by Ron Britton
| Location | Monte Bello OSP |
|---|
This was my first trip to MBOSP and a night of observing with what I hope will become new future friends.
The drive down was quite fun Page Mill Road from I-280 over to MBOSP is a fun little drive of seven miles of VERY twisty mountain roads. Now I LOVE to drive mountain roads but I had to keep telling myself that my new Meade 10” LX200GPS scope was in the trunk and to take it easy.
I was excited to get my new baby out under some dark skies, the 4 nights on my light polluted front deck, since I got my new scope, was just not scratching the itch one gets with a new scope.
Now I should point out my new baby is new to me but used, a great find on Ebay. Also I am a very amateur amateur astronomer. I know a few constellations and a few of the brightest stars by name and can find them in the sky, most nights. I have owned one telescope before and I was very frustrated by the experience. I still have that scope, an Orion 8” Newt. I tried to learn how to find things with charts with that scope and gave up. I updated it to have digital setting circles and work with my laptop to help me find things but the whole alignment process never did work right and I still could not find the faint fuzzies I wanted to see. So the old 8” sat in a corner of my place of several years gathering dust, my dreams of seeing the sky went back to what I could see with my eyes and just imagining what lay beyond.
Then I heard about the newer scopes from Meade and Celestron with built-in computers and complete goto capabilities. The dream was coming back…
I began research and decided that the Meade 10” LX200GPS was just what I was looking for. A telescope that new the sky, so I did not have to, and one that could almost align itself and then have accurate goto performance the rest of the night..
Now I know some of the traditionalist in the astronomy community poohoo the new goto scopes. I guess they think people like me are lazy and don’t want to take the time to learn the sky “the way it should and always has been done.” And I would say they are right. But I think that telescopes like my new one give a whole new class of people the ability to enjoy the wonders of the night sky.
As proof of this last night at Monte Bello I saw more cool stuff in just one night than I have in years of trying before. My new scope did what I wanted; it found the things that I, or others fellow stargazers, wanted to look at. I saw M36, 37, 38, Orion’s Nebula, The Ghost of Jupiter, Saturn, Jupiter, a galaxy or two and a sting of open and globular clusters, that I can not remember the names of, ending with my nights absolute favorite M3, thank you Lance for that suggestion.
I met Lance and his wife Mary, John and a couple of more people that I am sorry but I cannot remember your names, a very friendly bunch willing to share their love of astronomy with each other and me.
I am sure I will be back to MBOSP and out to other dark sky sites here around the Bay. I just found a list of 191 objects call the “Eye Candy List.” I am going to start with this list at my next outing and start to find the remaining 187 objects on the list I have not yet seen.
The dream is alive again!
Till my next observing report I wish you all dark and clear skies.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 06, 2005 18:40:29 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Apr 06, 2005 21:36:10 PT