Moon, Mars, Saturn on July 14-16

[elleng]

http://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-and-planets-on-july-14

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Fake. They filmed that in a warehouse in Arizona.

But seriously....

I got an el cheapo telescope back in April at a rummage sale. By "el cheapo," I mean $5. For real.

It's basically an Edmunds Scientific-grade Newtonian reflector from the '60s. Dynascope, I think is the name stamped on the back. 4" reflector, cardboard tube about 40" long, equatorial mount, sort of adequate tripod. I'd be surprised if it cost more than $44.95 back then.

I've been looking at Google Images to find something as basic as this, but I'm coming up empty-handed. I probably have the name wrong.

Hey! This is awfully close to what I have. I have a counterbalance on my telescope, though, so moving the apparatus to keep up with the Earth's rotation is made easier than it would be without the counterbalance.

4" Criterion Dynascope



I made of mess of the reflecting lens's adjusting screws, so the collimation is all out of whack. Lugging the telescope back to my car from the rummage sale probably didn't help much either.

The spotting scope is way off alignment. I have one I can take off another telescope and put on this one. The one that's on there now is just dreadful. I'm surprised I can even find the moon using it.

I got it at the end of April, early May. We finally had a rare day in May on which there was no rail. It was a Friday night, and there was nothing on TV. I decided to take the telescope outside to see what I could see.

I was out there for hours. I didn't come back inside until 1 a.m. It was the first time I had seen Saturn through a telescope. Saturn is hands down the craziest looking thing in the heavens. Even on a cheap telescope, it has you shaking your head. Nothing prepares you for that.

Alexandria's streetlights notwithstanding, I had the thing out last Saturday night, aimed at Jupiter. The four Galilean objects were all lined up, like pearls on a necklace. Took a look at the moon too, then had to pick it up and move it to where I could see Saturn.

What I see through even a sub-entry level telescope beats anything on TV.

What I find indispensable for astronomy is my tablets. I have them loaded with astronomy apps. I downloaded the "This Week" events from Sky and Telescope. To set up the equatorial mount, I have clinometer apps. Of course, I have Google Sky. It was the first app of them all for me. If you don't have a tablet, try one; you'll see.

You can put the apps on a Kindle Fire, if you can jump though all the flaming hoops Jeff Bezos puts in your way.

S&T SkyWeek at the Google Play store

Sky & Telescope Mobile Apps

This Week’s Sky At a Glance

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, July 8 – 16



Thanks for the thread.

[elleng]

2. Great you got that!

My camera captures SOME of them SOME of the time, but rarely all together!

Check with the folks in Photography group for some 'expert' info on hardware etc.

HERE's 'my' setting moon this morning:

[PJMcK]

3. Great picture!

The color and framing are spectacular, elleng.

Thanks for the link to the EarthSky website. I hadn't seen it before and it looks like an intelligent and informative outlet. Did you see their short video of the Moon "photobombing" the earth? Pretty cool.

[elleng]

7. Thanks, PJ.

I've recently 'adopted' EarthSky, and receive info from them every day. Will look for the 'photobombing.'

[PJMcK]

4. Great comment!

You wrote, "What I see through even a sub-entry level telescope beats anything on TV. " Amen, mahatmakanejeeves! Reality trumps fake garbage any day. (wink)

That's an interesting telescope you have. No doubt, you get hours of fascination with it. I'm starting to look for an instrument for our house in northeast Pennsylvania, in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. The area is devoid of light pollution and the night skies, especially when it's clear, are amazing. Even with the naked eye or binoculars, the views are stunning. Last night, we saw the scene that's in the link elleng shared and I'm a tiny bit pleased that I named the bodies correctly; none of our guests believed me when I said it was Saturn, not Jupiter and of course that's the Moon!

We're not quite sure what to get yet but it's been fun to do the research and educate ourselves about the wide variety of options we have. We're budgeting $250-400 for a new instrument but I've been finding quite a number of used 'scopes in that price range that are more sophisticated than the new ones. My concern with a previously owned telescope is illustrated by your experiences with the adjustment screws and the spotting scope. In the abstract, it's difficult to evaluate an unseen device. We're not ready to buy just yet but it's been fun to research.

Incidentally, thanks for your comments about the astronomy apps. Those sound like they're highly useful.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Surely you're not suggesting that what you see on TV is "fake garbage."

For a minute there, you had me thinking you were a commie.

I ended up with my telescope purely by accident. Every year, there's a huge rummage sale. I purposely do not show up at opening time, because I would fill my car with a bunch of junk that I would never use.

I got there near closing time, when things had been marked down to half-price. There was a Meade table top telescope and the Dynascope. The original price on the Meade was $100, and $80 on the Dynascope. The Meade had loose parts. I found a bag of eyepieces for it about fifty feet away, tucked in with some completely unrelated items, so I think someone was trying to pull a fast one on the people running the rummage sale. That is, they were intentionally disabling the Meade so that they could come back and get it later. I put the eyepieces back with the Meade.

At that point, the room was cleared so that the free-for-all portion could begin. You paid $5 to get back into the room, but anything would could grab was yours. Someone got the Meade (and an Ibanez electric guitar). By the time I got back in, the Dynascope was unclaimed. That's how it became mine.

When I carried my telescope from the room, I saw parts from the Meade lying on the floor of the room. Whether the person who got the Meade has enough for it to work, I do not know. I can't tell you what model Meade it was, but some Meades are better than others.

Scranton Craigslist is your friend. That and yard sales and rummage sales. It's a crapshoot. You'll go week after week and find nothing. Then one day....

Re: the tablet apps. You can't have too many. I'm not saying you can't watch the skies without them, but they are so helpful.

One of my favorites is for a Palm OS. Yes, you read that right. Unfortunately, it's way out of date (not much of a surprise there), it's not being updated, and the author would like 24 Euros for it. It's shareware, but I don't like using shareware for which I haven't paid. I wish he would either make it an Android and iOS app or say the app is free from now on. I have it on a Sony CLIÉ PEG-SJ22.

Planetarium for the Palm OS

Thanks for writing.

Best wishes.

[PJMcK]

6. Great story

Thanks for sharing it. Best wishes to you, too.