Chuck, I'm sure some 42+ years of experience have helped train you eye in what your seeing. My secret? Taking my father's 1960's era Tasco 10x to 25x Zoom Astronaut Telescope that I still have and viewing the moon on it using a camera tripod. When I pull it out of its old yellow box, the memory of using it with my Dad comes back, and it reinforces my connection to him, though he has been gone since 1982. I don't think it is a dirty little secret, I consider it to be one of my treasured gems. It's not much, just a link with the past, but to me, an important link as I'm sentimental. In this 1968 Tasco Ad it is on the lower right for $14.95 and is called the Zoom Astronaut for $14.95. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SygmIeyVNeEJ:geogdata.csun.edu/~vo... Right now my father-in-law is living with us and he loves to look over at the mine (I'm in Herriman) and watch the large dump trucks and other large vehicles do their work so it is setup for him to use it. Kinda of corny but I sure hope that cheap, and old scope lasts a LONG time. Actually, it also makes me hope my other scopes last that long . . . including the new one I'm ordering. On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 2:49 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I have a strange attraction to small aperture, long-focus refractors. I have a 50mm f/20 cemented doublet refractor that I dearly love, and am currently building a 60mm f/15 doublet tube assembly.
I just bought a vintage 1975 60mm JCPenny "Penncrest" of 1000mm focal length (that's f/16.7, folks!), on equatorial mount with all accessories, on eBay. I have an identical equatorial mount made some years later, with clock drive, that I've used as my astro-camera tracking platform for some years, and will steal the drive from it and install it on the Penncrest scope after I fully restore it.
I love to use my small refractors in the backyard in summertime, pushing them to their limits. I wait until after midnight, when most cars are off the road, and the limiting magnitude from the valley can improve by 1 or more.
With patience, you would be amazed at what you can tease-out of a small aperture from a light-polluted site, and the nostalgic feeling recaptures the wonder I first experienced in my parent's backyard, some 42+ years ago, with my first 3-inch telescope.
What's your Dirty Little Astronomy Secret?
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