Fred Ley

Like his music. Bought a copy of his "Oxygen" album back in 1979. Haven't heard it in a while. Should probably go and buy it on cd. Of course I could set up my stereo as I have lots of albums from the 70's and most of them are in mint condition. -Fred

Hey! This is a really neat thing to have to facilitate zeroing in on the M Objects. I am certain that many persons will be printing out a copy or saving it to their laptop for field use. Your final chart is time well spent and appreciated. -Fred

I guess that one simply place a sheet of deep red plastic over the screen of the laptop in addition to having the laptop screen facing away from the other observers. As to cigarettes, my observing radius of 20 feet is a "Smoke Free Zone". Don't need them near me and don't want to smell them either. Naturally everyone is free to do at their eyepiece what he or she wants to-simple as that. I have seen at star parties what happens when people show up and being new to the field, have their car lights on in order to see where to park. The chorus of "Turn the lights off" is quick and LOUD. -Fred

When at the store, ask the personnel there if you can examine the demonstration unit, pick up the tube assembly and walk with it. You can also do the same with the base. That way you will get a feel for the unit. If you end up with either the 10 or the 12, you can always add wheels to the base in order to facilitate taking it out into the night sky. Naturally I don't know your dwelling situation as that will dictate the feasability of using wheels to move that beastie around on. Either way, be it a 10 or a 12, when you find yourself in a dark sky you will be impressed. The views will place a smile on ones face. -Fred

Hah! The old pirates eyepatch. I forgot that I have one of those too. -Fred

Hi, From Athens you will basically be relegated to observing the M-objects, Charles Messier's list of deep sky objects. Of course those objects will take on a fairly diminished appearance due to the light pollution. If you took that same telescope to a real dark sky site, you would be overwhelmed by the difference-trust me. Some of the filters that are available on the market can help one cut through some of that same light pollution. Do not forget that having ones eyes dark adapted does also help. In a large city with so many lights around it is a bit hard to dark adapt ones eyes. I have a pair of red goggles to maintain the dark adatation of the eyes. Granted one looks kind of funny wearing them, but they work. I purchased the goggles from Orion up in Santa Cruz. Don't know if they still sell them these days. If one can't enjoy the deep sky objects there is the Moon and the planets and they both offer a plethora of stuff to view. You can also do your own exploring and discover just what one can and can't see very well from a city. Keep a log book of what you view and how it appears. Making a sketch would be nice, then you can compare the city view to its appearance when you are at a dark sky site. Oh yes-don't forget to use averted vision when looking at those fuzzies. That means to look just a little bit to the side of the object and that allows the more sensitive part of the eye to view the object. -Fred

Hi Jean, Getting a 12-inch scope will certainly open up new vistas for you. As mentioned in previous replies, weight of the instrument is important. an observer may and can soon tire of a instrument that is a bit on the heavy side-unless it is permanently housed or one has assistance in the setup. Since you are a deep sky aficionado you will have to take the scope to a dark sky site in order to utilize it to the max. Don't forget that a couple of good eyepieces will also help with the deep sky experience and make it more enjoyable. Naturally everything can't be done in a day, but striving to have a good set of eyepieces is a good idea. As one may change scopes over the years, one should keep their eyepiece set, unless one has the cash to get whatever they want. Clear Skies -Fred

Want to share these four titles that I picked up last year. They are for the region 1, U.S., dvd players. I enjoyed all four of them. Hawaiian Starlight is somewhat exceptional to me. It primarily shows time-lapse cinematography of the day and night sky from Mauna Kea and the various domes. There are sections that present still images taken through the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. It has a wonderful soundtrack too. Being a great admirer of George Ellery Hale, the person who brought the 40-inch Yerkes, the 60 and 100-inch Mt. Wilson and the 200-inch Mt. Palomar telescopes into existence, I found this program to be quite interesting as it also addresses the 40, 60 and 100 telescopes too. 400 Years of the Telescope also is quite enjoyable as the title speaks for itself. Seeing In The Dark by Timothy Ferris is closer to the amateur astronomer and very well done. There are lengthier reviews on the internet if one is interested. -Fred

The 200-inch Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar with its adaptive optics can see a 0.3 arc second separation. This surpasses what Hubble can do as it is configured. Here is a link to the Mt. Palomar site about the system... http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/AO/ Of course the new James Webb orbiting telescope should prove to be very interesting as it is quite large than the Hubble. It wil have a 256-inch mirror (6.5 meters). Info on the Webb telescope can be found at... http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ It is nice to know that adaptive optics can help push a telescopes ability much further. -Fred

Now this is an instruments that I would be very interested in seeing the size and clarity of the first image it takes. It should take ones breath away. In addition, here is the link to the telescope on the E.S.O. site for those further interested... http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/e-elt/ Clear Skies, Fred