Moon, 11/18/2007: Fun with the fruits of the swap meet

Marek Cichanski

I went to the SJAA swap meet today, hoping to clear some of the unused astro-gear out of my garage. I managed to offload most of it, although I couldn't quite move the Telepod head. Still, I managed to get enough dosh to buy the scope that Dennis Steele was selling - hey, it turned into a 'swap' meet after all!

Dennis had made a 10" Albert-style scope, exactly the sort of thing that I keep nattering on about wanting to build. He had made it around some old Meade 10" f/4.5 Newtonian optics, a UO cell, and a GSO 2" focuser. I may end up putting in my 10" f/5 Orion XT10 primary, a Protostar diagonal and spider, a homemade cell, and a 1.25" focuser, but the scope works very nicely as is. At f/4.5, my ParaCorr was noticeably handy.

So, I was sitting around, noodling on the computer, and I noticed something in the forecast discussion that suggested that the marine layer might mix out later this evening. I looked at the NWS fog product image, and it seemed like we might be getting a clear hole, or at least something like it. So, out I went. And, with my new 'Dennis Steele Montebello Special' scope available, it was nearly an instant-up job. I had collimated it when I got it home, just for fun.

There was cloud of varying thickness in the way the whole time, but the seeing was sick! And I mean 'sick' in that approving slang way that means 'superlative'. Hardly a twitch or wobble in the seeing. It seems like I truly had a 'laminar layer' above me. If it weren't moony, and we were on a high enough hilltop, it would probably be a killer night.

I just took a quick look at the moon, but 10" of aperture and steady seeing was a wonderful combination. I wasn't tracking, but I saw a great deal of very sharp detail. The secondaries around Copernicus looked laser-cut. Rupes Recta and Rima Birt were nicely defined. Rima Hadley was as fat as a goose. The terraces in Copernicus were really nice. I was using a 24mm Panoptic, a 12mm t4 Nagler, and a 9mm t6 Nagler, all with a ParaCorr. I think that this made for magnifications around 55x, 110x, and 147x. So, I wasn't hugely mag-ed up, but it was a nice test. And I was well pleased.

I'm looking forward to making a few tweaks to the scope, maybe doing some more layers of varnish, maybe doing some things to add a bit more rigidity, but overall I think Dennis made a nice Albert-style scope. Dennis's website is http://dobstuff.com/

Now, if it would just clear up a bit more so that I could look at Comet Holmes...

Thanks, Dennis! Thanks, people who bought my stuff at the swap meet! Thanks, SJAA!

Marek