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Telescope Setup for Sale
 This
Celestron
CPC Deluxe 800 HD telescope is for sale (bought in September
of 2012). Unfortunately for me, a combination of lack of time and lack of opportunity
has caused me to decide to sell my telescope setup and just make do for now with my
Celestron 15x70 SkyMaster binoculars. Since everything was bought to work together as
a complete setup, I would like to sell everything together. Doing so will make my life
easier and it will result in you paying less overall for all the great equipment. Everything
is in like-new condition and has received very little use. The main feature is the incredibly
robust and high quality CPC 800 Deluxe HD telescope. I had an 8SE before this, and the
comparison is like night and day. Whereas the 8SE was very shaky because of its single
support arm and getting a good alignment was sometimes tricky, the CPC 800 Deluxe HD
is solid as a rock and achieves an excellent alignment every time with very little effort...
 This
is pretty cool. If I owned a good receiver, I would definitely give it a try. In 1970 when this Popular Electronics
article was written, a lot of Hams were still using tube receivers so the recommendation to let the equipment
warm up for several hours prior to making the fine frequency adjustments was good advice. Nowadays the warm-up
time and stability of receivers should permit 30 minutes or so to suffice (even ovenized frequency references
need time to stabilize when first powered up). Unless I missed it, the author does not explicitly state that the
frequency change measured over time is due to
gravity acting on
the mass of the crystal reference, but I suspect that is his intention since part of the experiment involves
disconnecting the antenna and shielding the receiver from outside interferers. Over a lunar month period (29.5
days) we experience a leap tide and a neap tide which maximizes and minimizes, respectively, the vector sum of
gravity and therefore should result in the greatest excursions. Maybe with a super-stable source, a larger scale
phenomenon such as a planetary syzygy could be detected (but I doubt it).
Spacesuits Are Weapons
 Who
would have guessed that you need the blessing of the U.S. Department of State if you want to make and sell spacesuits?
Yep, spacesuits are classified as weapons since, by bureaucratic logic (yeah,
a non sequitur), if you have the capability to attain a presence at an altitude that requires a spacesuit,
you can be a strategic threat to the nation. Here is a story about a startup company in Brooklyn, NY, that found
out the hard way about the
spacesuit-weapon requirement. There is a rapidly growing demand for functional-yet-stylish spacesuits for
safeguarding wealthy space tourists who will soon be blasting off to the top of Earth's atmosphere where space
officially begins (at about 50 miles / 80 km). BTW, I tried
finding the official policy on spacesuit production the Department
of State website, but their search engine keeps failing - must be busy deleting files on the
Benghazi massacre.
in QST Magazine
 QST
is the official publication of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), the world's oldest and largest organization
for Ham radio enthusiasts. Many amateur radio operators also have an interest in astronomy and as such, occasionally
articles appear covering topics on amateur radio
astronomy. There are also quite a few articles dealing indirectly with aspects of astronomy such as Earth-Moon-Earth
(EME) communications where signals are bounced off the moon's surface in order to facilitate transmission (although
it is really more of a hobby achievement). The October 2012 edition of QST had an article entitled, "Those Mysterious
Signals*," which discusses galactic noise in the 10-meter band. Arch Doty (W7ACD) writes about the low-level background
noise that is persistent in the high frequency (HF) bands. At HF, Cygnus A and Cassiopeia A are major
sources of cosmic noise, for example. Low level signals come from pulsars...
Are Just a Drop in the Bucket
 Scientific
American has a nifty interactive graphic showing the relative positions and distances of the 629 known exoplanets.
According to a recent study, on average each sun owns 1.6 exoplanets.
of the Night Sky
 Goldpaint
Photography has an amazing collection of
time-lapse videos and
still photos
of the night sky. Shot from locations with very dark skies, these works are awe-inspiring. Living in a city environment
as I do, it is hard to imagine seeing so many stars.
Elevation Axis
My new CPC 800 Deluxe HD telescope has a loud squeal on the elevation axis when the clutch is loosened enough
to rotate the OTA easily, but not enough to allow it to rotate under its own weight. Celestron claims this is
normal. They graciously replaced my original telescope with another new one and it has the exact same squeal.
I know it is not the same telescope that I returned because I had etched my initials on the bottom of the original.
I made a 35-second
video
demonstration of the squeal, which the Celestron agent viewed and determined it was OK.
I really like this telescope otherwise, and maybe I expect too much. Has anyone else noticed the squeal?
Do you accept Celestron's claim that this is to be expected?
 "Jupiter's
moons are invisible to the naked eye and therefore can have no influence on the earth, and therefore would be
useless, and therefore do not exist." -
Francisco
Sizzi (Prof. of Astronomy), dismissing Galileo's sighting of the moons. Now there is a prime example of reductio
ad absurdum absurdity.
Celestron 8SE Telescope
 After
a year and a half of using my Celestron NexStar 8SE telescope, I just bought a Celestron CPC 800 Deluxe HD to
get into some serious astrophotography. Therefore, I am selling my 8SE. The best price I can find for a new NexStar
8SE telescope is $1,199.00. I will sell mine for just $675 in order to expedite the deal - that's a $524 savings...
Celestron CPC 800 Deluxe HD
 It
only took 32 years, but I finally have the telescope I have dreamed of having since I first peered through an
8" Celestron telescope at a meeting of the Macon Astronomy Club of Macon, Georgia, while stationed as a radar
maintenance technician at Robins AFB, Georgia. In September 2012, I made the decisions to purchase Celestron's
high-end CPC 800 Deluxe HD telescope. It is a fine piece of work. A year and a half ago I bought the Celestron
NexStar 8SE telescope as my first scope in 20 years. At the time it did not seem prudent to spend north of two
thousand dollars on a telescope when I didn't know for sure whether the enthusiasm would still be there after
so long. The single arm of the NexStar 8SE mount gave me pause, but after reading comments by many people on some
of the astronomy forums, it seemed to be good enough for casual observing and entry level...
Feathertouch MicroFocuser onto CPC 800 Deluxe HD
 After
reading as many reviews on dual stage focusers, I finally decided on the Feathertouch SCT MicroFocuser for my
newly acquired Celestron CPC 800 Deluxe HD telescope. I wanted a dual stage focuser with a light touch instead
of an electric focuser. The instructions were available online and it looked like a cinch to install. In fact,
it looked so easy that I decided to make a video in front of a live audience (the camera) without a dry run. Being
fairly adept at such things, I figured that any departure from simplicity would be immediately obvious. Without
rushing, it took 6 minutes and 15 seconds from beginning to end. The video is a little longer since I couldn't
help editorializing for a couple minutes at the end...
Website of the Stars
There is a new computer font available to astronomers: Galaxy. Well, not really, not yet, but at some point
there probably will be. The rendition of "Telescope and Sky" shown here was generated automatically by a website
called "My Galaxies." Thanks to thousands of volunteers worldwide that have participated in The Galaxy Zoo's project
of classifying galaxies, a set of letter-shaped galaxies has been identified that can be used to write words like
"telescope and sky." It appears that so far God (or the Big Bang - take your pick) did not create a full set of
upper case letter-shaped galaxies. Some letters can be considered upper or lower case, like Cc Ii Jj
Oo Pp Ss Uu Vv Ww Xx Zz. As you might imagine, there are number-shaped
galaxies as well. After all, mathematics is the language of the universe. Judging by the shape of the number "1,"
I'm guessing that particular galaxy is French, possibly in deference to early astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini,
who among other...
1969 Sears Wish book
 Here
on page 544 of the Sears 1969 Christmas Wish Book is a home planetarium setup. The 7" diameter star projector
had over 60 constellations. For an extra $19.99 you could buy a plastic hemispherical dome that would actually
make the star projector useful. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator, the total
cost of the star projector and dome ($35.98 in 1969) would equal $224.61 in 2012 money.
1969 Sears Wish book
 Here
on page 545 of the Sears 1969 Christmas Wish Book is a selection of three refractor telescope models. I can remember
having an el cheapo (a little Spanish lingo there) telescope as a kid
living in Annapolis, Maryland, and being dumb enough to screw the sun filter into the eyepiece to look at the
sun during the total solar eclipse of 1970 (12 years old at the time),
when the path of totality ran just 50 miles or so south of my home. Telescopes usually don't include solar filters
that screw onto the eyepiece anymore for safety reasons.
August 31, 2012
 This
photo was taken at around 11:00 pm on August 31, 2012, a few hours before the moon was completely at full 13:58
UTC (09:58 EDT) next morning and would be below the horizon. A blue moon originally referred to the third (not
the fourth) full moon in a single season with four full moons. Those seasons were not determined by the strict
astronomical alignments used today, but instead were based on ecclesiastical dates determined by the Church...
Tranquility Base Photo
 Apollo 11
astronaut Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012. As most Americans over the age of 30 know, Armstrong was
the first human to step foot on the moon. On July 20, 1969, in fulfillment of President Kennedy's 1961 challenge
to put a man on the moon and return him home safely by the end of the decade, Armstrong made a giant leap for
mankind. That day in 1969 I launched an model rocket as part of Estes' commemorative effort. Last night, in his
memory, I took this photo of the Tranquility Base region of the moon. Thank-you, and rest in peace, Mr. Armstrong.
 PASADENA,
Calif. -- NASA's most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by
ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.
"The Seven Minutes of Terror has turned into the Seven Minutes of Triumph," said NASA Associate Administrator
for Science John Grunsfeld. "My immense joy in the success of this mission is matched only by overwhelming pride
I feel for the women and men of the mission's team..."
 JPL
Infographics Site Wants You and Your Creativity
 Mars
Landing Sky Show of Planets
 Two
Solar System Puzzles Solved
 For
NASA, There's No Liftoff from Politics
 Crowd
Sourcing Comes to Astronomy
 Watch
an Asteroid Fly by Earth Live on Sunday
 Sun’s
Temperature Painted in Amazing Colorful Display
 Tom
Ruen released this animation of the moon showing its monthly phase progression. We have all witnessed the phases
of the moon, but have you noticed that its apparent size varies due to its elliptical orbit
(0.0549 eccentricity) around the earth? What the animation really emphasizes is something
you may have never noticed - a libration motion, also due to the elliptical orbit and the moon's 6.7° axial tilt
wrt its orbital plane. Libration causes the pronounced rocking motion. If you viewed the planets from the sun,
they would all display the same combination of motions because all have eccentric (elliptical) orbits...
 There
are a few nice calculators online for determining the age of the moon past the last new moon. Some only present
the current age and some allow you to enter a day of the year, but this one allows you to enter both date and
time to get a more precise number. It has a one hour resolution, but that's 24x as precise as the others. There
might be another calculator that allows an even finer setting down to the minute or second, but I don't know about
it...
 While
visiting the USS Flagship Niagara Museum here
in Erie, Pennsylvania, I spotted this NC-2 Astro Navigation Calculator manufactured by Tamaya circa 1976. Its
age is betrayed by the green fluorescent numerical display. Quoting from the
NC-2 user's manual, "Tamaya NC-2 Astro-Navigation
Calculator can perform navigational calculations quickly and economically. It eliminates painstaking tabulation
from conventional tables, and is not only faster but more accurate. Included in the navigation programs are Dead
Reckoning, Course and Distance by Mercator...
 Audiophiles
of the 1950s undoubtedly were impressed by the mention of a Rek-o-kut twin turntable with Pickering arms and pickups
for playing records, let alone a twin Ampex tape system used both for recording and reproducing. That was awe-inducing
stuff for the day, especially when applied to a planetarium show with visual and sound effects realistic enough
to , "make adult members of the audience duck under...
 Here
is an advertisement by Corning from the May 29, 1948, edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The Hale 200-inch
telescope mirror was dedicated for service at Mount Palomar on June 3, 1948, at the in honor of George Ellery
Hale. As a side note, it is interesting that in the magazine of the era (which were typically quite large in width
and height), actual photographs like this one were rarely used in advertisements. The vast majority of artwork
was... artwork - pencil drawings or actual paintings...
 1963
was five years since America's first communications satellite, Echo, was placed in orbit. Echo was a passive,
spherical reflector that merely provided a good reflective surface for bouncing radio signals off of. By 1963,
the space race was well underway and active
communications
satellites were being launched at a rapid pace. Spotting and tracking satellites has long been a popular pastime
with two types of hobbyists: amateur astronomers using telescopes and binoculars, and amateur radio operators
using antennas and receivers...
 Even though thousands of astronomers,
both professional and amateur, would be photographing the transit of Venus across the face of the sun, I was determined
to try to get one of my own. Since I do not have a solar filter for my Celestron NexStar 8SE telescope, I figured
the next best thing would be to get a piece of #14 welder's glass and attach it to the front of a digital camera.
The welder's glass worked as advertised, but unfortunately its 1/8" thickness caused unavoidable internal reflections
that under magnification...
 The
first thing I learned (or re-learned) in reading this article is that in 1967, "Hertz" had only recently been
assigned as the official unit of frequency. According to Wikipedia, International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) adopted it in in 1930, but it wasn't until 1960 that it was adopted by the General Conference on Weights
and Measures (CGPM) (Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures). Hertz replace cycles per second (cps)...
 We
take for granted most of the technology that surrounds us. Unless you were alive 50 years ago at the dawn of microelectronics
and space flight, it would be difficult to imagine a world without cellphones, desktop computers, color TVs, the
Internet, and even satellite-base weather forecasting. Everyone likes to make jokes about weathermen being no
better at predicting the weather than your grandmother's roomatiz[sic], but the fact is...
 Since
the warranty period is over on my NexImage camera, I decided to go ahead and open it up to see what's under the
hood. The pictures below show the components on the printed circuit assemblies, and identify most of the
major components. There were a couple that I could not find datasheets for, but of those I could find, there are
hyperlinks to them...
 The
official Telescope & Sky observatory is complete! Last night (May 19, 2012) marked its christening with a
polar alignment of the equatorial wedge and the Celestron NexStar 8SE telescope. It is also the first time with
the JMI electric focuser attached - boy, does that make a difference! A little more than 3 hours were spent under
a clear Erie sky with very light breezes. The atmosphere was a bit turbulent, but I managed to get a good shot
of Saturn, and, with a good GoTo alignment, was able to easily steer to quite a few Messier objects...
 We
are all acquainted with the common telescope in which a series of lenses is mounted in a long barrel, which can
be shortened by sliding the segments together. This is technically known as a refractory type. In building a giant
telescope it is impractical to make a barrel long enough to accommodate the giant lenses. So a system of mirrors
is combined with the lenses, and we have what is known as a reflecting telescope. The 200 inch lens of the new
telescope described on...
 1938
was only twelve years after Robert Goddard's first successful flight of his liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard's proposals
for flight beyond the earth's atmosphere, including launching of scientific instruments and even humans, were
met with derision from many fellow scientists and especially those men known for their keen insight into humanity
- newspaper editors. Even the idea of using a parachute for recovery was deemed ridiculous. NASA's predecessor,
NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), had not yet...
 After
a year of using my Celestron 8SE telescope on its tripod, and in alt-az mode, I decided it was time to commit
to a location in my back yard and build an observatory. My yard sits on a unobstructed north-facing ridge in Erie,
Pennsylvania, which looks directly over Lake Erie and into Canada. Although there is a fair amount of city lighting
to the north (I'm about 2 miles from the lake) and especially to the east, the southern and westerns skies are
not too bad (for a city, that is). I bought a used Celestron equatorial wedge - the heavy duty one made for the
C-11- and I bought a used JMI electric focuser on eBay...
 Sometime
around 2006, Celestron introduced the NexStar series of telescopes that offered a relatively low cost introduction
to its renown line of high quality catadioptric scopes. Computerized "GoTo" controllers were incorporated to allow
even entry level amateur astronomers an opportunity to learn his/her way around the night sky. In order to keep
prices down, the 30-plus-year tradition of using a dual arm fork type mount for holding the optical tube assembly
(OTA) was replaced with a single arm that produces a cantilevered support. Heavy duty worm gears were replaced
with standard spur gears. The ramifications of those two changes will be addressed as I discuss the photographs
taken in preparation of this teardown report...
  These
images of Saturn and Mars were taken on April 7, 2012, here in Erie, PA. The sky was very clear, winds slight.
The nearly full moon had not risen above the eastern horizon yet when the Mars photos was taken, but was about
5-10° above the southeastern tree line when Saturn was imaged. Mars was high in the sky, about was about 10° east
of due south. Saturn was still pretty low at only maybe 30-35° above the southeastern horizon. Saturn's rings
are open close to their maximum due to its orbital position relative to Earth. There are times when we see the
rings edge-on and they are barely detectable...
 There
is a clear shot of the Barracks Beach wind turbine (~2.7 miles away) from our upper back porch. From our vantage
point, just the turbine and about the top 10-20' of the 120' tower are in view. I used a Celestron NexImage camera
with my Celestron 8SE telescope to make this short video of the wind turbine in action. The image quality is pretty
bad since I recorded it in a very low resolution mode in order to avoid jerky motion. The camera is normally used
with the telescope to record images of the moon and planets.
 Venus
had a very close conjunction with the Pleiades asterism in the constellation of Taurus. It is evidently very rare
for the two to come this close together. From what I read, April 3, 2012, was the closest approach, but the sky
clouded over and prevented me from getting a shot. Fortunately, the next evening, April 4, was crystal clear.
This picture was made with a Panasonic HDC-SD80 camcorder mounted on a tripod. At 640x480 resolution, the optical
zoom goes to an incredible 60x! It was somewhere around 40x in this shot. I could have used...
 Although
the typically cloudy skies of Erie, Pennsylvania, will make it a challenge, I have decided to try to capture images
of the moon on as many of its 29.5 day cycle as possible. It would be really cool to be able to get 28-, 29-,
and 1-day-old moon shots by being able to occult the sun's disk in the aperture, but I don't have the equipment
necessary. People have been successful at getting 27- and 2-day-old moon shots pretty easily...
 This
photo was taken from by back porch on an absolutely crystal clear night in Erie, Pennsylvania, April 2, 2012.
I used a Panasonic HDC-SD80 camcorder in the picture mode, at 640x480 resolution. Doing so allowed me to get a
60x optical zoom. A tripod was used, with a 2-sec auto trigger to minimize vibrations.
 Here
are a few side-by-side comparisons of my photos to those in A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, by
Donald H. Menzel, published by Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston, copyright 1964. My photos were taken with a
Minolta XG-1 SLR mounted on top the 8" Newtonian telescope that was my first real telescope. This wide
of a field of view cannot be obtained through the telescope eyepiece. The scope was located on a pier with an
equatorial mount in my parent's back yard in Holly Hill Harbor, Mayo, Maryland, sometime around 1982 or 1983,
shortly after I got out of the USAF...
 This
particular photographic session paid off big-time with some excellent photos of the total lunar eclipse of February
20, 2008. My Canon Power Shot S2 IS digital camera was mounted on a tripod that has been around since my USAF
days (1978-1982). All of the images below were obtained using this setup, with only the lens that came with the
camera - I kid you not. The only software enhancements made to the images were cropping, resizing, and adjusting
the contrast. [../borders/300x250-GA-inc.htm] The next total lunar eclipse viewable from North American will occur
on December 20–21, 2010...
 Amateur
astronomy is one of those hobbies in which I participated avidly for the four years in the U.S. Air Force and
for a couple years after separating. During that time I observed as often as time and atmospheric conditions permitted.
While at Robins AFB, in Warner Robins, Georgia, I belonged to the Macon Amateur Astronomy club and spent quite
a few Friday evenings operating the museum's/club's 8", 10" and 14" Celestron telescopes both for private observation
and for assisting the public after the planetarium show. The club took a couple trips to the Fernbank Science
Center in Atlanta and got to look through their 32" reflector, which at the time...
 This
is my most recent image of Jupiter, taken on February 9, 2012, here in Erie, PA. I'm getting a little better.
The sky was exceptionally clear, winds nonexistent, and the nearly full moon had not risen above the eastern horizon
yet. Jupiter was about 15° west of due south, high in the sky. My Celestron NexImage was used with a 2x Barlow
lens. The photo is a composite of about 500 short time exposure images recorded at 5 fps. This really helped avoid
atmospheric scintillation. If I had done a better job on the focus, the detail might have been even better. RegiStax
v2 software was used...
 January
29th, 2010's full moon was the biggest and brightest full moon of 2010. This being the first full moon of 2010,
it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry
wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name. [../borders/300x250-GA-inc.htm]
The picture below was taken out of my back door (through the glass), at around 10:00 pm local time (Erie, PA),
with an outside temperature of 6 °F...
     What
the heck is this? It is a humongously tall poster of the solar system that the BBC website posted showing various
benchmarks for human presence in space, both animate and inanimate. It is so tall that 5 separate images are used.
It is so tall that it takes 83 Page Down key presses to see the entire graphic set. The scale changes 5 times.
According to them, it would take 22 million years of continuous scrolling down to see the end if the graphic was
extended to cover the edge of the observable universe. The first communications object on the graphic is the Russian
Mars 1M probe at 120 km; launched in 1960,
it never reached Mars. Odd that neither Sputnik (7.3 km) nor Echo (1.6 km) appears. The last object on the graphic
is
Voyager 1, which according to today's news from NASA is that Voyager is transitioning out of the solar system
and into interstellar space, a region about 21B km away called the heliopause. A radio signal takes a little over
8 hours to reach us from there.
V'Ger was launched in
1977 and provided the first close-up pictures of Jupiter and Saturn. Next stop: The Oort Cloud, in about another
35 years.
 Venus
had a very close conjunction with the moon on March 26, 2012. The image below was captured at around 2:38 PM EDT
from my driveway in Erie, Pennsylvania. Venus is slightly east of the 3.8-day-old moon, and is about 4 moon diameters
(~0.5°) away, so it is just a little more than 2° away! Ata brightness magnitude of -4.3, Venus was easily seen
in the clear daytime sky. Jupiter, farther west, was also easy to spot in my 8x40 binoculars, but I never could
see its magnitude -2.1 dot with the naked eye...
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