one of the required little battery powered TV sets at home, but alas, it had no video input jack. Howsomever, another family member DID have one with the A/V inputs, and since they never used that feature, they agreed to a straight across swap. Add a double handful of generic grocery store alkaline D cells, and we're ready to go...
So just for the heck of it, I decided to head to Cincinnati this weekend to converse and hobnob with my fellow wizards down at the Cincinnati Astronomical Society's (http://www.cinastro.org/) astro get-together Scope Out (http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/scopeout/index.html). I'd talked to one of the organizers the week before at a stargaze, and he'd said it was perfectly fine to bring The Beasts (a set of Oberwerk BT-45-80 astronomical binoculars) along and let people view.
I got there late in the day, but with plenty of time to shake hands and catch up on old times with friends. I wandered by the FOTO (Friends Of The Observatory -- the support group for the Cincinnati Observatory Center (http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/)) booth, where they were selling various whatnots of astronomical observing origin for the benefit of the site. Looking thru one box, I ran across a couple interesting little items, before finding a cased Meade nebula filter in the bottom of the box. I asked the price, and the lady said "you can have the whole box for $5..."
Hold it...
I had to ask if she was sure of that, and if she knew just what was in there. Checking, she blanched...there were a couple things in the box that shouldn't have been. Giving her the chance to check the box for what didn't belong, I told her that I'd be back later, and if no one had bought it, I'd go five bucks for the box of stuff.
It was time for Door Prizes...and be darned if my name wasn't drawn for a gift certificate from Lumicon. Nebula filter time...
An overheard conversation led to the possible sale of a 130mm Newt and GEM I have at home that's just collecting dust. The young lady was humorously bemoaning the fact that since she didn't win the BIG RAFFLE PRIZE (ETX-90), she was gonna have to start sticking large quantities of cash back for a scope. I introduced myself, said I had a spare scope at home that someone ought to get some use out of, and gave her all the details, my name and phone number, and quoted her a good price (to be even bettered if her and mom came up and got it and saved me the shipping). I'm hoping for a phone call on this sometime this week...
The show drew to a close, and people began arranging for the more caloric and educational portion of the evening. I hadn't planned on attending the banquet, so I was asking where the nearest fast food joint was. One of the people I asked was the lady at the FOTO table...seems no one had wanted the box of stuff, and when I asked about it, she said as a reward for my honesty, just take it! (Anyone need a 20mm or 4mm .965" eyepiece? I have five of each, among other things...I'm keeping the 1.25" 10mm and 8mms that were there, along with the 12V AA battery packs...) While sorting thru the box, I was talking to a group up out of Lexington about this'n'that'n'the other...one guy commented that a T-mount in the box would fit his setup for photography. Not needing any of that stuff, I sorted out any and all photo stuff (filter adapter rings et al) and just handed 'em over -- hey, he can use 'em more than I can. We were getting ready to go our separate ways, when the leader of the group commented that one of their bunch hadn't been able to make it, and they had a spare banquet ticket if I was in the mood.
Yeah...like any self respecting star gazer is gonna turn down a free meal and astro-lecture...
Post-lecture, Telescope Row was in full swing, with Lonnie Puterbaugh and The Astronomy Channel (http://www.theastronomychannel.com/) telescope and multimedia presentation (you HAVE to go to his website and check it out...stunning, to say the least) being the center ring attraction.
We viewed and cussed and discussed to after one...a pleasant time was had by all.
It was 3:30 ayem when I made it home, just in time for Luna to pop up over the hill at the end of the street. It took a minute, but The Beasts and the electronic eyepiece and battery TV were set up, for some excellent last quarter waning moon terminator images. Numerous half-craters and peaks in the light/mountain bases in the dark were seen. Some small adjustments of brightness/contrast on the TV/Camera setup will be tried, quite possibly along with a variable polarizing filter on the camera to cut the glare a bit.
This was one heckuva weekend...I'm just livin' right, I guess...