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I was 14 when I took an interest
in astronomy. My cousin had a 4" scope - which I envied.
So I had to buy my own. It was a very modest japanese alt-azimuth
newtonian with only 3" mirror and two modest eyepieces.
Anyway I had great fun with it. I observed sun, moon, gas giants,
galaxies, nebulas and star clusters with it - even when it was
-30 Celsius outside (you figure out what this is in Fahrenheits).
I read astronomy books and magazines. It was fascinating.
Then other things in life
became more important and my hobby ceased. I even sold my scope.
20 years went by and now was
a time so I could revive my childhoods interest. At that time
I lived in a small town. I had noticed that in that town (and
in the surroundings) there were so many who were interested in
astronomy but there were no astronomy club.
So I decided that I could create astronomy webpages for the astronomy
club.
And I did. Things started to roll. I was interviewed in the local
radio. I even published an advertisment in the local newspaper
("Are you interested in 'heavenly joys' ? - check out these
webpages").
It was a great success. Few monts later a first meeting was held.
A new astronomy club was born.
Later I had to move to another
town. But my astronomy fever didn't fade - on the contrary. I
started to read telescope reviews and finally I decided to order
a new telescope. It had to be portable and suitable for town
observing - I live in a light polluted area. So I ordered the
Orion StarMax 127 (see the hardware
section).
I waited 3 months for my order and finally got my scope in the
middle of the summer (when all observing in these latitudes is
impossible because of the light nights).
After 5 months of experience of this scope I had to say I'm very
pleased with it. It's a joy to use and it performs well.
I have acquired also some digital hardware which I can use with
my scope - a cheap webcam and a moderate digital camera. First
results of the 'poor mans digital astrography' can be seen in
these pages.
I look forward what future has to offer.
Tampere 11/03/2002
Update 11/30/2003
Over a year has passed when
I wrote the text above and it's time for update.
StarMax 127 is gone now and new scope has arrived; Celestron
C8-SGT. StarMax was a very good scope, it's optical and mechanical
quality was excellent but aperture fever hit me so bad so I had
to buy a bigger scope. This new scope was Celestrons newest entry
level GoTo scope.
Here are some impressions
of the new Celenstron
pros:
+ good solid tripod (I think these new round legs really makes
a difference and Central rod helps too)
+ goto is quite accurate (assuming you have polar aligned scope
and 3 star aligned scope first - you should do this good)
+ collimation seems ok
+ only minor image shift when focusing
cons:
- motor noise when slewing to objects (it sounds terrible in
the silent night - lower 'gears' on the other hand are very silent)
- 6 X 30 finder is a joke in this telescope
- attachment of the optical tube ( I don't trust this, I'm afraid
that someday i'm going to drop the ota when I'm tightening the
mounting screw).
- only one 25mm E-lux eyepiece
All in all I think it's a
good scope price/performance ratio is good. I have done some
efforts in order to make the slewing sounds more quiet. I put
more fluid oil and put some 'silencer' material over the motor
hoods. Well results could have been better.
Sometimes GoTo has made irrational moves ie pointing at the ground.
Yahoo forum for these scopes has been good source for information:
Yahoo group for Celestron AS scopes
A new guide scope has arrived now namely orion
ST 80mm/400mm achromat.
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