Istar 8" F8.8 At Saturn Opposition Sidewalk Event

[jamesling1000]

Hi All.

For this month of April, which is also the best month to view our giant gas planet, Saturn, which come into opposition by mid April......, I will attempt to conduct the side walk event at the local library open area....

Tomorrow, which is a Good Friday holiday for most of us, a few of my friends have decided to do a side walk event at our usual place....

And this time, beside bringing along the 8" ISTAR, I will change the tripod to the original heavy duty type, and I will add the 5" castor wheels, to lengthen the height of the mount, so that there is still easier to view the planet when it is near the overhead......
The GM8 tripod is causing some vibration , and is much lower than the g11 original tripod....

And I will get someone to machine an 12" extension pier, to further increase the height of the tripod mount......, after this weekend....., as part of my plan for this coming Venus transit, as well as future side walk.....

I hope the weather stays good like these few nights, whereby someone also noticed that Venus was just beside the M45 star cluster......, and able to update all of you about the coming side walk events.....

In this photo attachment, what I want to show you is that, the view of Saturn from the 8" ISTAR is not like this photo, but much more and better visually......, although this photo is not taken from the ISTAR scope.....

REgards

James Ling

Attachments:

[jamesling1000]

Hi All.....

Last week , is again another disappointed weekend......
In fact , all 3 days, from Friday till Sunday, the weather in the evening are very cloudy , and raining during the day time....

Will attempt to stage another wide walk for the remaining of this month......

BTW, my astro friend, gary just downloaded this video clip, into utube , which is our last sidewalk session during Earth Hour on 31 Mar 2012.



You can see the ISTAR in action, together with 2 other scopes which I mentioned earlier.....

REgards

James Ling

[Mike]

James, great video! Really enjoyed it. Those are some long lines waiting for a glimpse. You guys really deserve a pat on the back for the effort. They make an extension for that Losmandy mount. It would get everybody off the ground

Mike

[jamesling1000]

Hi Mike and All.

Yes... I have already instructed a local machining workshop to make the extension for me.

I should be able to get this one ft extension in 2 weeks time, and ready for Venus transit......, as well as sidewalk event for this Saturn opposition month......

Regards

James Ling

[Watcher3]

Terrific video James! I don't know about that extension, it looks just about the right height for some viewers. ;D I sure hope you let those hundreds of newbies know that there is a whole universe out there that they can see when the night sky is DARK.

[Ales - iStar Optical]

Truly a great video clip! But I keep wondering.. did Celestron scope have a longer waiting line... or ISTAR?
.... watched the whole thing again.. Im pretty sure that Istar did...

[jamesling1000]

Apr 12, 2012 2:57:35 GMT -5 Ales - iStar Optical said:

Truly a great video clip! But I keep wondering.. did Celestron scope have a longer waiting line... or ISTAR?
.... watched the whole thing again.. Im pretty sure that Istar did...

Hi Ales.....and ALL.....

The queue really depends on the exact time that my friend Gary, is doing the video recording.....
He runs around, while having his 5" Mak set at the moon, and assisted by another of our astro friend.....

Initially both the Celestron C8 HD and the 8" ISTAR are pointing at Mars....Coz Saturn is still not visible....
Both of us also trying to power below 300X to get the best contrast , especially the polar cap and the dark shading on the surface of the planet....
The ISTAR is showing the details easily , the moment I set it up, and no body believe what you say about the terrific cool down time, except I know with this 5 passive oval holes, you do not need much time to cool down at all....
I really have no time to go over and look at my other friend's C8 HD, but from our conversation, the polar cap is not distinct from the other scope.....

And when Saturn has risen a certain height , I switched the target from Mars to Saturn....( and that is after one hour of viewing from both scopes), so is like those who are in my queue , who missed Mars, will have to finished viewing Saturn from my scope, then move over to my friend's C8 HD scope.

And those who have viewed Mars, will have to come over to view Saturn at my scope, since my friend only set his scope at Mars....

The other factor is also difficulty to view Mars from the other scope.... One of my invited friends is complaining the other queue seems not moving at all....
Mars is very small, but I know how to explain people to spot the planet in the eye piece, and I even use my hand phone to display the planet's photo , and tell them exactly what they are looking for....and this also reason why I can speed up my queue faster than my friend....

As such I would say the crowds are much similar for both scopes...... and most people have seen Saturn through the ISTAR scope, and not from the other scope.....

And one good thing about the 8" ISTAR is its big aperture light collecting power....
While I am busy explaining and peeping through my eye piece, suddenly my friend come and tell me that you can rest for a while now, coz the clouds has covered Saturn..... But in the ISTAR eye piece, Saturn is still so sharp and clear.....

The few side walk events that we conducted at the public library is really enjoyable, although parking my car is a distant away from the place, and I am also being issued a fine for illegal parking on one of the occasion.
This is what we call a 3 hours entertainment but 7 hours of hard work for the preparation , journey , and unpacking etc..... FOR ASTRONOMY YES, IS WORTH DOING IT......

Regards

James Ling