Back in late October, I took my 102mm refractor to a campout, and the screw hole for the eyepiece set screw in my diagonal stripped out. I was too tired to even think about what I wanted to look at, anyway. Bummer. Over Thanksgiving, I decided to replace the broken 90 deg prism diagonal that came with my 102mm with an upgrade. I thought about getting a dielectric, but I'm kind of attached to correct image viewing in the portable refractor. I sometimes use it for birding, and as a spotting scope when I'm shooting my .270 rifle at 200 meters. Also, I have a dielectric diagonal on my
Over Thanksgiving, I mentally recovered a bit from the summer/fall craziness. I hauled my 102mm outside, broken diagonal and all, and I got one last look at Jupiter before it goes behind the sun. I could still see 3 moons and the bands. I decided this astronomy thing is pretty cool after all. I get my 13 year old son, and show him Saturn and its rings with a 12mm Xcel eyepiece, and he agrees that astronomy is pretty cool. I'm feeling a bit more motivation for this hobby now.
On Black Saturday, I ordered a Baader Planetarium 45 degree prism diagonal to replace my broken diagonal. Wow, the quality is so much higher than the Amici diagonal that came with my scope. I'm barely getting any of the whiskers on bright stars that I was getting, and I'm spending a lot less time fussing with focus. It just seems to pop into focus now. The thrill is back.
Really this is the season that first got me excited about astronomy. The Orion Nebula thrills, and the cost of viewing it is cheap. With the new Baader prism, it resolved really bright and sharp, even with my
I go get Turn Left at Orion and determine what I want to see. Up in Perseus, in the 3-4-5 right triangle created by Algol, Almach, and Mirfak is M34, an open cluster. Open cluster? Boring. But I decide I could use some star-hopping exercise, and find it after a couple of minutes. It's really near the apex of the sky, taxing my
I know you old hands at astronomy are unimpressed that I found M34. I almost posted this report in the beginner forum. But my point is that I went away for awhile, but when I came back, my old friends were still waiting for me, and some new ones as well. I love having good telescopes. Now, if I could just get a few Scouts to finish their Astronomy merit badges, I'd be in heaven.
Best regards,
Russmax