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A great SIGHT (was Re: (meteorobs) A great site)
[NOTE: If anyone wonders what the following has to do with meteors,
recall that I DO use my AstroScan for telescopic meteor plotting! ;>]
>Lew I too am a white fuzzy stuff addict and could sit and look at the
>Orion Nebula all night, or at least as long as it is there. It just
>amazes me that that is so visible with even my little astroscan.
Stephanie, from your dark skies, you will be constantly amazed at all
of the things you can find with the AstroScan. I know from experience
that with not TOO much dedication, you can observe the whole Messier
Catalog with it! And from there, there are several hundred other deep-
sky objects that that nifty little telescope will show you...
(And don't forget your ability to plot telescopic meteors with it!)
>Speaking of Astroscans does anyone have a really good way of sighting
>with them? I have been starting with something on the ground close by
>and sighting up. There has got to be a better way!!!!!
Of course there ARE AstroScan sights which you can buy from the Edmund
Scientific catalog. But you don't have to! Here's what I do with my own
tough (survived Hurricane Andrew when my house didn't), venerable (20+
year-old) AstroScan 2000. (But will they change that name next year??)
Get a short strip of Velcro - with both its "sticky" and "fuzzy" parts.
Glue the "sticky" strip on the lower (spherical) part of the AstroScan,
right at the spot where the "sphere" is at its WIDEST (i.e., furthest
from the central axis of the tube). Now get a bit of hollow PVC tubing.
The tube can be as short as 4", and as narrow as 0.25" wide. Wrap the
"fuzzy" strip around this little bit of tubing. And now you can Velcro
that PVC tube onto your AstroScan at a wide range of pointing angles!
Then each time you go out observing, aim your AstroScan at a distant
terrestrial object (or anything bright!) - aim the telescope by using
a wide field eyepiece (25mm or 28mm for example). Now velcro your new
"sighting tube" onto the AstroScan at whatever angle lines it up with
the distant object. Voila! Now you can sight on "starter stars", and
use the AstroScan's wide field to starhop where ever you want to go!
You must do this each night you use the AstroScan, but you'd have to
adjust a "Telrad" or AstroScan sight-rings each time, too.
>From the dark skies of central Illinois Stephanie
Take care, from the Pink Skies of Eastern Massachusetts!
Lew
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