Subject:
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(not quite) Looking at Mars
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Sat, 16 Aug 2003 06:38:04 GMT
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Viewed:
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296 times
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Greetings, fellow .Spacers!
A few years ago I went to Target and bought a little telescope from the toy
section: a Discovery Channel telescope, 300 power, 50 mm; I forget the actual
manufacturer's name, but it was a real telescope company, and this was their
lower-end introductory version. It came with a 3x Barlow lens, a little
right-angle doohickey, and 3 lenses: h20mm, h12.5mm, and f6 mm. And
instructions, but it's been several years, so God only knows where those went.
Buying another isn't an option for me; I can barely afford to feed my Lego hobby
when I'm lucky.
I can look at the moon, and she's beautiful. But I SUCK at trying to bring
in anything smaller than that. I can almost get it in sight, but it's a manual,
old-fashioned telescope, and I might not have the gentle touch needed to really
focus and point the thing. One day, but not soon enough to see this; I need to
pay the bills first.
Do any of you know anything about telescopes? I'd like to ask for your
suggestions on how to see Mars, which I verified is what I'm seeing out there
with two different programs (the excellent freeware Skyview 3.0, 1993-94, by
Steven Michael Schimpf; and the Astronomy CD from Science Advantage 2000, by
Encore Education, with programming published by Dorling Kindersley).
* First, how the heck do you aim one of these things accurately at a little
dot in the sky and keep it still long enough to see anything?
* When I use the different lenses, I think that the lower the number the
higher the magnification. Is this right, or is it the other way around? I wear
glasses; should I take them off to focus an image in? Are the focus settings
similar for each different lens, or will I need to exend the lens tube farther
and farther for each lens? Should I move the actual telescope tube itself, and
refrain from touching the lens tube?
* Do I need a special camera adapter to take pictures of any images I'm
lucky enough to get? I understand that the images are upside down and
flip-flopped, but believe that to be correctable with image-editing software (or
a very expensive (IMHO) correcting lens.
Please share your experiences and advice with this poor lost skywatching
soul. Any help you can provide will be much appreciated. Thanks!!!
Peace and Long Life,
Tony Alexander
CEO, Tw0nCo Enterprises
& VERY amateur astronomer wannabe
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Message has 7 Replies:
 | | Re: (not quite) Looking at Mars
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| (...) I have some reply, but I don't think it'll be entirely correct. Let me know if you want me to spill my brains all over and speak it, or just to sit back and play Earth and Beyond again. -Dan (21 years ago, 16-Aug-03, to lugnet.space, FTX)
| | | Re: (not quite) Looking at Mars
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| (...) High-magnification telescopes will have one or two miniscopes mounted to the side to use for pre-aiming, but your telescope probably isn't powerful enough to warrant one of those. There should be two adjustment knobs to control rotation and (...) (21 years ago, 16-Aug-03, to lugnet.space)
| | | Re: (not quite) Looking at Mars
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| (...) the toy (...) actual (...) their (...) went. (...) hobby (...) Hi Tony, Given that your scope is a 300x model, you have a 3x barlow, and your smallest eyepiece is 6mm, I think it's reasonable to deduce that your objective (the big lens in (...) (21 years ago, 16-Aug-03, to lugnet.space)
| | | Re: (not quite) Looking at Mars
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| "Tony Alexander" <tw0nst3r@startrek.net> wrote in message news:HJp93G.1HqI@lugnet.com... (...) <much snipping> First some basics: a telescope's maximum magnification power is limited by the diameter of the objective lense (the bigger lens--the side (...) (21 years ago, 17-Aug-03, to lugnet.space)
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