Steve, If your "goto" is made by Meade, get into the "Constellations" section on your hand held controller (I have no idea about Celestron). Once there, you can choose prominent stars. Alpha Herculis will he listed as the first target. From: Steve Fisher <iotacass1@hotmail.com> To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 2:06 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sept 17 Star Party Joan: I heard from several members tonight that it "was great to see you out" with us again. We all enjoyed your company and hope you will come out for a few minutes and stay for hours again soon. I couldn't possibly give a better report of the nights events than you have. It did indeed turn out to be an outstanding night out for all those who took the chance. If you would have pointed at Alpha Herculis for me we could have gone there. Since I had no idea where to look it didn't work out so well with the goto. Next time just remind me that it also goes by a traditional name. Rasalgethi is easy to find in the goto's double star catalog. I guess I need to get back in the habit of taking star charts to public star parties. Hope to see you all again, soon. Steve
From: jcarman6@q.com To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:46:13 -0600 Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Sept 17 Star Party
Well, it certainly looked like a bust all day, with the clouds coming and going. But by the time I got to SPOC around 6:45, the sun was shining with a lot of thin cirrus clouds challenging the potential evening. The sun was sweet! But I had to get a peek through Steve’s refractor at night – just to compare. The sunset was quite colorful and beautiful, but that color translated to lots of thin clouds. It looked like it was going to be an early night, but FINALLY Vega poked through – barely- directly overhead. So it might end up being a “sucker hole” night. That’s when just one part of the sky clears and everyone turns their telescope to that place and then it clouds over, but another break in the clouds appears elsewhere so everyone turns their telescopes to that point and then... “sucker!!” Slowly, over time all those thin clouds disappeared and the night turned into a true joy.
Oh, and BTW, Steve’s got a great refractor --- but my refractor is better than his (certainly in my own mind). He had epsilon lyrae split with 90 magnification. He didn’t see it, but I did, although it wasn’t rock solid - they were “footballs” with occasional dark lines between. At 220 mag, it was a clean split, as it should have been. Bruce had the 11” “handicap” scope out there and it’s image of M13 was spectacular. Might I say “resolved to the core?”
I challenged both Steve and Bruce, who had Gotos to look at Alpha Hercules. Neither of their gotos had it in their database, even by star name. Finally I looked at Bruce and pointed to the proper place in the sky and said “Geez, it’s right there!!!” Like a seesick (not seasick) sailor, Bruce had to get his star hopping legs back, but he managed (hehe) AND NO, I am not starting up the goto pushto debate again. It was just a “funny” moment. The real debate was the color of the pair. I just wanted to see what people thought. For those of you who missed it you are S.O.L. for those of you who took the chance, it was a blast. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php
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