would you like to swing on a star

Sock Puppet · Post by **Sock Puppet** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:31 am

I trust everyone had a wonderfully pleasant evening enjoying the stellar delight of the Perseid meteor shower tonight.

My efforts were less than fruitful; despite my repeated entreaties to their better nature, I was unable to come to an accomodating arrangement with the mosquitos who inhabit my neck of the woods. Plus, I live near an airport, so "moving lights in the sky" are a little hard to distinguish.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:11 pm

Oh, that sounds like fun actually.

I've got shit loads of light pollution where I live, but w/e, I'mma grab me a corncob pipe and smoke me some cornsilk and see if I can see the Perseids.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:13 pm

Overcast around here recently, at least at night (sigh); exceptionally annoying now that I have this which I got as a birthday present a few weeks ago.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:22 pm

Does that thing allow you to see through walls?

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:08 pm

No but it does allow me to carry it outdoors.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:00 pm

Someone has many minis, and a cabinet for them it seems.

Sock Puppet · Post by **Sock Puppet** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:31 pm

Tzor, that is a downright scary piece of hardware. I imagine that carrying it around with you in the outside world has to prompt a few "Or are you just happy to see me?" kinds of exchanges.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:19 pm

I was pretty annoyed. My fiance and I were looking forward to watching it, but it was cloud-covered the entire night.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:56 pm

It was overcast last night.

However, the sunset was spectacular (I was dusting the top floor of work and noticed it out the window. Lots of purple, pink, and gold, lots of highlighting clouds).

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:30 pm

tzor wrote:No but it does allow me to carry it outdoors.

Why would you need to carry it out doors? That thing looks powerful enough to penetrate armor.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:07 pm

Yes it’s impressive, but it’s more impressive when there aren’t as many things in the way. I can go into a lot of technical details about it but I think the best way to describe it is “full moon.” It does have a wide field of vision (better than a telescope of its size) and you can get the full moon in full frame within its field of vision, showing the moon in all it’s glorious detail. So far I haven’t had the chance to focus it on a planet, but I’m sure that it would give me some nice views of them as well.

The Vigilante · Post by **The Vigilante** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:58 pm

tzor wrote:So far I haven’t had the chance to focus it on a planet, but I’m sure that it would give me some nice views of them as well.

Not really. What are those, 20x80, maybe 25x100 ? Such binos are nice for deep sky observation, but for good planetary viewing you really need a telescope and the extra magnification it can provide.

Regarding the Field of view, it really depends on the telescope and the eyepiece used. For example, normally 25x100 binoculars will get you 3 degree of real field of view, but it's possible to get 4 degrees with a low-power, wide-field eyepiece.

In case anyone is wondering, I sell telescope & binoculars while I study.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:06 pm

I should have specified it clearer. For me “nice views” is getting a view of the “Mickey Mouse” planet, aka Saturn and its rings, or seeing Jupiter with its moons, or even seeing that red dot called Mars as something other than a red pin prick. I think I should get a good shot of the phases of Venus as well. Anything better would be ruined by the Long Island light pollution anyway. I think it is 20x80, but I have to confirm that when I get home.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:52 am

I went up to the mountains with a group of people, ate food, took acid, and watched the how. Great meteor shower this year. Then I scattered Ted's ashes on the top of the mountain that he always took people up to see the Perseids at, and came back really tired.

One of our crew turned out to have taken rather poor care of his diabetes that day, and he got heat exhaustion. So I scrambled around on the mountain a bit getting him the water and bag he needed and he was up joking around with the rest of us long before the night was over.

-Username17