Stargazing

With the onset of winter this year, Liz and I haven’t been able to hike as often as we would like. So, we began to look for new ways to enjoy the outdoors without going far from home. It started with some binoculars that we already had, and really spiraled from there.

The early night sky in December had a clear Southern view of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. From my 10x magnification binoculars we could just barely make out a couple of Jupiter’s moons and the crescent of Venus. I especially took to looking at the night sky, and bought a tripod adapter for my binoculars. With the steadier view, some details really started coming through, and Saturn’s rings could be seen, albeit faintly.

It wasn’t long before I was scanning Craigslist for a telescope, and learning all I could about them in the process. I ended up buying a Criterion RV6 Newtonian telescope.

This scope is a huge upgrade from the binoculars. It gives us clear views of Saturn and Jupiter, as well as their moons. Once I started getting a little better at locating objects, we also saw Mars and Uranus. Because we have bad light pollution where we live, we can’t get good of views of dimmer deep space objects. Despite this, I can still locate and view the Andromeda galaxy, the Pleiades Nebula, and my favorite: the Orion Nebula.

It is not like me to be satisfied with “good enough,” so I also collimated the telescope and upgraded its focuser for even better views.

Proper collimation ensures that the mirrors are in alignment with each other and the eyepiece. This is roughly achieved with a laser and then fine-tuned with a special eyepiece made just for the job.

Upgrading the focuser was a stressful process; I was constantly second-guessing myself. This telescope was made during the Apollo era. It is a classic that many astronomers looked at with envy as children…and I was cutting a hole into it. After the installation was finished though, I think we can agree, it is quite stunning.

The pictures here do not do justice to the views, but until the air at night is above 40°F, I think any new photos will have to wait.