Thoughts on Starting This Journal

This blog is going to be focused on astronomy. More specifically, my experience in learning and exploring the sky. That means that at times it is going to ramble. I am also going to use it as a log of my activities.

Saying that I am drawn to the sky and fascinated by the stars is such a common sentiment it is almost a cliche. That doesn't make it any less a truth. For me, the sky and space are where I have always found peace. For some people it is a beach, beside a river, on a mountain, or some other special location. It can be music or some special activity. I find peace and contemplation in these places also. I have been lucky enough to have lived and traveled many different parts of this country, literally from coast to coast and in between. The one constant, no matter where I am, good times and situations or bad, has been the stars and their call to me. They give me peace.

I am primarily interested in visual astronomy. There is a direct connection and satisfaction I get from knowing the actual photons are entering my eye and interacting with my nerves and brain. I do expect to try some astrophotography in the future. It will be more to record a reminder of the experience and to share.

As a kid I sold cards from an ad in "Boys Life" magazine to earn points to get a "working model of the Giant Palomar Telescope." The mirror was spherical instead of parabolic, plastic, about 2" in diameter, and had what I now know was massive chromatic aberration. The eyepiece came as a kit of plastic parts and lenses that had to be glued together. But it made me want more.

Image of a similar model

The next year my parents bought me a Tasco 60mm variable power telescope. It had an adjustable eyepiece, and a tripod with a simple altitude-azimuth mount ( called an alt-az mount). We lived in South Tacoma at the time so light pollution was pretty bad, However, for me it was a step in the right direction and gave me my first decent views of stars.We moved out to a farm a couple of years later and the stars were much clearer.

This is the label on the Tasco scope.

My parents found it after 40 years in a box and gave it to me.

It has been sitting in the garage on a shelf, hopefully to be restored at some point.

There were many nights I just studied the stars using my Mark 1 Eyeball. I began to learn constellations better, and to identify specific stars and planets. I remember that being able to see a satellite transit the sky was a remarkable experience.

My next scope was a used Seikanon 4.5"Newtonian Reflector on a manual equatorial mount with a light wood tripod. It came with .965" Kellner eyepieces and a 2x Barlow lens. I bought this scope when we lived on 5 acres about 25 years ago. The optics seem good. The mount would not stay locked in place after alignment, so I wound up using it as an alt-az mount. It gave me my first good views of planets. I could see the Great Red Spot and some bands on Jupiter. Rings of Saturn and make out some faint divisions. Shading and polar caps on Mars.

My new telescope is a Celestron Nexstar 8SE goto computerized mount. It has a single arm fork with a very sturdy and stable tripod. One of my major frustrations with the previous telescopes was poor mounts and difficulty tracking, especially at higher magnification. This should alleviate that issue, I also bought a Celestron eyepiece kit that contains Plossl eyepieces and several filters. We will be building a home observatory at some point to house it and make it easier to use.