--- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Good idea, Kurt.
Probably overdone. A simple alternative to this sign display box is to purchase a variable red-LED flashlight from Rigel Systems or Orion Telescopes for $20-$30. Place paper signs on a clipboard. Hang the clipboard either from your telescope tripod legs or from a separate camera tripod. I decided to throw the box together to head-off the inevitable star party "turn off that light" complaint that might arise from the clipboard method. This duct tape and scissors "atm" project was an outgrowth from a suggestion at a SLAS meeting earlier this year. Some general public members at star parties complained that all the scope owners choose one or two targets of opporunity. All the scopes are looking at the same thing. At a SLAS meeting earlier this year, an AstroLeague education handout was circulated that contained a brief blurb on common objects - galaxies, pn's, globs, oc's, dkn's, etc. Bill Kennedy suggested that somekind of sign in front of each scope would allow the general public to browse between various object types. It also makes it easy between scope owners to quickly survey what each scope is pointing at, so we are not duplicating each other. Any who, that is the general idea. Just a suggestion, not a prescription. - Canopus56 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com