May I just say how much I'm enjoying the discussion of "stuff people are jonesing to see from Costa Rica"?
Even though I'm not going on that trip, there's nothing I love better than some good fantasies about southern objects. I still haven't come down from the Australia trip. I'm already planning the next one.
Mark, I'm glad you reminded me of your story about seeing Omega Cen behind the ridgeline of the Andes. When I looked at Omega Cen, it was also 35 degrees up. I just put 2 and 2 together and realized that I was looking at it through the exact same scope!
I'm gonna go ahead and put in another plug for the CPT while I'm at it. I think that Mark and Jim have really hit on something there for a travel scope. Making a tube out of CNC-milled rings and panels that come apart with simple machine screws was a really clever move. I was able to take the thing apart down to the last screw when it came time for packing, and it meant that I could take 10" of aperture with me and whole buncha other stuff to boot.
Hey, I just had an idea: Maybe you guys should give customers the option of ordering a scope that has all its screw holes tapped for metric threads. That way, when they forget their extra bag of American-threaded screws, (who? me? hey, how 'bout them Knicks? they really got hustle...) they can be sure of getting screws in Latin America or Australia or wherever. Now that's a TRAVEL scope...
For those of you going to Costa Rica, here's a neat thing to do when you look at Omega Cen: Put in an eyepiece that makes it fill most of the field, and then move your eye around so that your 'averted vision aim point' drifts all around the field. You'll see Omega Cen seem to morph and change shape. The brightest part of it will move around, like you were pushing a little slippery piece of jam around on a slippery plate. I eventually realized that Omega Cen is so big and so even in surface brightness that you can 'emphasize' one part of it or another by moving your 'aim point' around. It's kind of a funky effect, and I had never really noticed it on any other object.
If you do manage to see 47 Tuc, look at it and then look at another bright glob with the same magnification. You'll be amazed that something like M22 can be reduced to insignificance. I never woulda thunk it.
Ah, austral fantasies. Life is good.
Marek
Received on Thu Oct 13 12:22:28 2005