Old Meets New: Edmund 3” and iPhone
Observatory opened at 1807 MST, 69°F, under clear, but very bright skies (due to the moon). I first set up my Edmund Scientific 3” Newtonian reflector (at the left in the above photo). This is a true “grab-n-go” telescope. It weighs very little, has no drives requiring power, and does not need a star alignment. Just set the telescope and tripod down with its polar axis (non-adjustable) aimed towards True North. Set up requires about 1 second. Start observing. I received the telescope as a Christmas present from my mother in 1961. Here is a photo of it (and me) taken at Easter in 1962:
I photographed the moon through the Edmund 3” using the Apple iPhone 4. Since I don’t have an afocal adapter for the 0.965” eyepieces that the 3” Newtonian uses, I had to hand-hold the iPhone over the eyepiece. I used a 3/4” eyepiece (40X). Here is the image:
Not bad for a 49 year old telescope!
I then spent some time just observing the moon and Jupiter with the Edmund 3”. I used the 3/4”, 1/2” (60X), and 1/4” (120X) eyepieces that I have for the telescope. Using the 3” brought back many memories of observing with the telescope from the dark skies in my Southern Indiana backyard in the 1960s. Since there was no GOTO computer system for the telescope back then, I learned my way around the night sky using charts and I learned to “star hop” to locate objects in the eyepiece. This knowledge continues to be very worthwhile today even with my GOTO telescopes. All astronomers should learn to navigate the night sky without the aid of GOTO systems. It is part of the enjoyment of the night sky.
At 1840 MST, I powered up the 8” (GOTO) telescope and did lunar observing at 77X, 133X, 206X, and 364X. Seeing was not very good this night so I didn’t try for any higher magnifications. The views of the moon at 364X were still pretty nice. There is always something neat to see on the moon when you take the time to study it at the eyepiece.
While I was observing the moon, and just before I started observing Jupiter, my iPod that was playing music in the background began to play the soundtrack from “2001: A Space Odyssey” (which was in the current long playlist). Nice timing! I didn’t have enough magnification available to see the “Tycho Magnetic Anomaly - 1”. Or maybe it has now been removed.
Viewed Jupiter in 26mm, 15mm, 9.7mm, and 5.5mm eyepieces. The 4 Galilean Moons were visible, two on each side of the planet’s disk. There was no hint of the SEB on the side of Jupiter that was visible this night. And I couldn’t see the “Discovery” spacecraft either (from “2001”).
I then SYNCed the AutoStar on Altair; I hadn’t done a SYNC in a long time.
The batteries on the wireless AutoStar II were starting to die; the AutoStar display was getting very dim. But the batteries have lasted for 22 observing sessions of various lengths using non-rechargeable batteries. I will switch to rechargeable batteries soon.
Closed the observatory at 1930 MST, 61°F.
Friday, November 19, 2010