I Have an Observing Buddy: Astronomy Report 7/22/2022

[jrkirkham]

Earlier this spring I added a firepit to observatory. It seems like someone stops by every time I am out there. The person who comes most often is my landlord and childhood friend, Chris. We sit around the fire and talk before he heads home for the night. This week when I arrived I found a fresh stack of firewood. We normally use binoculars as we sit in our lawn chairs and watch the night sky, looking for planes, satellites, and whatever is up there. He is a retired American Airlines pilot. He recently brought a telescope he wanted us to try out. It is an older Celestron 102mm f/10 refractor. I have a portable Orion Sirius mount that I use on my ED 80. We pulled the telescope off his manual mount and stuck it on mine. Now we have to find the best place to set it up.

After he left for the night I took a few quick frames of M13. I've been intimidated since I bought the C11. I am accustomed to doing DSO with my ED 80 Triplet. I use the C11 for planetary imaging. I guess I've got to learn how to do it sooner or later, unless I want to just keep swapping them back and forth every few hours.

Then I went to bed . . . and set the alarm for 4:00. My target for the night was timing Ganymede as it reappeared from an occultation with Jupiter. I double checked my clock with the atomic clock and all of my time tables.

And here's how it went . . .

4:00 Alarm and get ready.
4:35 Focus on Jupiter and find the best magnification (252X).
4:54 Time predicted by Sky & Telescope online tool
4:55 I think (?) I can see a slight distortion at the spot where Ganymede should emerge.
4:56 I think (?) and am starting to see it, like a slightly raised pimple.
4:58 Time predicted by Astronomy Magazine
4:59 Yes! I am sure I am seeing Ganymede emerge. It is plain.
5:00 Clouds begin to roll in. (No kidding! What timing! Someone must be out to get me!)
5:06 They are easily visible, but not yet visually separate (as seen through breaks in the clouds)
5:13 I can now see a small gap between the two. (Morning is dawning. Clouds are becoming thick. I'm going home!)

[Thefatkitty]

Great report Rob, congrats on the observing buddy! Always fun to have someone with you.

Glad you got to see the transit; I wanted to but the weather had other ideas!

Great scope too. I'd love to find one of those. It looks very much like my C80-HD; I'd be willing to bet his is the C102-HD. If it's as good as my 80mm, he's all set

Thanks again and all the best,

[jrkirkham]

Great report Rob, congrats on the observing buddy! Always fun to have someone with you.

Glad you got to see the transit; I wanted to but the weather had other ideas!

Great scope too. I'd love to find one of those. It looks very much like my C80-HD; I'd be willing to bet his is the C102-HD. If it's as good as my 80mm, he's all set

Thanks again and all the best,

Yes, it is a C102-HD. I don't know much about it, but when we turn it toward planets is is extremely sharp.

[Thefatkitty]

Yes, it is a C102-HD. I don't know much about it, but when we turn it toward planets is is extremely sharp.

There is a manual for it here if you're interested. As far as I know, they were made between '97 - '99, which is when Celestron was acquired by Tasco. Supposedly the refractors in the HD series used the last of the Vixen optics.

I have the early 80's Vixen-made C80 orange tube (a doublet fluorite achromatic), and the HD is a close second in terms of visual quality. Well built scopes too! I've used a DSLR with mine for the 6 years I've had it, and still no slop in the focuser.

Your buddy should get a lot of fine views with it, and the Sun would be great through that scope...! Just sayin'

All the best,

[kt4hx]

Earlier this spring I added a firepit to observatory. It seems like someone stops by every time I am out there. The person who comes most often is my landlord and childhood friend, Chris. We sit around the fire and talk before he heads home for the night. This week when I arrived I found a fresh stack of firewood. We normally use binoculars as we sit in our lawn chairs and watch the night sky, looking for planes, satellites, and whatever is up there. He is a retired American Airlines pilot. He recently brought a telescope he wanted us to try out. It is an older Celestron 102mm f/10 refractor. I have a portable Orion Sirius mount that I use on my ED 80. We pulled the telescope off his manual mount and stuck it on mine. Now we have to find the best place to set it up.

After he left for the night I took a few quick frames of M13. I've been intimidated since I bought the C11. I am accustomed to doing DSO with my ED 80 Triplet. I use the C11 for planetary imaging. I guess I've got to learn how to do it sooner or later, unless I want to just keep swapping them back and forth every few hours.

Then I went to bed . . . and set the alarm for 4:00. My target for the night was timing Ganymede as it reappeared from an occultation with Jupiter. I double checked my clock with the atomic clock and all of my time tables.

And here's how it went . . .

4:00 Alarm and get ready.
4:35 Focus on Jupiter and find the best magnification (252X).
4:54 Time predicted by Sky & Telescope online tool
4:55 I think (?) I can see a slight distortion at the spot where Ganymede should emerge.
4:56 I think (?) and am starting to see it, like a slightly raised pimple.
4:58 Time predicted by Astronomy Magazine
4:59 Yes! I am sure I am seeing Ganymede emerge. It is plain.
5:00 Clouds begin to roll in. (No kidding! What timing! Someone must be out to get me!)
5:06 They are easily visible, but not yet visually separate (as seen through breaks in the clouds)
5:13 I can now see a small gap between the two. (Morning is dawning. Clouds are becoming thick. I'm going home!)

Nice outing Rob. His 102HD does look like a nice planetary and lunar scope. Should also do well with double stars. I will say, I never get up at 0400 unless I have a real pressing reason to do so. Never been much of a morning person, and I guess at 68 that is not likely to change now.

[jrkirkham]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll take a look at that manual.

[Bigzmey]

Great report Rob. Bummer about the clouds timing. They do that a lot. But great about observing buddy.

[helicon]

Nice report Rob and glad you could catch the occultation of Ganymede, congrats also on winning the VROD for the day!

[JayTee]

Or you could do this:

A wedged C11 with a f/7.9, 102mm frac hitching a ride. To be honest, this configuration only lasted about 3 months. It was just too heavy for the C11 Fork mount being autoguided

[Makuser]

Hi Rob. A nice observing report with your buddy Chris. A very nice session with the assortment of telescopes. It seems that you had a great time and caught the occultation of Ganymede too. Thanks for your well written and fun read report Rob and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD Award.

[pakarinen]

Sounds great. I bought a couple of Tiki torches for camping and had left one going at a fair distance from my scope. Not sure how badly it blew out my night vision, but it created a nice ambience. Made me wonder if the ancient astronomers had a torch or small fire going while they plotted the stars.

I'd keep beer out of the firepit, lawnchairs, and bino mix though - I'd be asleep in no time.

[John Baars]

Very nice report!
Congratulations on your buddy and your VROD!