Attilla Danko, Roland Prevost and myself met under the wonderful
sodium glow of the sidewalk in front of the Kanata "Chapters" for a
spot of sidewalk astronomy. Despite dire predictions of cloud and
wet snow showers for last night, the sky was only cloudy for about 20
minutes of the 2 1/4 hours we observed.
I had the pleasure of giving "first light" to a new scope that I
picked up yesterday. It is a Skywatcher 8" Dob, 1200 mm. F6. It
came out of the box, was assembled in 20 minutes, and 1/2 hour later,
it was on the sidewalk ready to go. Let's say that I did not have
high expectations for this Synta product (it was really purchased as
a scope for my daughter, and for "quick peaks"). I was pleasantly
surprised by the level of finish, 2" metal focuser, super-plossel
eyepieces and etched for collimation primary mirror. I was even more
surprised at the quality of the images displayed last night. I
believe the optics beat my C-8 Deluxe (collimation time!!). On the
down side, I found the base "bearings" to be overly stiff, and a bit
of a struggle at times. This will definately have to be corrected.
We had about 85 observers at our little get-together. Many oohs and
ahhhs were to be had. I found the level of enthusiasm better than
average compared to our other sessions. I chalk this up to the
warmer weather. Jupiter was particularly interesting as the 4 G.
moons were in an unusual alignment on one side of the Planet. One of
the moons disappeared onto the disc and this brought a lot of
excitement from the people lucky enough to observe this.
The combination of scopes worked well, Attilla's excellent 4"
refractor on the moon, Roland's C-8 Deluxe on Saturn, and my humble
scope on Jupiter. The inclusion of the inexpensive Dob, helped with
the perenial question "how much do these cost"?? I was able to
answer that costs range "from this Dob at $500 to expensive
refractors above $5000". This led to many comments about the
accessibility of the hobby etc.
We packed up at 9:45. I had a great time!!! We are planning to be
back out at Chapters Kanata this evening...weather permitting. We
had MANY requests to be there so that "we can bring our spouses
and/or children to see the telescope!!" I hope some of you can make
it out with the three of us!!
Richard "slightly less photonically deprived" Harding
