Space Forum / Amateur Astronomy / December 2005

We bought my 10 year old son an ETX-90 for christmas and we experienced
"first light" last night with a really nice view of the crecent venus,
a semi-ok view of mars and a lot of "wow" with our first viewing of
Pleiades.

Last night was after dark, a good clear night for viewing, only I was laying
down in my living room awaiting my blood sugar to go back up to normal
levels and the shakes to go away. Did put the scope out about 10pm just to
catch a bit of viewing of m42 and a few others before ...

I got this refractor with a 3" diameter tube but it is too long (a foot
length) for a
binoviewer to reach focus. Rather than cutting it (and most likely
ruining it). I plan

Ok, we've got a couple of low end Plossls for now but I was wondering
what are the features of the other eyepiece designs?  Wider field of
view?  Better eye relief?  Less aberration?
Currently we have a 750mm f/5 reflector.

Greetings...
In the book, Astronomy Hacks, they state that the longer barlows are
superior to the new generation of shorties.  I have several barlows that
I've bought from various sources and I can't see much difference in any of

My apologies to all you folks in the SE US -- my new TV 27mm Panoptic
eyepiece arrived from the FedEx guy yesterday and it's been raining since.
Likely to continue for 1-2 more days.  It's a 2-inch EP and is it a
handful -- fills up one whole corner of my eyepiece case.

1. What are the odds they are planning a 10in Maksutov on the new RCX mount?
2. Any idea why Celestron is only using the different mirror geometry on
the 9.25 and why neither they nor Meade are making other scopes of the
same geometry even though it apparently has real advantages ...

I have recentley been bought Starry Night Pro 4.5 and I am considering
getting a laptop so I can gaze whilst outside!
Is anyone using this program on a laptop and if so what type of specs for
the laptop do you recommend?

I am interested in determining when the next and most recent total
eclipses of the sun occurred at a particular location on earth
(specifically, at my house). Does anyone have any suggestions as to how
to determine this, other than looking at a bunch of eclipse maps? Is

TIA

Manage to keep the prices so low on those
new skelletal Newtonians?  I remember what a friend
spent putting a 12" together with parts similar to the Meade's
and it was way beyond what Meade is charging.  They seem

1. Hi! Looking forward to the feature article I wrote for Night Sky
Magazine regarding observing and your skies (weather). That is good
news, expect it out in a spring edition. Thanks to Kelly Beatty for his
hard work helping me on the project.

I met a group of observers who drive 2 hours out of the city to watch
the night
skies. One of them told me that in all observing sessions, they always
end up with

Anyone have first hand performance info on the "seemingly" very
economical, $29.99, (subject) barlow? Pros & cons?
TIA,
Errol

If you read this evening's S&T news bulletin, you may have followed the
link to the story about the Christmas morning occultation of Spica by
the Moon <http://tinyurl.com/77lpy>. The story was well written by one
Alan M. MacRobert.