Clear Sky - Rich
Saturday
August 30, 2008 #044 - Meade Instrument Co.
Tonight I'll post the rest of the 70's vintage Meade catalog. Check out those prices! Oh, you say it's not the 70's anymore. Your sure right! The supreme top of the line Meade 16" LX400-ACF sells for $30,000!
Clear Sky - Rich
Clear Sky - Rich
Friday
August 29, 2008 #043 - Meade Instrument Co.
One of the more popular sellers of astronomical telescopes today is Meade. They advertise a spectacular range of instruments, from top of the line "RC Type", "Cats", you name it and they sell it or have sold it. Meade Instrument Company was started in the early 70's in a modest way by John C. Diebel. The company grew over the years into the giant it is today. In last couple of years it has fallen into economic troubles but seems to be recovering.
If you talk to almost any amateur they own or have owned a Meade Instrument. I had a 4" model 1022 Schmidt-Cassegrain for a few years. If you are interested in the history of the company I have a link that will give full details. There are a myriad of sites dedicated to these instruments.
I have a 70's vintage Meade catalog which I have scanned for the blog and will post over the weekend. It shows what they had for sale so you can compare it to the current offering.
By the way, doesn't the guy on page 8 look like Mr. Wizard? I can hear a chorus of who?
http://www.company7.com/meade/history.html
Clear Sky - Rich
If you talk to almost any amateur they own or have owned a Meade Instrument. I had a 4" model 1022 Schmidt-Cassegrain for a few years. If you are interested in the history of the company I have a link that will give full details. There are a myriad of sites dedicated to these instruments.
I have a 70's vintage Meade catalog which I have scanned for the blog and will post over the weekend. It shows what they had for sale so you can compare it to the current offering.
By the way, doesn't the guy on page 8 look like Mr. Wizard? I can hear a chorus of who?
http://www.company7.com/meade/history.html
Clear Sky - Rich
Thursday
August 28, 2008 #042 - Earth in the Night Sky
As a boy I read a lot of science fiction. One of the themes that Arthur C. Clarke wrote about in a short story titled "A Transit of Earth" was in my thoughts as I "Star Gazed". I day dreamed of what it would be like to stand on the surface of mars and look back at the earth shining in the night sky. I imagined that it would appear much as Venus does to us only not quite as bright and with a bluish tint. With a telescope I imagined that the moon would appear, making a double star providing an ever changing pattern much like Jupiter and it's moons. His story tells of such a man in the future observing the earth pass in front of the sun. NASA in a way has allowed me to live my daydream. The astoundingly long lived martian rovers have sent back a picture of earth shining above the horizon. The mars orbiters have added the moon in many pictures. The boy in me never believed this would be possible in his lifetime.
Clear Sky - Rich
Clear Sky - Rich
Wednesday
August 27, 2008 #041 - Can't sleep
Last night I awoke at 3 am and looking out to a beautiful clear sky. I decided it was a good time for a little sky gazing. My wife of coarse thought I was crazy for getting up at that time of night. If your reading this I would bet you have the same affliction that I do! Anyway, I grabbed my binoculars and headed out to the yard.
The milky way was oriented in an east to west direction. Cassiopeia and the Double Cluster, my favorite, was high in the north. At the zenith was M31 very bright to the naked eye with Pegasus flying close by. At about 45 degrees was the Seven Sisters, then Taurus with the Red Eye, and lying on his side along the eastern horizon was Orion. Above Orion's head the crescent moon sailed like a ship riding along the northeast horizon.
After I gave the entire sky, that was free of tree tops, a good look, I began giving it a little going over with the binoculars. I spotted two satellites in polar orbit and two very fast meteors. After about an hour the east began to lose it's fainter stars as the moon ship sailed higher into the sky. I gave Orion's belt a last look and a lingering gaze at my favorite triangle of double stars in Taurus and headed back to bed. A fun hour, no telescope, but just the beauty of the late summer night. Sometimes we concentrate on the narrow view through the telescope and miss the beauty of the night. Sleep came easily as I pulled the covers on. My starry sleeping medication worked wonders.
Clear Sky - Rich
The milky way was oriented in an east to west direction. Cassiopeia and the Double Cluster, my favorite, was high in the north. At the zenith was M31 very bright to the naked eye with Pegasus flying close by. At about 45 degrees was the Seven Sisters, then Taurus with the Red Eye, and lying on his side along the eastern horizon was Orion. Above Orion's head the crescent moon sailed like a ship riding along the northeast horizon.
After I gave the entire sky, that was free of tree tops, a good look, I began giving it a little going over with the binoculars. I spotted two satellites in polar orbit and two very fast meteors. After about an hour the east began to lose it's fainter stars as the moon ship sailed higher into the sky. I gave Orion's belt a last look and a lingering gaze at my favorite triangle of double stars in Taurus and headed back to bed. A fun hour, no telescope, but just the beauty of the late summer night. Sometimes we concentrate on the narrow view through the telescope and miss the beauty of the night. Sleep came easily as I pulled the covers on. My starry sleeping medication worked wonders.
Clear Sky - Rich
Tuesday
August 26, 2008 #040 - Walter Scott Houston
I have been slowly going through my collection of Sky & Telescope magazines saved back to the 60's and even a few in the 50's when I could afford to buy one. I favor two columns more than others. One was "Telescope Making" "or "Gleanings for the ATM", depending on the year, and the other was "Deep-Sky Wonders" by Walter Scott Houston.
"Scotty" as they called him, was always shown in pictures with his trademark pipe. He began his articles in 1946 and he continued them for an amazing 49 years until his death in 1993. Each month he described a few observable deep sky objects with little observing challenges thrown in for spice. He liked to raise the bar and test his readers skills of observation and some times shake up established notions of what was quoted as the limits of observation. He had voluminous files of correspondence with people answering his challenges over the years.
His articles chronicle and document how observation and amateur telescopes have changed as the years have passed since mid century. Larger and more powerful amateur equipment have even surpassed what professional astronomers used at that time. Limiting magnitudes have crept ever higher not to mention fantastic digital pictures where the observer stacks hundreds of images and even use adaptive optics, controlled and processed by computers that would have been science fiction back then.
Some of us still enjoy chasing a small fuzzy with more mundane telescopes and a naked eye. These are more akin to the scopes of that time period. If you still practice this type of observing then his articles will be fresh and interesting to you. I am always finding something new in his columns. If you don't have access to back issues of Sky &Telescope you can purchase Stephan James O'meara's book (Deep-Sky Wonders by Walter Scott Houston a selection and commentary).
Clear Sky - Rich
"Scotty" as they called him, was always shown in pictures with his trademark pipe. He began his articles in 1946 and he continued them for an amazing 49 years until his death in 1993. Each month he described a few observable deep sky objects with little observing challenges thrown in for spice. He liked to raise the bar and test his readers skills of observation and some times shake up established notions of what was quoted as the limits of observation. He had voluminous files of correspondence with people answering his challenges over the years.
His articles chronicle and document how observation and amateur telescopes have changed as the years have passed since mid century. Larger and more powerful amateur equipment have even surpassed what professional astronomers used at that time. Limiting magnitudes have crept ever higher not to mention fantastic digital pictures where the observer stacks hundreds of images and even use adaptive optics, controlled and processed by computers that would have been science fiction back then.
Some of us still enjoy chasing a small fuzzy with more mundane telescopes and a naked eye. These are more akin to the scopes of that time period. If you still practice this type of observing then his articles will be fresh and interesting to you. I am always finding something new in his columns. If you don't have access to back issues of Sky &Telescope you can purchase Stephan James O'meara's book (Deep-Sky Wonders by Walter Scott Houston a selection and commentary).
Clear Sky - Rich
Monday
August 25, 2008 #039 - Fred Hoyle
Fred Hoyle was an astrophysicist of the first caliber. His main claim to fame was the steady state theory. This theory postulated that the universe had no beginning nor will it end. New stars were forming continuously, filling the void as it was formed by expansion of the universe. Another of his ideas was called Panspermia and it postulated that the precursors of life are scattered throughout space and where ever conditions are favorable to support life they are seeded by the constant exchange of matter carrying these seeds.
As a youngster I read his astronomy books as fast as they came out. "Frontiers of Astronomy " and "The Nature of the Universe" were published in the 50's. I also absorbed his other books which were science fiction. They were astronomy lessons in the form of thought provoking fiction. My favorite was "The Black Cloud". He began the story with an astronomer photographing an interstellar cloud of dust and gas. They can be found in deep sky atlases along the galactic equator. It was calculated to be heading directly towards the solar system, with all the problems you might imagine that would bring. Where this story gets wild is that they discover that the cloud has intelligence. It's organization is based on magnetic fields instead of biological constituents. It travels to star systems to gather energy, replicate, and roam the galaxy.
If you can find a copy, published in 1957, it's a fun read. Today, when ever I see one of these dark regions during one of my deep sky sessions, I remember the story and get a little chill at the back of my neck. Fun stuff.
Clear Sky - Rich
As a youngster I read his astronomy books as fast as they came out. "Frontiers of Astronomy " and "The Nature of the Universe" were published in the 50's. I also absorbed his other books which were science fiction. They were astronomy lessons in the form of thought provoking fiction. My favorite was "The Black Cloud". He began the story with an astronomer photographing an interstellar cloud of dust and gas. They can be found in deep sky atlases along the galactic equator. It was calculated to be heading directly towards the solar system, with all the problems you might imagine that would bring. Where this story gets wild is that they discover that the cloud has intelligence. It's organization is based on magnetic fields instead of biological constituents. It travels to star systems to gather energy, replicate, and roam the galaxy.
If you can find a copy, published in 1957, it's a fun read. Today, when ever I see one of these dark regions during one of my deep sky sessions, I remember the story and get a little chill at the back of my neck. Fun stuff.
Clear Sky - Rich
Sunday
August 24, 2008 #038 - Kayak Astronomy
As we reach our more mature years we are supposed to take things a little slower. To a degree that is what happened to me except that I have found an occasional new hobby. My latest (the last 5 years) has been Kayaking. Not the kind where young people dash down rushing streams paddle over waterfalls and through roaring rapids but the so called sea kayaking version. It came about when our daughter moved to the Apostle Islands area on Lake Superior where some of the most beautiful freshwater coastline in the U.S. can be found. There is a serenity about silently gliding over the waters, exploring wild shorelines with cliffs and overhanging pines, watching otter, and deer. Listening to the call of the loon right off your bow or an eagle taking fish as you watch.
You might ask what has this to do with astronomy? The first year on the water I discovered that a kayak beats any back yard naked eye and binocular viewing session. It started as I was returning from one of my earliest paddle sessions. It was after sunset and the water was like a sheet of glass. My wife was there to pick me up but the stars were coming out and I can't resist a beautiful night sky! I asked my wife to leave me and come back for me later.
Let me explain. A kayak seat is as comfortable as any chair you might choose to lay back in. With a small motion of the paddle you can smoothly turn in any direction. You are away from annoying lights. Add to this that the Apostle Island area has skies like I remember as a kid. Dark and clear, but with wonderful fresh pine scented air added to the mix. The stars can be hard and rock steady, and I can see down to magnitude 6.5 or sometimes even 7.
Back to the night. I watched the stars, trying to pick out old friends, and glancing through my binoculars. I turned this way and that as if seated in one of the home built rotating observing chairs you occasionally see in Sky & Telescope. Even A few meteors pulled my attention away from stargazing. As I lay back looking north an aurora flickered and danced in waves along the skyline, climbed to overhead, and then began to fade as the moon rose out of the waters of Lake Superior. It was one of those magical nights that you never forget.
Since that time I have gone back many times and practiced my Kayak Astronomy. If you get a chance to try it I hope you have-
Clear Sky - Rich
You might ask what has this to do with astronomy? The first year on the water I discovered that a kayak beats any back yard naked eye and binocular viewing session. It started as I was returning from one of my earliest paddle sessions. It was after sunset and the water was like a sheet of glass. My wife was there to pick me up but the stars were coming out and I can't resist a beautiful night sky! I asked my wife to leave me and come back for me later.
Let me explain. A kayak seat is as comfortable as any chair you might choose to lay back in. With a small motion of the paddle you can smoothly turn in any direction. You are away from annoying lights. Add to this that the Apostle Island area has skies like I remember as a kid. Dark and clear, but with wonderful fresh pine scented air added to the mix. The stars can be hard and rock steady, and I can see down to magnitude 6.5 or sometimes even 7.
Back to the night. I watched the stars, trying to pick out old friends, and glancing through my binoculars. I turned this way and that as if seated in one of the home built rotating observing chairs you occasionally see in Sky & Telescope. Even A few meteors pulled my attention away from stargazing. As I lay back looking north an aurora flickered and danced in waves along the skyline, climbed to overhead, and then began to fade as the moon rose out of the waters of Lake Superior. It was one of those magical nights that you never forget.
Since that time I have gone back many times and practiced my Kayak Astronomy. If you get a chance to try it I hope you have-
Clear Sky - Rich
Saturday
August 23, 2008 #037 - Sunspot Observation
After yesterdays post a memory surfaced that I had recorded sunspot observations in the past, so I did a search of my files. (Sounds great "FILES") Actually card board boxes of papers with no order at all. I found a page of notes and drawings from May 3 & 11, 1968. It's amazing what the brain retains that can be unlocked with a little nudge. As I looked at them I could see those days 40 years ago. The brilliant blue sky after a rain washed it clean. The seeds of willows and cottonwoods drifting on the wind, shinning in the sunlight high in the sky as they traveled to new places to find a home.
I would set up my Unitron 2.4 in the yard, cap the end with a cover having a one inch stop and attach the projection unit. It was easier to see the projection if a canvas was placed over the observer while sitting in a lawn chair looking back at the screen. It could get mighty hot in there out on a sunny day.
As I would watch the image and sketch, an occasional turn of the slow motion drive cable would turn a worm gear to center the image as it would drift off the screen. I have scanned the page for the blog. They were in color but the years have faded the images and it took some contrast enhancement to make them readable. When you think about it is not much different from today's digital astronomy.
Clear Sky - Rich
I would set up my Unitron 2.4 in the yard, cap the end with a cover having a one inch stop and attach the projection unit. It was easier to see the projection if a canvas was placed over the observer while sitting in a lawn chair looking back at the screen. It could get mighty hot in there out on a sunny day.
As I would watch the image and sketch, an occasional turn of the slow motion drive cable would turn a worm gear to center the image as it would drift off the screen. I have scanned the page for the blog. They were in color but the years have faded the images and it took some contrast enhancement to make them readable. When you think about it is not much different from today's digital astronomy.
Clear Sky - Rich
Friday
August 22, 2008 #036 - Transit of Mercury
A few days before 11/7/1960 I was reading my Sky & Telescope magazine about the transit of Mercury that was about to occur. My Unitron telescope was equipped for solar projection and I was anticipating seeing my first transit. I had seen mercury before low in the evening sky and I had taped graph paper to the projection screen several time and drawn in sunspot groups. There was one major problem. The transit was on a school day and there was zero chance of my parents letting me stay home from school just to see a rare astronomical event!
I thought of all kinds of excuses but could not figure out how they would square with me setting up my telescope in the yard if I was sick enough to stay home. Then a thought hit me. Why not talk to the science teacher, and try to set up an observing session at school for students to see this rare event. It worked, I was allowed to set up in the front yard of the school. As the planet began it's transit, the small dark spot began to cross the projected sun. Classes were brought out by the teachers and I pointed out the tiny black dot. It did not take long for everyone to take a look and return to class. This left me to follow Mercury's progress across the entire solar disk. As I watched, the thought crossed my mind that no one seemed to be as excited or as enthusiastic as I was, not even the science teacher. No one else at school had a telescope and I wondered if teachers had not brought each class outside, if anyone would have bothered to take a look.
In the end I decided that it didn't matter. I had seen my first transit and it was worth it. Even if I was the only one that liked to watch a little black spot cross the solar disk. Today I marvel at the magnificent pictures of Mercury being returned from a small spacecraft that will soon orbit the first planet out from the sun. I rejoice that there are people who are interested in those planets and even make them their life's work.
Clear Sky - Rich
I thought of all kinds of excuses but could not figure out how they would square with me setting up my telescope in the yard if I was sick enough to stay home. Then a thought hit me. Why not talk to the science teacher, and try to set up an observing session at school for students to see this rare event. It worked, I was allowed to set up in the front yard of the school. As the planet began it's transit, the small dark spot began to cross the projected sun. Classes were brought out by the teachers and I pointed out the tiny black dot. It did not take long for everyone to take a look and return to class. This left me to follow Mercury's progress across the entire solar disk. As I watched, the thought crossed my mind that no one seemed to be as excited or as enthusiastic as I was, not even the science teacher. No one else at school had a telescope and I wondered if teachers had not brought each class outside, if anyone would have bothered to take a look.
In the end I decided that it didn't matter. I had seen my first transit and it was worth it. Even if I was the only one that liked to watch a little black spot cross the solar disk. Today I marvel at the magnificent pictures of Mercury being returned from a small spacecraft that will soon orbit the first planet out from the sun. I rejoice that there are people who are interested in those planets and even make them their life's work.
Clear Sky - Rich
Thursday
August 21, 2008 #035 - Meteors and Terrorists
On 9-11-2001 we were camped at St. Ignus, Michigan just above the bridge over the Straits. My wife and I had moved up from a truck camper to a used motor home once the kids began leaving the nest. So we had all the comforts of home. We got up that morning and turned on the T.V. and the first tower in New York had been hit and was burning. As we watched in horror the second plane slammed into the other tower. Then all hell broke loose. Needless to say the level of tension went up around the bridge and we began monitoring with a scanner. That day I filled up the tank so we would be able to make it home if the worst happened. Some gas prices jumped to over $5 a gallon until the governor stepped in.
We decided to continue north the next day to the Sault area where we planned to camp for the last two weeks of our vacation and monitor the situation. After we set up in a site it was a beautiful clear day so we moved outside to watch the ships and listen to the scanner. The government was on high alert around the Locks. The coast guard, security, and the international bridge had fast and furious radio traffic. I looked into the sky and high flying, pole crossing, passenger jets that were arriving at the U.S. border were turned around over Canada and headed back north. It was amazing to see contrails in a tight "U" shape. The government was taking no chances!
That night after we went to bed I continued to monitor the scanner. At a little after 3 am there was a tremendous explosion, the motor home shook an we came straight out of bed. I told my wife that I thought someone must have taken out the International Bridge. I went out but the bridge was OK. I could see it very well with binoculars and everything looked standing. The scanner came alive, with everyone asking what happened. Very little information was available until about an hour and a half later. The security forces had been advised that NORAD had seen a sizable meteor enter the lower atmosphere just about 20 miles north in Canada with a possible strike in a wilderness area near the small town of Heyden, Ontario. Needless to say as jumpy as everyone was in those days, NORAD was doing a sterling job of watching our skies, and they didn't let a little stone from space slip by unnoticed. A couple of days later we drove up to the area but everything was normal. The meteorite had hundreds of square miles to fall in and that is a very rugged place. I have never heard of anyone recovering any of it.
Clear Sky - Rich
We decided to continue north the next day to the Sault area where we planned to camp for the last two weeks of our vacation and monitor the situation. After we set up in a site it was a beautiful clear day so we moved outside to watch the ships and listen to the scanner. The government was on high alert around the Locks. The coast guard, security, and the international bridge had fast and furious radio traffic. I looked into the sky and high flying, pole crossing, passenger jets that were arriving at the U.S. border were turned around over Canada and headed back north. It was amazing to see contrails in a tight "U" shape. The government was taking no chances!
That night after we went to bed I continued to monitor the scanner. At a little after 3 am there was a tremendous explosion, the motor home shook an we came straight out of bed. I told my wife that I thought someone must have taken out the International Bridge. I went out but the bridge was OK. I could see it very well with binoculars and everything looked standing. The scanner came alive, with everyone asking what happened. Very little information was available until about an hour and a half later. The security forces had been advised that NORAD had seen a sizable meteor enter the lower atmosphere just about 20 miles north in Canada with a possible strike in a wilderness area near the small town of Heyden, Ontario. Needless to say as jumpy as everyone was in those days, NORAD was doing a sterling job of watching our skies, and they didn't let a little stone from space slip by unnoticed. A couple of days later we drove up to the area but everything was normal. The meteorite had hundreds of square miles to fall in and that is a very rugged place. I have never heard of anyone recovering any of it.
Clear Sky - Rich
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