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comment by Dala
Dala  ·  2667 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 9, 2017

abandonment issues

At the end of the month about half of my office is leaving for retirement or other jobs. The issue I have is that they are most of the good half. Not to mention that my workload is going to suck a whole lot until we can replace them. I am not sure whether I want to cuss or cry. I will probably do a little of both by the end of this.

telescopes

Finally played around with this old telescope that I have and used it to look at something other than the moon. I spotted Jupiter and the Galilean moons a couple weeks back and last weekend I got it lined up on Venus. Saturn will be my next target, I wonder if I will be able to discern the rings from the disc of the planet with what I have. I know they are supposed to be tilted toward us for good viewing right now. francopoli - any ideas on places that might be able to clean a telescope? It has a defunct wasp nest in it, it looks like. I was thinking about calling around to camera shops or the local observatory.





user-inactivated  ·  2666 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Look at the OWL method. Pull the mirrors, be careful, use distilled water. Once the mirror is out you can clean the tube and remove the gritty crap inside. Post or PM pictures if you want more assistance.

user-inactivated  ·  2667 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The telescope is pretty nifty. I never knew we'd be able to see Jupiter's moons with that tiny thing.

user-inactivated  ·  2666 days ago  ·  link  ·  

10x50 binoculars can see the moons and bands on jupiter, 10x60's can see the rings of saturn good enough to get hyped about it. An 80mm telescope is about the minimum for visual observing and they are coming way down in price.

Dala  ·  2666 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I could kinda make out the bands on Jupiter, could be that the scope needs more cleaning than I think it does (likely) or could have been atmosphere issues that made things not as clear.

Of course, I also need to learn the scope and what my two eyepieces are best at as well.