Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Two Deep Sky Targets

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 On 28 November, I viewed the Double Cluster in Perseus for the first time. The following night, I was able to find the globular cluster Mes...
Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Learning Lyra

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My spatial reasoning scores are always lower than my verbal acuity grades. Consequently, the standard star charts for Lyra, a simple quadril...
Sunday, November 14, 2021

Discovering gamma Arietis

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Having packed away the three 70-mm entry-level refractors I was enjoying ( last week ), I returned to my Explore Scientific First Light 102-...
Saturday, November 13, 2021

Book Review: The Science and Art of Using Telescopes

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The essence of the book is given in the opening. Get past the beginner stage by finding new interests; specialize in subbranches of observat...
Sunday, November 7, 2021

70-mm Shootout

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Start with the mount. Just as the scabbard called “Avalon” was more powerful than “Excalibur” (the blade it sheathed), the positioning mecha...
Tuesday, October 26, 2021

A Good 70-mm Refractor

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In a kerfuffle on the Sky Searchers astronomy discussion board, a couple of the stalwarts insisted contrary to the experiential reports of a...
Saturday, October 23, 2021

National Geographic 70-mm Refractor Field Test

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With a sturdy mount and tripod (see previous post), I was able to spend more time on targets that I know in order to determine the limits of...
Thursday, October 21, 2021

DIY: Homebuilt Substitute for Vixen Mount

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The Vixen Company, Ltd., of Saitama, Japan, (founded 1949) got the brilliant idea to make all of their telescopes compatible with all of the...