Acquisition

xilman · 2020-04-28, 19:03

A 10" Dobsonian-mounted cloud-maker arrived this afternoon.

It works extremely well, in that the clouds arrived ~48 hours ago and the rain has been persisting it down for ~18 hours.

As for its optical qualities, all that can be reported so far is that the lichen on a tree ~150m away appears to be in very fine condition. Unfortunately no insects, or any other arthropods for that matter, could be seen at the time of observation. Perhaps the necessity of observing though double-glazed windows (see comment above about precipitation for the reason) precluded detecting anything below ~1mm in size.

Xyzzy · 2020-04-29, 11:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by xilman

…cloud-maker…

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.13879.pdf

xilman · 2020-04-29, 20:07

First light this evening. Cloudy all day and predicted cloudy all night so I grabbed the chance of looking at the moon through thin cirrus in a bright blue sky. Gave me a chance to check the collimation and align the finder. Also discovered that an adapter had to be removed before the eyepieces could be brought into focus. Very little idea what the superfluous piece of tubing might be used for. Camera adapters tend not to be very useful on basic Dobsonians.

Nice view of Proclus crater next to Mare Crisium.

Of course, almost all my charts are stranded in La Palma...

Spherical Cow · 2020-05-01, 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.13879.pdf

An excellent article- thanks for posting that one!

Norm

2020-04-28, 19:03	#1
xilman Bamboozled! "𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭" May 2003 Down not across 2⁹×3×7 Posts	Acquisition A 10" Dobsonian-mounted cloud-maker arrived this afternoon. It works extremely well, in that the clouds arrived ~48 hours ago and the rain has been persisting it down for ~18 hours. As for its optical qualities, all that can be reported so far is that the lichen on a tree ~150m away appears to be in very fine condition. Unfortunately no insects, or any other arthropods for that matter, could be seen at the time of observation. Perhaps the necessity of observing though double-glazed windows (see comment above about precipitation for the reason) precluded detecting anything below ~1mm in size. Last fiddled with by xilman on 2020-04-28 at 19:04

2020-04-29, 20:07	#3
xilman Bamboozled! "𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭" May 2003 Down not across 10101000000000₂ Posts	First light this evening. Cloudy all day and predicted cloudy all night so I grabbed the chance of looking at the moon through thin cirrus in a bright blue sky. Gave me a chance to check the collimation and align the finder. Also discovered that an adapter had to be removed before the eyepieces could be brought into focus. Very little idea what the superfluous piece of tubing might be used for. Camera adapters tend not to be very useful on basic Dobsonians. Nice view of Proclus crater next to Mare Crisium. Of course, almost all my charts are stranded in La Palma...