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Startesting And Tuning Your Scope
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On a quest for "optical perfection"?
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A lot has been said about "quality optics". What is quality
and how is it achieved? Are you getting the most out of your
scope? What "price" are you willing to "pay" for it? Follow
AstroTalk's ongoing discussion...
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Nomenclature of Visual Solar Observation
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Want to keep your hobby alive "Night and Day"? Try solar observing...
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Hey, it's not just "eyepiece projection" anymore. Get a handle on what you can see using modern solar observing techniques. But beware, the Sun is after all a star - a very close one at that - and it is simply too brilliant for mortal eyes...
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Qua's Quest for Knowledge, Beauty and Meaning under the Night Sky!
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OK, so you're a "newbie" to amateur astro,
and jeff's stuff is perhaps a bit too arcane.
Why not follow Dave from the beginning!
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While on a "working vacation" in Russia, Dave negotiated an offer
he couldn't refuse. Packing home an Intes MK-67 (along with his luggage)
Dave was anxious to get started in what could be the adventure of a lifetime...
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Yippee! A fundraiser!
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Astro.Geekjoy/AstroTalk's Server Needs You!
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OK kid's, it's your chance to get involved, save our server (SOS)
and help a long lost telescope soul find her way home. Astro.Geekjoy
and Vicky needs you! - And along the way, you never know - we may
all just have a lot of fun doing it!
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"Trapped" in the Great Nebula
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Ensconced in the midst of the finest single study of the Night Sky is a star cluster in the making...
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Just about any scope will resolve three stars in the Theta Orionis Complex. A decent two
incher adds a fourth. On a clear and steady night, a fifth can be seen by the "eagle-eyed"
observer using a decent quality three incher. Six inchs can show a sixth. But
until you are absolutely sure you've seen it, you just don't know...
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Saturn's Autumn 2001 Apparition
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Who can resist The Ringed Wonder? Certainly not the Merry Band at AstroTalk!
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Although both Uranus and Neptune show resolved disks, Saturn is the deepest of the shallow sky studies accessible through amateur equipment. This last opposition presented the planets splendid ring system in wonderful detail. AstroTalk astronomers pushed themselves and their equipment to the limits to find the edge.
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The Great Andromeda Galaxy Family Challenge
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M31 is not alone...
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Some 2.8 million lightyears distant, The Great Andromeda Galaxy rivals our own in mass and extent. Like the Milky Way, M31 is attended by a small retinue of "dwarf" galaxies. On a good night of seeing, diligent observers using even very modest scopes stand a chance of locating four of them.
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Nomenclature of Visual Jupiter Observation
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AstroTalk wants to make sure that when it comes to Planet Jupiter, we
all speak the same language...
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Planet Jupiter offers the most tantalizing mix of visible and almost visible
detail possible in the solar system. The fact that so much can be seen on a
very good night of seeing keeps amateurs right on the edge of their
observing stools. So get a handle on what to call it, when you do see it...
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Dancing With the One that Brung Ya
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The first "abridged" AstroTalk thread that is more than a JTB monologue...
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AstroTalk participant Otto wanted to inject a little more "color" into AstroTalk.
theAstronomer aspired to celebrate the "richness and diversity" of its participants.
JTB just had to complain about the "high cost of living" in paradise.
Straightshooter Cor gave us all "just the facts ma'am." (Or was it straightshooter
theAstronomer, who...)
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Sky Training the Pup
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The first of (hopefully) many (slightly scrubbed) threaded discussions
taken from that password protected bastion of dialectical empiricism
- the AstroTalk Forum...
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Originally "Sky Training the Pup" was a threaded discussion posted on
AstroTalk. That discussion chronicled jeff's attempts to (successfully?) bring
the Pup (an Orion ST80 fast-achromat) to its highest point of optical
perfection. Did he succeed? (Well, there is the little matter of...)
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