--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Hey, weren't you guys supposed to be comparing binocs, mounts, or something? What was the results??? Or am I off the beam there?
We did some comparing, Joe, but mostly just had a blast! One of my co-"reviewers" didn't make it, and nobody wanted to take the B/O challenge, though we had both of them mounted all-night. I'll have some commentary on binos soon. There was a good variety of mounts, variations on the parallelogram. Bruce had his "mini", I had my aluminum home-made, Rich had the wood version (worked more solidly and smoothly than my aluminum one!), and Joe had his "quad-pod" crutch mount, which is a thing to behold. Bill brought his neat set-up on surveyor's tripod as well. Steve Dodds from NOVA brought a 12.5" with binocular-viewer, but left before I had a chance to look through it, darnit! (Lets get that thing out again soon!) Dave Bennett showed us some neat spindle galaxies, obscure globulars, and best of all, some BOK globules in Sagittarius, which stood out pretty darn well from the Lakeside site. I am just amazed at how good some objects look in a big binocular. M51 was an impressive sight indeed. The North American nebula was difficult until it rose out of the horizon haze, then was easily seen. Same with the Veil nebula. No 2 globulars are created equal, and this is really demonstrated in the bino view. M13, M3, and M4 would dominate a binocular view, but lesser clusters seemed "just along for the ride". What set the tone for the evening, and got it off to a great start, was the coincidental, but perfectly timed production of Floyds "Time" (Dark Side of the Moon) to the setting crescent moon. Everyone was glued to the eyepieces as the moon dropped behind the mountain, perfectly centered in a "V" between two hills. Soon only the "dark side" lit by earthshine was visible, until it disappeared AT THE EXACT moment that the music ended. Applause broke out up and down the observing line. I'm not kidding! We were amazed at the perfect timing of the song with moonset. Cosmic forces were at work. I saw more satellites than I expected. Anyone else notice a lot of satellites? Also saw a total of perhaps six sporadic meteors all night, with the brightest magnitude 2. Joe Borgione performed with excellence in his role as camp barrista, brewing a Guatemalen coffee that kept me up until dawn this morning! This was a fun star-party that I hope we can do again soon. Thanks to EVERYONE who attended! Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com