Member Craig Jones Modifies Homemade Dob

After using my home-built Dobsonian telescope for more than 3 years and
having time to observe the designs and craftsmanship of other amateur
astronomer's scopes, I decided it was time to rebuild mine. Some of the
issues I hope to address are:

* Craftsmanship not good enough
* Balance is not great
* Motion is not very smooth
* Focuser is not the best
* Does not break down well for transport

The first step was to think and sketch and diagram. I actually spent an
inordinate amount of time doing this and it has paid off well so far.
Most of my design ideas went directly from paper to wood with little
adaptation.

The first thing to do was to rebuild the secondary mirror holder and
spider, which I completed toward the end of September. The first weekend
in October saw me building the secondary cage. My new KineOptics HC-2
focuser arrived during the following week, allowing me to finish up the
secondary cage. Over the next few weekends I finished the mirror box,
reusing the butter cookie tin from my current scope as the primary
mirror container. After nearly three weeks of other duties I was able to
get back to it, but only to build a lid for the primary mirror box.

The next steps are to cut, finish and mount the altitude bearings,
determine how long the struts should be, and cut and finish them, and
build and finish the rocker box. Hopefully I'll be able to get it out
into the field in the Spring - in time to finish up the last few objects
on the Messier list.

Check http://www.webjones.net for ramblings and photos.

Craig Jones
--
www.webjones.net

Website: www.centauri-dreams.org

Centauri Dreams is an excellent blog that compiles and discusses
space/astronomy related news. The range is diverse - exoplanets, human
and robotic exploration, space ship propulsion research, astrobiology,
etc. This is not the lowest common denominator mass market news. It's
gathered from scientific journals, sites and research papers. Good stuff.

EMail Alerts for Astronomical Events

CalSKY® was founded in 1991 by Arnold Barmettler to offer amateur astronomers a new way to plan their observing sessions. After you set up a profile, you select the events for which you want alerts. Each email alert is very informative and well formatted. Iridium flares, other satellites, comets, asteroids, and more are among the astronomical events you can choose to be alerted of.

Astronomy Experiments for Teachers

Member, Beverly Niklasson has started this collection of astronomy experiments - many of which she has written, others she has prepared from other sources. All are designed to be used by those who teach science and more specifically, astronomy. Check back often as Beverly and perhaps others add to our collection. All experiments can be accessed from the links area at the left of this page.

Any questions or comments can be posted on the NWGAA Yahoo Group (link at left).

David Levy's List of Deep Sky Gems

Some time back I read about David Levy compiling and publishing his own list of observable objects. Beverly Niklasson sent me this link to access the list. The list is presented in seasonal categories.

Hmmmm? Do you think that one day it will be right up there with Messier?

David Levy's List of Deep Sky Gems

Links to Resource Files

This post features access to files of interest. These are submitted by NWGAA members and, they can also be found in the files section of the NWGAA Yahoo Group.

Star Classes
An Excel spreadsheet listing the Spectral Classes of Stars. For each classification, elements, color, temperature range, and examples are provided.

Greek Symbol Cross Reference
Greek letters cross-referenced with Pronunciation and alphabet.

Astronomical Note Taking
A guide to taking observational notes while in the field. Includes terms, use of filters, evaluation of seeing, transparency and more. These notes and hints are courtesy of the American Association of Amateur Astronomers and compiled by Beverly Niklasson

Astronomy Factoids
Miscellaneous facts related to astronomy. Members are encouraged to download this MS Excel file and record additional facts. Then, resubmit the file. See links at left.

Astronomy Links and Programs for Homeschoolers

Star Detective
A high school level learning activity. Adapted from the RASC’s Expanding Their Universe-The Ontario Teacher’s Companion for Grade 9 Astronomy October 1999.

Free Online Astronomy Course

This Web-based course, or "webbook", is a college-level, semester-long, non-calculational introduction to astronomy (it may also be suitable for a high school course). It was initiated while Scott R. Anderson, Ph.D. of Sandia Research and Computing Associates in Albuquerque was a teaching affiliate in the Physics Department at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

http://www.opencourse.info/astronomy/introduction/00.preface/

Observation Planning Tools

As a club we have a sortable MS Excel object list that you can download from the group site ( see the files section). However, in addition, I thought I'd set up a post about planning tools. I'll start off with one that I have used to plan my outing for tonight.

Tonight's Sky
Located at http://tonightssky.com/ , this site provides the observer the opportunity to input date, time span, the coordinates for their observing site, horizon limitations, equipment limitations, and select object type of interest. This generates an online list of objects that can then be researched with handy buttons to the side of each object generated. Researching is optional. Then, the observer can select from one of three types of printed reports including an export option to MS Excel. There are sorting options as well.

If you have a particular tool or system for planning your nights out with the scope, send it to me and let me post it here for all to see.

Eric esmithonline

Build a Solar Filter for Your Telescope

Source: Michael Portuesi, SidewalkAstronomers.org


Step-by-step instructions for building a filter for daytime Sun viewing with your Dobsonian telescope.

You can build a solar filter for a large aperture scope for less than $40, including the solar filter film. This is a great project to build with your kids, or perhaps as part of a classroom activity.
I describe how I built a solar filter for my 10" F/7 Dobsonian scope, but you can easily adapt these instructions for other scopes.

For daytime use, we build an off-axis filter smaller than the scope's full aperture. For convenience sake, an off-axis mask on a large Newtonian is easy to make, takes less material and the off-axis size is often more than enough given the daytime seeing.

Submitted by: Ed (ookiimamoru )

View All Instructions from SidewalkAstronomer.org