Scattered Thoughts . . .

Introduction T his blog entry is a little different than my usual entries.  Then again, my thoughts are often a bit scattered so there isn't really a consistent theme to this blog.  I do sometimes write about my hobbies including astronomy but this blog entry is not one of my typical short blog entries about viewing this or that or about some small astronomy project.  This is more along the lines of a casual review of my thoughts about a telescope.  If you are more interested in some astrophotography images rather than read about a boring telescope evaluation, then just scroll down to the closing of this blog entry (about halfway down this page). Quite often, people who are wanting to get involved in backyard astronomy for the first time ask other astronomers which telescope would be best to purchase as their first telescope.  This is a very common question that is asked at least once a day.  As a result, I find myself trying to provide advice to astronomy beginners a few times eac

A nother little project I have been working on lately is making a couple of aperture masks for one of my telescopes.  I've been using my Celestron 120mm refractor for planetary views.  Well, actually, I purchased that telescope specifically for solar imaging but, at night, it is a decent telescope for planetary as well as lunar views so this is the telescope I currently use for planetary observing.  I'd like to eventually get a telescope with a much longer focal length for planetary astronomy but this telescope will do for now.  I'd like to eventually purchase a longer refractor telescope for planetary astronomy but I might settle for a Cassegrain telescope instead.  For now, I'll be using this Celestron 120mm refractor with a 1000mm focal length. This 120mm refractor is an achromat so there is a lot of chromatic aberration on planetary views.  I added a Baader Contrast Booster to the front end of my diagonal and that has helped cut down most of the chromatic aberration