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Hello all,


Thanks Janice, for passing on the information. I just got home and
the skies look pretty bad, so I'll be staying in for the night. Hope
all that went out at least get a look at something.

Until next time,

Matt

--- In OAFs@y..., "Matt Weeks" <mweeks@i...> wrote:

I just got home and the skies look pretty bad, so I'll be staying in
for the night. Hope all that went out at least get a look at
something.

That's probably a good call, Matt. From the way things sounded, I
have a feeling that the only astronomical object likely to be spotted
tonight - assuming a modicum of luck - is Bruce McGlashan errant lens
cap!

Janice

Janice,

Yeah, I think your right!! It's too bad, my wife and I went out to
FLO this afternoon for a look. We walked in to the observatory and
had a look around. If I had known to look, I may have been able to
fing Bruce's cover in the daylight! Oh well, I'm sure he'll find it.

Matt

--- In OAFs@y..., jtokar@s... wrote:

--- In OAFs@y..., "Matt Weeks" <mweeks@i...> wrote:

I just got home and the skies look pretty bad, so I'll be staying

in

for the night. Hope all that went out at least get a look at
something.

That's probably a good call, Matt. From the way things sounded, I
have a feeling that the only astronomical object likely to be

spotted

tonight - assuming a modicum of luck - is Bruce McGlashan errant

lens

cap!

Janice

Re. the errant lenscap: I found it. It was in my equipment case all along.
I had confused it for a cap that goes on the mount when the polar alignment
scope is removed. That cap was in the opposite end of the tray. Sigh.

At least one positive thing came out of this fiasco. I was determined not
to lose another lenscap, so I went out to CT yesterday and bought a $2
package of retroreflective strips that are intended to be stuck on bicycles.
There were four 5" strips - 2 white and 2 red. I cut the strips into
squares and put one on the inside and one on the outside of each lenscap. I
also labeled each one with the lens it goes on, using a permanent marker
normally used for overhead projector slides.

I demonstrated the reflectors to Roland and Richard, and they seemed
impressed. They suggested that I post the suggestion to everyone. Done.

As for the conditions at FLO tonight, they were pretty miserable. I think
I've seen better in my light-polluted backyard. After the feast at Mike's,
the famine tonight was brutal. Whereas I found M3 in a matter of seconds at
Mike's, I struggled for 15 minutes to track it down tonight. I ended up
scrapping my list of objectives and trying easier targets, like splitting
Castor (which I hadn't tried before).

As usual, Roland turned this potentially disappointing night into a learning
experience. I was trying to locate M37, without success, and he offered
another star-hopping route that exploited the Declination drive. Duh, why
didn't I think of that! Unfortunately, conditions had deteriorated so much
that even that technique proved unfruitful. We tried splitting a few more
doubles (Gamma Virginis, Polaris), comparing different EP's at the same
time. He also showed me his technique for determining the limiting
magnitude using Leo. Something more to try on my own!

Richard was using the 10" Dob with his own EP's. He showed me the view of
M3 with his very nice Pentax EP, but every time we tried to use the EP in my
scope on M3, we managed to lose alignment. After three attempts (I think),
we gave up. Too bad. Thanks, Richard, for the use of your mini-atlas -
sure beats trying to hold the Cambridge Star Atlas at the scope!

Oh, and Janice, thanks for the use of the red-LED flashlight. Sure is nice,
being able to adjust the intensity of the beam. I'm sold - it's off to
Focus for me to pick up one of my own.

At 23:30 or so, Richard had left, and Roland and I were starting to get
cold, so we packed it in. All in all, not the night I had planned for, but
fruitful nonetheless.

Bruce McGlashan