USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 4 April 2002

Subject:	General ETX Observing with the 105
Sent:	Sunday, March 31, 2002 21:21:36
From:	Marknjuli@aol.com
I still love your site and try to never miss an update, but it sometimes
seems your site has become a clearing-house for complaints and problems,
and though I think it's great you and the other ETX-perts can help users
with their difficulties, I thought I would share a "happy" experience to
kind of balance things out a little.

I use the ETX-105EC on an old mount and tripod in conjunction with the
Scopetronix medium-duty tripod adapter, Autostar with 2.4EA in Alt/Az
mode, AC adapter, and Scopetronix Flexi-focus. Tonight, (March 31st), I
set the scope out on my patio right after sunset and went back in to
watch the rest of The Sopranos.

At around 7:00 MST I went out, put the scope in home position,
initialized, and did a two star alignment. With a Vixen LV 15mm at 98x,
I observed Venus and Mars, Venus was just a bright fuzzy blob due to
being low in the sky and Mars just a red dot because it's so far from
us, but I got a look at them both. Next Saturn and Jupiter with a Vixen
12mm  LV at 123x. Saturn was crisp and contrasty with dark sky between
the disk and rings, the Cassini division wasn't as good as I have seen
it, but was obvious, as was Titan, and another moon or two peeked out at
times. Jupiter was just as clear with at least three cloud bands and
three moons showing.

At about 7:30 the sky was pretty dark so I put in the 22mm Panoptic and
ran a guided tour that I have written of my favorite things visable from
my patio this time of year. First are Caldwell 13 & 14 which are two of
my favorites anywhere in the sky. The Owl cluster because it really does
look like an Owl and whenever I see it I have to grin, and The Double
Cluster because it is simply spectacular.

After those are NGC 2281, 2169, 2264, 2237, 2301, 1981, 2362, and 2546.
Messier 34, 45, 38, 36, 37, 35, 42, 41, 93, 46, 47, 50, 48, 67, and 44.
Not necessarly in that order. At around 8:30 I went back to Jupiter, put
in the 12mm and watched Ganymede re-appear from eclipse, then went to
Castor to view the double star just for kicks, then back to Jupiter to
watch the GRS rotate around the planet. Whew! Every one of them put in
the center of the eyepiece. There were a few more objects in the Eastern
sky that I would have liked to have taken a look at, but my house was in
the way so I called it a night. So, to sum-up, on a mild early spring
evening in Colorado at the foot of the Rockies I observed 4 planets, 25
star clusters, a moon re-appearing, split a double star and got a pretty
darn good look at Jupiters Great Red Spot, all in just over two hours.

Don't try THAT without an ETX and Autostar, trust me.

So the point to this story is, with the amount of money, time and effort
spent could you possibly have a better observing experience? I think
NOT.

Thanks and keep up the great work.

                                    Peace, Mark

Subject:	Testament to ETX Optics
Sent:	Wednesday, January 30, 2002 9:32:52
From:	mjwood5@home.com (Michael Wood)
I just had to share this with other ETX users who use your site, I was
completely taken aback by what my ETX-105EC showed me Monday night.   As
I was observing Jupiter around 630pm EST, I noticed at 113X (26mm + 2X
barlow) a small black dot in the SEB.  I hadn't checked any resources
detailing Jupiter events for the night, but I knew immediately that it
had to be a lunar transit.  I then stuck my 9.7mm, 151X, in for a better
look, this is the suprising part, I was actally able to see the moon
slightly higher and to the left of the shadow.   Once the moon emerged
on the other side of the planet, approx. 8:20pm EST, I packed up, went
inside, and checked www.skypub.com to see which moon it had been.  I was
then even more amazed when i saw that it was Io.  I thought that Io
itself would be impossible to see during a transit with an instrument of
this size.

Anyway, just had to share this with others.  Keep up the good work on
the site.

Mike Wood
Ellicott City, MD

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