Search found 412 matches
- Wed Mar 27, 2024 10:26 am
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: IDA Nightscape newsletter
- Replies: 15
- Views: 9665
Re: IDA Nightscape newsletter
The March 2024 issue of the DarkSky International (formerly International Dark Sky Association - IDA) Nightscape newsletter has arrived. This is issue number 115. With the organization's additional emphasis on "International", it is now printed in a new format allowing them to mail interna...
- Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:32 am
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: Oh boy! K Index says we've got aurora!
- Replies: 3
- Views: 128
Re: Oh boy! K Index says we've got aurora!
Maybe they get bright enough that we can see them through the clouds.
- Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:50 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: Need suggestions for solar eclipse viewing
- Replies: 5
- Views: 211
Re: Need suggestions for solar eclipse viewing
Also, instead of my first thought of destroying a cheap cutting board, you can instead use a colander for the dense pattern of holes. And you can re-use the colander for its normal purpose afterwards. An alternative to 2, the yardstick Earth-Moon system model, you can use an appropriately sized pair...
- Sat Mar 23, 2024 8:29 am
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: Need suggestions for solar eclipse viewing
- Replies: 5
- Views: 211
Re: Need suggestions for solar eclipse viewing
Glad some of the ideas helped. Also, as long as you're thinking of using the PC projector to show the animated path of the eclipse, there are going to be a number of sites showing the total eclipse as they happen. You could bring up at least one of those sites as totality passes through that location.
- Fri Mar 22, 2024 4:16 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: 8" f/12 classic cassegrain collimation
- Replies: 2
- Views: 100
Re: 8" f/12 classic cassegrain collimation
I would trust the collimation cap or a sight tube/Cheshire more than a laser for this, especially as that is the only method discussed in the manual. You mentioned some play when inserting the laser collimator. that can greatly affect the collimation. Personally, I'd do the collimation cap or sight ...
- Tue Mar 19, 2024 10:02 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: Need suggestions for solar eclipse viewing
- Replies: 5
- Views: 211
Re: Need suggestions for solar eclipse viewing
Here are a couple of ideas: 1. You already mentioned the hole in the notecard, making a pinhole camera to project the shape of the eclipse on a card/table/ground, etc. You could expand on that idea by taking a cheap, thin cutting board from a dollar store, marking a grid on it and drilling lots of a...
- Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:41 pm
- Forum: Marketplace/Exchange
- Topic: CPC800 Project scope or parts spare $300
- Replies: 2
- Views: 442
Re: CPC800 Project scope or parts spare $300
I just received my copy of the May 2024 Sky & Telescope. In the Astronomer's Workbench column on page 72 there is an article about taking one of the arms off the CPC mount to reduce it's bulk and weight, and adding a dovetail to the remaining fork. After which, the CPC mount can be used with an ...
- Sat Mar 16, 2024 10:48 am
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: Mpls Public Schools Community Ed course "Urban Astronomy"
- Replies: 0
- Views: 127
Mpls Public Schools Community Ed course "Urban Astronomy"
Found in the MAS PO box, the Minneapolis Public Schools Community Education spring/summer 2024 catalog. In it, there is a course called "Astronomy for Urban Dwellers". Six Tuesdays, April 23 to May 2, 7:00 to 8:30 PM and also four Wednesdays July 10 to 31, also 7:00 to 8:30 PM. See first i...
- Sat Mar 16, 2024 10:38 am
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: U of M Physics Dept Guest Lecture open to public
- Replies: 0
- Views: 109
U of M Physics Dept Guest Lecture open to public
We received the notification below in the MAS PO box. Paul Chaikin from New York University is lecturing on "Towards Artificial Life with DNA Nanotechnology" at 7:00 PM April 3, 2024 in room 100, 10 Church St. building on the U of M campus. Those still in town and not traveling to the tota...
- Thu Mar 14, 2024 9:11 am
- Forum: Marketplace/Exchange
- Topic: 10" f/8 RC carbon fiber telescope w/ TS focuser
- Replies: 3
- Views: 572
Re: 10" f/8 RC carbon fiber telescope w/ TS focuser
I brought it to a telescope shop in the Twin Cities about a year ago to have the mirrors cleaned.
Can you tell us where this elusive telescope shop in the Twin Cities is located and what it is called? I'm not aware of any since Radio City has closed!
- Tue Mar 12, 2024 11:18 am
- Forum: Marketplace/Exchange
- Topic: CPC800 Project scope or parts spare $300
- Replies: 2
- Views: 442
Re: CPC800 Project scope or parts spare $300
Additional information, as I'm the one who examined it: The corrector plate was smashed by the primary mirror falling down and hitting the corrector. All remnants of the broken corrector plate have been removed. The secondary mirror and assembly is intact and is included with the scope. The primary ...
- Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:19 am
- Forum: MAS Electronic Media & Book Group
- Topic: Book Review: Breif history of black holes
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1810
Re: Book Review: Breif history of black holes
By the way if you haven't ever run across her on YouTube, she has a YouTube channel called Dr. Becky where she provides scientific news updates and other videos. She is an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford in the UK. One of the latest ones is a sort of a mea culpa, saying she never knew the...
- Mon Dec 18, 2023 4:35 pm
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: IDA Nightscape newsletter
- Replies: 15
- Views: 9665
Re: IDA Nightscape newsletter
The December 2023 issue of the DarkSky International (formerly International Dark Sky Association - IDA) Nightscape newsletter has arrived.
This is issue number 114.
Attached is a copy for you to download and read for your enjoyment.
This is issue number 114.
Attached is a copy for you to download and read for your enjoyment.
- Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:25 pm
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: Bad SAT question and Sidereal time
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1991
Bad SAT question and Sidereal time
Not only is this a description of an incorrectly worded SAT math question, it also includes the most complete description of sidereal time I've seen:
Veritasium YouTube channel: "The SAT Question Everyone Got Wrong"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHkTs-Ipfg
Veritasium YouTube channel: "The SAT Question Everyone Got Wrong"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHkTs-Ipfg
- Sun Nov 26, 2023 7:11 am
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: Second Night Out - Dark Sky and Freezing to Death
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1939
Re: Second Night Out - Dark Sky and Freezing to Death
... I also suspect that the focus knob built into catadioptric scopes (such as Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maks), which physically move the objective, take more time to settle than drawtube focusers, such as those found on the catadioptric scopes at the club observatories. Actually, that hasn't been my...
- Wed Nov 22, 2023 12:34 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: First Time out With Club Loaner Scope - Success
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2407
Re: First Time out With Club Loaner Scope - Success
I have a couple of questions. 1. My hands were freezing cold, and I only came in because I couldn't stand it anymore. What do you winter viewers use to keep hands warm? I'm thinking of digging out my old ice fishing gloves that glove the hand but present the fingers, and put a hand warmer packet in...
- Sat Nov 11, 2023 5:21 pm
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: Universe Today article on Valts restoring scope rescued from the U of M
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2399
Universe Today article on Valts restoring scope rescued from the U of M
https://www.universetoday.com/163339/amateur-astronomer-restores-a-classic-historic-refractor/#more-163339 This summer/fall, Valts rescued and refurbished the 6-inch Gaertner telescope that has been stored in Tate Hall at the U of M. Above is the link to the Universe Today article describing his work.
- Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:03 am
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: A Few Newbie Questions
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3035
Re: A Few Newbie Questions
Scott, regarding the "smudge" statement. This is really in reference to nebulae and not planets. Observation of planets, particularly Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be quite satisfying. And other deep sky objects (open clusters, globular clusters, double stars, carbon stars) aren't general...
- Fri Oct 27, 2023 4:51 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: A Few Newbie Questions
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3035
Re: A Few Newbie Questions
Hi Scott, I'm in White Bear Lake too and I do some observing from my backyard, but honestly not all that much. I'm south of the lake and just east of White Bear Avenue, so the lights from the Hwy 61 car dealers are to my southwest and west, so I don't try observing those directions very much. I view...
- Tue Sep 05, 2023 4:07 pm
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: IDA Nightscape newsletter
- Replies: 15
- Views: 9665
DarkSky International Nightscape newsletter 113 Sept. 2023
The September 2023 issue of the DarkSky International (formerly International Dark Sky Association - IDA) Nightscape newsletter has arrived.
This is issue number 113.
Attached is a copy for you to download and read for your enjoyment.
This is issue number 113.
Attached is a copy for you to download and read for your enjoyment.
- Sun Sep 03, 2023 1:42 pm
- Forum: MAS Electronic Media & Book Group
- Topic: Group purchase of Observers handbook?
- Replies: 34
- Views: 11097
Re: Group purchase of Observers handbook?
I'll go for it!
Update: Paid using PayPal last evening, 9/11/23. Thanks, Clayton!
Update: Paid using PayPal last evening, 9/11/23. Thanks, Clayton!
- Sun Aug 13, 2023 5:43 am
- Forum: MAS Star Parties and Events
- Topic: Last weekend for the Apollo landing site at ELO:
- Replies: 1
- Views: 3259
Re: Last weekend for the Apollo landing site at ELO:
I just ran across this YouTube video: What the Apollo 11 Site Looks Like Today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXtPNDCuVk After having worked on recreations of a number of the items left on the surface for the 2019 and 2022 LM site mockups at ELO, seeing animated recreations of those same instrume...
- Fri Jul 28, 2023 2:05 pm
- Forum: General Astronomy
- Topic: The Size of Space
- Replies: 2
- Views: 5134
The Size of Space
Just ran across this interactive demo of the relative size of objects in space. Interesting.
https://neal.fun/size-of-space/
https://neal.fun/size-of-space/
- Sun Jul 09, 2023 5:33 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: July BSIG Recap
- Replies: 2
- Views: 4965
Re: July BSIG Recap
Kudos for coordinating the event, as always, Suresh. I think a great time was had by all. Thank goodness we had reasonably clear skies for most of it. I know I had fun, and even had a chance to help out a few people.
Steve
Steve
- Mon Jun 26, 2023 11:43 pm
- Forum: Beginners SIG
- Topic: Collimation
- Replies: 6
- Views: 6439
Re: Collimation
Ok, I'll try to remember to bring my sight tube and laser collimator and screwdriver and allen wrenches to the meeting.