Scattered Thoughts . . .

I really hate having to collimate any telescope which is just one reason why I prefer refractor telescopes.  I have a few refractor telescopes at different focal lengths, however, I do have one Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope that does require occasional collimation.  It doesn't require collimation nearly as often as a typical Newtonian reflector telescope but it does require it occasionally.   I have the tools and the skills to collimate any telescope but having to align mirrors just to view the sky simply grates on my nerves.  I feel like it is a waste of precious time.  I have other telescopes that are ready to go at a moment's notice but I have one telescope that requires time and effort to simply view the sky...  so, I find that having to spend time and effort collimating this scope is frustrating.  It is much easier and satisfying to just grab one of my refractor telescopes to view the sky without any other pre-requisites.  Collimation is the act of aligning mirrors in an

M y previous two blog entries were about this same topic but with different images shot on the same day (earlier in the day during daylight) with the same equipment.  These few latest blog entries are about revisiting some older videos and images in an effort to understand a new software program meant for processing this type of imaging data.  This time around in this blog entry, I'll share the resulting images of some planets and our moon that Sheila and I observed that evening. In case you haven't yet read the couple of previous blog entries, these photos in this blog entry are from a short imaging session I had with Sheila back in November.  We observed the moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus.  I think we were only out there for less than a half hour but we came back into the house rather cold since it was a brisk 40 degrees or so.  That is about my limit on tolerating cold weather and, even then, I don't want to be out longer than a few minutes.  ___________________________

I had previously written about solar imaging in Calcium K (CaK).  In that imaging session, I had used one of my usual nice little refractor telescopes (Skywatcher ED 72mm refractor).  This time I am revisiting an imaging session done in white light when I used a really lousy little Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope.  This telescope is the Orion Apex 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain (uggg...  I really hate a lot of characteristics of all reflector telescopes and this tiny little guy is no exception) .   Seriously, I do not like this little telescope at all.  I was told that a Mak-Cass would be "razor-sharp" yet this Mak-Cass does not provide a crisp image when compared to any of my refractor telescopes...  not even when compared to my sub-$100 70mm achromatic telescope.  It occasionally needs to be tediously collimated so that the mirrors are perfectly aligned otherwise the views are even significantly worse.  Collimating a Mak-Cass is tedious and difficult.  It requires a temperature

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