I attended the Lakeridge junior high star party. It was nice to meet John Craig and the science teacher hosting us (forgot her name). Thank you for getting the word out. The students were awesome and I had a great time watching them teach each other the things I had just taught them. In John Craig's email to UVAA he said, "a woman I hadn't met before, Lynn Cooley, brought an orange-tube C8 (haven't seen one of those in a while!)". I didn't realize there was another vintage orange tube C8" at the star party. I have owned my C8" for over 30 years and the optics are incredible. I upgraded the star diagonal (it's from my Edge HD scope) so I can use new 2 inch eyepieces, and added a new finder scope. The original tripod always took a little time settling with high-powered eyepieces. Just bought a 35 pound tripod for stability that works with the orange C8" wedge mount. So at the next star party I might bring my ES 9mm 100° FoV eyepiece. It's been fun getting the old C8" out, fixing it up, and enjoying it once again. Anyone is welcome to take a look at the optics at the next event and tell me what you think. The reason I bring my vintage C8" inch to school star parties, instead of my C9.25 Edge HD CGEM, is because I teach kids who show a real interest in the telescope how to use the controls. They are delighted when I invite them to touch and turn knobs, watching as they track objects in the sky for themselves for the first time. I'm taking Rich Tenney's advice and looking for a wheeled dolly to transport my equipment from my vehicle across parks and fields. Sure would appreciate advice on what type to look for to buy. At Lakeridge Jr High, Rich Tenney and I visited about upcoming star parties hosted by Utah Valley Astronomy Club. We recently merged with UVAA. Richard Keele spearheaded forming a new, active astronomy club with another 4 of us, and we have wonderful events planned for our community. Rich said he'd like to stay involved as much as he can, which is so great. I will post upcoming Star Parties and the awesome club meetings we have planned on our Facebook page. As soon as the website is launched, which will be soon, the community will be invited to join; membership is free. First UVAC Star Party is June 10! Location will be announced this week. Hope to see everyone there! Kathy Terry UVAC1KT@gmail.com
Today's Topics:
1. Re: UVAA Digest, Vol 78, Issue 8 (John M. Craig) 2. Re: UVAA Digest, Vol 78, Issue 8 (GARY L CLAWSON)
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Message: 1 Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 12:33:47 -0600 From: "John M. Craig" <jmcraig@xmission.com> To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association <uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [UVAA] UVAA Digest, Vol 78, Issue 8 Message-ID: <5738C10B.70402@xmission.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Thanks, Joel,
Family first, for sure!
The weather was good; I was worried about the cirrus clouds, but they didn't bother us significantly. We had plenty of scopes--although one guy had dragged his 12.5" Dob out of storage and it was so badly out of collimation that the stars looked like daggers--he didn't seem to be inclined to do anything about it.I didn't feel like I could really suggest adjustments to someone else's scope, of course, so he had a long line to look through it (since it was the biggest) but oh, well... Rich Tenney brought a pair of 70mm binoculars mounted on a nice parallelogram mount; a woman I hadn't met before, Lynn Cooley, brought an orange-tube C8 (haven't seen one of those in a while!); and a neighbor Dave Jenkins, brought a 60 or 70mm Carlton (?) refractor. So, with the badly collimated Dob to compare it to, my 4" achromat (with my Badder Semi-apo Filter) gave pretty darn good views--I didn't drag out my 10" RC Cass--just too much bother and speaking of collimation issues--it holds it okay, but I don't feel like I've ever gotten it quite right.
Mostly we looked at the moon and Jupiter. I showed a couple of people Mizar and Alcor, but since the sky wasn't dark enough to see Alcor visually, that sort of took the shine out of that (more interesting if they can visually see both Mizar and Alcor and then see through the scope that Mizar itself is a double--I think each of its components are doubles too, but not visually splittable). Just as we were taking things down, Mars came up high enough out of the gunk you could actually see it and I had the best view of it I've ever had. The kids liked it, the teacher was delighted, and so it was definitely a success.
I'll hope to see you soon (even if in the dark)!
John