Sunday, October 3, 2010

Getting Telescope Out – at last.

Well, I hate to say it, but it has been a long, long time since I have had the big old telescope out. Maybe I will set up some of my smaller ones, since the weather is supposed to be nice for the whole week. Then again, I may not. Who knows?

I am going to take you through the set-up, except for getting the parts outside. Wow!!! That dang thing picked up a couple hundred more pounds than the last time I set it up. Guess it has been a couple of years. Where does the time go?? And so fast…

It seems to me that I used to carry that tube with the mirror in it. Yep, sure did. Now, I could hardly handle the tube by itself. I tied a rope around it in two places to act like a sling. That gave me something to hold on to. Even so, it wasn’t a pretty sight, getting it out through a couple of doors, but managed somehow and was still able to walk back in the house and then try to get that base out. Just as much trouble; now I know why it has been so long since I had it out (grin).

OK, I got it out. Now, this first picture is the three main parts, tube, base, and mirror (in the box).

I put the tube on the base. This next picture is looking down the tube.

I opened the box that holds the mirror safely in Styrofoam. I put a tape measure across the mirror support plate to give you an idea of the size of the tube it fits to.

To make it easier to get the mirror in the same way each time, I put a mark on the tube at one of the three bolts.

Got it bolted on. See, I even got the marks on the mirror plate and the tube to match up. So far so good, see next picture.

This next picture was taken after the mirror was mounted, looking at it from the side. You can see that the mirror is spring mounted and also adjustable.

Ok, how about a picture looking down the tube with the mirror in place:

OK, all together. Guess that calls for a victory picture:

And the last picture is looking down the tube with the mirror in place, but without my ugly face showing up in it as it did in the ones above:

The viewing was the best it gets for this area. Other than a few billion stars, here is a short list of what I viewed:

Jupiter and her moons. Beautiful colored stripes.
Uranus – a fuzzy bluish ball
M31 – The bright Andromeda spiral galaxyM32 – Andromeda’s companion along with M110


I am limited to a small patch of sky because of the house on one side and trees tall trees on all sides. Could see a lot more from a wide open field somewhere, but the deck is more convenient.


9 comments:

  1. GOOD GRIEF!!! That thing is HUGE!!! Since it is soo big, why not build you a semi permanent weather proof house for it where you are?

    Honestly? how often do you load it up and take it somewhere else?

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  2. Dizzy the universe is such a mystery to me ,the thought of infinity is hard to comprehend .but when I look at the sky at night.my thoughts go to God an how small the earth is ,all so how much we know about it and how much we don't know.My 76 years here on earth has left me believing that God is so complex that not anyone can comprehend God.

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  3. Ben, when I had my pick-up with the cap on the back, it was no problem to transport. Took it up to Lake Whitney State Park to a couple of "star parties" that were held there. Where I live never has "dark" skies, too close to the cities and the Gulf usually puts too much moisture and hase in the air. Want to get it out to West Texas sometime.

    Ted, I agree. Even the great scientests don't really understand the universe and most have trouble with the theories of how it all got started. You and I know how it all happened, right? When you take creation out of God's hands, there is no theory that will hold water.

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  4. Boy, that is a monster to take up and (I imagine) to take back down!

    Like Ben said, maybe you could build something like a semi-permanent platform or shack in the back yard to set it on!

    Or would it get stolen? That would be the problem in my neighborhood!

    It's a beautiful rig, for sure!

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  5. Good morning HJ, Stolen? At least they couldn't carry it off on a bicycle. . I would mostly fear vandalism, but it could get stolen. When I was in N.C. my home was buglarized.

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  6. somewhere , a bunch of NASA guys are trying to fugure out where their Telescope went.

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  7. Hay Nick, don't tell them it landed in my back yard. :-)

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  8. And people think mine's a big one. It's only 8" diameter.

    That thing is enormous. I'm jealous to think what the Orion nebula, the Tarantula and the Small & Large Magellanic clouds would look like through it.

    You'll have to bring that to the Southern Hemisphere one day. LOL. We have better objects in the sky for a scope that size. Just teasing.... or am I?

    pip

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  9. Hey Pip, I would like to bring it to your area. There are better objects at your end of the world. Would you pay the shipping? :)

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