Space Forum / Amateur Astronomy / November 2004

For $250, it looks like a good deal...sliding dewshield, 400mm f/l, rotatable
Crayford focuser and what looks like nice machining.  Anyone seen one of these
yet?
Mark

Observing Report - Venus and Jupiter at Midday
Today (6-Nov-04) was a gorgeous day in Central Florida - bright and
sunny, with the temperature in the upper 70s and transparent blue
skies.  With Venus and Jupiter close to one another, positioned midway

I'd like to image the upcoming Moon/Jupiter occultation and I'm
trying to come up with a focal length that will give me a small
enough image scale to allow Jupiter and the curvature of the moon to
fit in the frame. The problem is that when I use a shorter focal

It occurs to me that the astronomers
are to the Hawaiians as light pollution
control advocates (amateur astronomers)
are to governments.  Our requirements

Is it true that these devices (used in
solar scopes) are flat to 1/100th wave?

Today when I picked up the base of my dob, the screws I had put in to hold
it together came out as if they where not there at all. I also found the
center bolt was bent. So I took what pennys I had and went to the hardware
store. I got some nails and a few other little things and ...

A dust devil cleaned the solar panels? A Martian hand probably cleaned them
off to get a reflection to adjust it's hat.
I assume the mystery power boost isn't much of a mystery to whoever saw
whatever come up to the cameras with that bottle of Martian glass cleaner

There's a Coulter on Astromart that I'm considering---want more
aperture...it's that 13.1" purple beast....
Can anyone give any caveats to this?  Advice?  The seller claims the mirror
to be very good.

Just in case anyone was still wondering when the new edition of Rukl's
"Atlas of the Moon" would be available, the answer is now!  The
shipment just arrived at the warehouse and copies should be going out
shortly.  It can by ordered from Sky Publishing

I recently bought a Meade LX5 2080 built around 1989 it has a "Multi
Coated Optics Group" placard on the back, the primary and secondary
mirrors seem to be just starting to show some corrosion. When I bought
the scope I failed to take a closer look as I am fairly new to buying

Is there a list somewhere?
I've found the Logitech "QuickCam Pro 4000", "QuickCam Pro for notebooks"
and the Phillips "ToUcam Pro II" (PCVC840K).
Any others?

Clouds ruined my ability to capture Venus and Jupiter on the 4th and 5th and
the forcast
is bad for the 6th too.  They would have been in the same field on the 5th
using EP

   Some of you do color photography during meteor showers.  If you have
recorded color photographs of meteors from slow velocity meteors, less than
40 lm/sec entry speed, what is the color at the beginning of the trail in
most cases?  Color often changes along the path but I am ...

I am considering buying a LXD75 SN8 or SC8. According to Meade, the max magnification of the
SN8 is 500x, of the SC8 it is 600x. Question: how on earth do you get magnification of 500x
using the SN8? With its focal length of 832mm, you would need a 812/500 = 1.6 mm eyepiece! Even