Building a new Eyepiece Case

With my recent purchase of another eyepiece (a 9mm Super Plossl), I am slowly building up a collection of gear that is no longer fit for a shoebox ;) I decided to look at eyepiece cases, and found quite a few. Most are expensive, and I'm a cheapskate. I decided to take the advice of several online write-ups and bought a case at Lowes that should do the trick.

It's a tool case, but comes with an insert made of the "diced" foam - this allows for easy customization. I should be able to get all of my eyepieces (32mm, 25mm, 9mm, 2x barlow) into the case, with plenty of room left over for my LED flashlight.

I'll take pictures of the final case, but here's a picture of the Lowes case from their website. Should be around $25 in the stores (maybe less, maybe more, depending on sales).

My Favorite Astronomy Books

I was lucky enough to get a bunch of new books lately, so I thought I'd create a post of my favorites for you to check out. I've mentioned some of these before, but I'm putting the whole lot here for easy reference :)

Astronomy Hacks
By Robert Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson
This has become my bible of sorts. Always a good read, and plenty of things to keep the newbie busy. How to pick a scope, how to trick it out, computer gizmos to buy, etc. A must read.



The Stars: A New Way to See Them
H.A. Rey
Yes, the same H.A. Rey that wrote and illustrated Curious George books. He was also a scientist, and this book is a the coolest way to learn the constellations. My kids love it, I love it, you'll love it.






Nightwatch
Terence Dickinson
This is one I just got, and like the Hacks book, it is a great beginners guide to all things astronomy. Lots of pictures, easy to read, and it is spiral-bound to lay flat. The 2006 edition has all new goodies, too.


Sky Atlas 2000.0
Wil Tirion
I just found the older 80's printing (black cover, spiral bound, unlaminated) at a half-price books store for under $9! Had to buy it, even if it is SO hardcore. This is an amazing book of star charts, well organized and full of great stuff to hunt down. The link is for the new edition, and has sprial bound laminated pages. Pricey, but a great resource.


Sky and Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas
Roger W. Sinnott
An easy to use field guide full of star charts. Many deep sky objects, easy to read (even at night), and a super bargain. If you're not going to spend $75 on SkyAtlas 2000.0, this $10 book is right up your alley.

A beautiful night for Luna

Last night was clear and cool here in Western PA, so I took all of the gear outside for an hour or so. I finally got to use the new barlow to view Saturn and Jupiter at higher magnifications - what a difference! Saturn is lower in the sky now, and is blocked by trees from my driveway almost as soon as it is visible. I ended up wandering down the street to my neighbors driveway to get a better view - I'm sure they all think I'm nuts.

Saturn through the barlowed 25mm eyepiece was about 56X magnification, and showed two moons and defined rings. I need to get a 8mm or so to really max out the magnification of the scope - it was a great view.

Jupiter was high in the darker eastern part of the sky, and the larger magnification helped me see 2 or 3 bands of color across the surface of the planet. The 4 large moons showed up 2 per side, making a nice view in the eyepiece. I'm sure the 8mm would be worth every penny on this planet as well.

I got distracted by the moon midway through the viewing session - it was a bright crescent in the South West, and I spent a while looking at the surface at 56x in the 25mm and 22x in the 32mm. It was such a nice view that I took the picture you see at the right. I think this was taken at f3.2 and ISO100. I'd have to check. I used my Canon S2IS digital on a tripod, and used the 10 second timer. Not bad! Took about 15 shots, and this was the best.

What I didn't remember, however, was that the ISS (International Space Station) was due to pass by the moon just before 11PM. Not only that, but the recently undocked shuttle would be following it, only 10 degrees or so behind. Only after I came in did I read how great a sight it was. RATS. Hopefully my brother in VA got to see it (he's been waiting all week).

As usual, I picked out M13 to close out the night. One of these days I'll get out my charts and plan an actual session. Likely I'll save that for a star party with darker skies and more time.

Bought some new eyepieces

I found some inexpensive eyepieces on Ebay (SmartAstronomy's store, ebay id Ruby123) and decided to give them a try on 'ol Blue (the Bushnell 3" reflector). These are Guan Sheng eyepieces, rebranded for SmartAstronomy. As far as I can tell, there are others (including Celestron) that offer the same ones with different branding.

I bought a 32mm Super Plossl and a 2x Barlow (both 1 1/4" and fully multicoated). They arrived in only 2 days, were packed very well, and came with dust caps. They were further wrapped in small baggies and placed inside nice little boxes. The 32mm also has fold-down rubber eye guard. Nice touch.

The 32mm preformed well - nice eye relief, wide view (52 degrees, according to the specs), and good overall contrast and darkness of the sky. Stars appeared sharp to the edges of the field as well.

The barlow also worked well, but the focuser in 'ol Blue has a rivet inside that doesn't allow easy insert of longer eyepieces. Thank you Bushnell. I did get it in, but it isn't easy. Not the way to go when you're trying to do a simple swap to get a little closer to a DSO.

I did manage to get a nice view of M13, easy to pick out now that I'm learning my way around the sky. It was late when I tested, so the planets were out of view (behind trees or already set). I'll try the planets again soon.

Overall, a great deal at under $50 for both. I'll likely pick up a 9mm to go with the set, since the price is right and the company is SUPER easy to deal with.

The Homemade Dob that I mentioned last time out...

Here it is - amazing, right? It's based on the MiataScope and FlavioScope designs, with custom designs for the focuser, truss tubes, and spider. If I had the time and patience, I'd love to try my hand at building one of these, too. Someday!

Mingo Creek Star Party

What a night! This was my second trip out to Mingo, this time deciding to come alone. The boys had been out playing all day and were exhausted, so I put them to bed early and headed out to the observatory hill.

Earlier in the day, I dug out the old Bushnell 3" reflector that my wife had given me years ago. I never had much luck using it, and I’m fairly certain it was because I didn’t know what I was doing. That, plus the fact that the telescope shipped with two rather poor plastic lens eyepieces and an even worse 3x Barlow. The low powered eyepiece was now missing, along with two of the tripod wing nuts and the screw that connects the fine adjustment rod to the scope body. I hit the Ace Hardware to search for the wing nuts, only to discover that they were not 1/4-20 as I had hoped…they were metric. Eesh. Instead of 50-cent wing nuts, I was forced to buy two $2.35 metric ones. It was all in the name of science, so I can't complain :)

I sent an email to the AAAP group earlier in the day, asking for help with the eyepiece. A fellow member wrote back to say he had one for me to use, and I was thrilled. I’d have to worry about collimation later - I was already running out of time.

I arrived before sunset and set up next to Fred, the AAAP member that allowed me the use of his eyepiece. Fred's truck was full to the brim with astronomical goodies, and he was in the process of setting up his 11" Celestron SCT. His computer-controlled CG-E mount was stunning to look at – it was HUGE. I know what I want in a scope, and I know what I can afford…that CG-E mount will have to wait :)

Fred handed me one of his 25mm eyepieces, and I set about aligning the finder scope on my Bushnell. I'm fairly certain that the Bushnell folks found the worst finder and mount imaginable and placed them on my scope. This is the 3-thumbscrew single ring type, and so I ended up aligning it about 10 times over the course of the evening. This led to my yelling "A Telrad, my kingdom for a Telrad!" several times throughout the night. I'll be picking up that little helpful tool soon.

Overall, the Bushnell worked fine. With the focuser completely pulled in, I was able to keep decent focus all night. I'm fairly certain I need to collimate the heck out of this thing, but for a grab-n-go scope, it worked fine.

So what did I see with 'ol Blue? How about 3 planets and 5 planetary moons in 10 minutes? Not too shabby for my first real night of telescopic observing. Venus was out first, and the scope rendered a lovely half-circle in the eyepiece. As Fred explained to me earlier, it was in its greatest elongation of the year - at the greatest angular distance from the Sun as seen from Earth. Very cool little fact to learn.

Up next was Jupiter, blazing away towards the south. It was very bright, and visitors couldn’t believe that the bright “star” they were looking at was actually a planet. Jupiter showed himself as a beige disc, very crisp, and with a small darker band towards the bottom. All four of the Galilean moons were visible, with 3 clustered below and one fairly far above. Antares was just to the south-east of Jupiter, and was sparkling brightly all night. I kept thinking I was seeing an airplane – it was so colorful. Scorpius may be my new favorite constellation.

Then Saturn popped up, and I grabbed a clear enough view of it to see distinct rings. The last time I had used this scope was when my brother took it out in my backyard in Florida. He found Saturn, and it looked like a mushy blob. Tonight, Saturn was clearly defined and there was space between the planet and its rings. Amazing what a better eyepiece will do! Titan showed up as well, just a tiny pinprick below the planet.

I met several very nice people, as well. Lots of great gear, lots of great conversation. Some of my favorite moments were spent discussing the two homemade trussed Dobs that were brought. Amazing what is possible with hard work and some inventive use of plumbing parts. Can you make a Crayford focuser from PVC pipe and some plastic rollers taken from old data tapes? Apparently you can! I took a picture of this one, and I’ll try to post it tomorrow. Thanks to Gary for taking me on a tour of your handmade beauty of a Dob.

Later, as the party dwindled down to the last few cars, Fred showed me some of my favorites in his SCT. We looked at Jupiter again, M13, the Blackeye galaxy, the Ring nebula, and a "double-double". My first time seeing many of these!

Thanks again to everyone that came out to the party. I found myself saying “THIS is why I joined this club” several times. Plus, visitors actually liked looking in my scope to see Jupiter. I had a blast telling them what I knew about the equipment, the stars, the planets, and the AAAP. What a great night!

Best part? Fred let me keep that eyepiece...and I was out again on Sunday showing the kids those same three planets before they went to bed. There are some great memories in 'ol Blue afterall.

Until next time, may your skies be clear and your scopes be collimated!
Todd