Quick View of the Moon Tonight
T he moon was shining brightly through our living room window as we headed to the bedroom so I figured I would take a quick view through that new little Orion 102mm Mak-Cassegrain telescope I evaluated recently. Sheila was in the bathroom getting ready for bed so I had a few minutes to kill. I went to retrieve a lightweight mount and the telescope and set it up at the window to take a quick look... I easily found the bright moon in the sky and saw nothing but out-of-focus mush. I again repeated what I had been saying all along about this little Mak-Cass telescope... "what a piece of junk." This prompted me to go retrieve my Skywatcher 72mm refractor which is equally as small but with a much short focal length. I brought that out to the living room and I was immediately treated to a stunningly sharp view of the moon. Viewing through a window with optics is a no-no because glass will cause all sorts of problems. Heat escaping the house through an open window is often