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| Plenty of clouds down Chiefland way… |
I haven’t been able to keep the blog on a monthly basis.
Heck, I haven’t been able to keep it on a bimonthly schedule. When I can’t/won’t
get out with a scope thanks to clouds, what am I gonna write
about? Oh, I could go in for nostalgia, but there’ve been a bunch of posts of that sort over the fifteen years the blog has
been around (yes), and that well is almost dry, muchachos.
I know it’s a cliché, but the dadgummed weather is just crazy-cloudy
these days. A decade of Unk’s impressions doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in
the world of climate science, I know, but my impression is things are worse
clear sky-wise. As I’ve said before, I noticed a change in my part of the
country, the deep south, beginning nearly a decade ago, around 2012.
In those days, I was still loading up the truck, Miss Van Pelt,
with a ton of astro-gear and heading south to the Chiefland Astronomy Village down in Florida at
the drop of a metaphorical hat. I maybe didn’t get down there every dark
of the Moon, but I got down there plenty, whether to pursue the Herschel
Project, or just to take a picture of M13 from a dark sky, or play around with some new gear.
I’d usually do three days, and you know what? Even at the
height of those southern summers I’d usually get two clear nights and sometimes
three. But, then, about, yeah, 2012, I noticed the summer weather seemed
different. I began to spend a couple of nights of a three-night run in the cotton-picking
Chiefland Days Inn instead of on the observing field. And then there began to
be complete skunkings. To the point where I grew reluctant to drive six freaking
hours to sit in a déclassé motel room.
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| A rainy night in…Florida. |
And it has now got to the point where (to me) the weather is
more than noticeably worse year-round; not just in the summer. To include
increasingly troublesome hurricane seasons that stretch well into the fall. And the
weather ain’t just worse way down in Florida, but here along the northern Gulf
Coast and throughout much of the country from what I hear. I maintain, again without
scientific evidence, that something has changed with the weather and not for the
good.
I’ll also admit I’m less hardcore than once I was. To be
honest, I have trouble convincing myself to brave the clouds and the bugs and the
haze and the heat to see a little something from suburban skies. I know
I’ve missed some cool views that way, but there it is. Forty lashes with a wet
noodle for Unk, and I promise to get out into the backyard more frequently henceforth. If it
ever clears up and Gulf storms stay away.
Rather than let another month go by blogless, I thought you,
my (overly) loyal and kind readers, might enjoy a little something…just
a few bullets, really, about what’s been going on around here (I almost said “around
Chaos Manor South,” but those days are gone forever).
· I had the pleasure of reviewing Phyllis Lang’s
latest edition of Deep Sky Planner (Version 8, if you can believe that).
You can read all about it in my Test Report in the upcoming issue of Sky
& Telescope, but I can tell you it’s a goodun.
· Don’t forget to check your scope covers
before you use them. I had a Telegizmos cover I bought back around
2016. While it wasn’t their “365” model, it was a good one, well made I
thought. Six years is six years, though, and it did get a fair amount of
use in my backyard. It’s so nice to be able to leave a scope set up under a
cover for a few days. Almost as good as an observatory (which I have no
interest in building at this juncture in my life). I should have paid more
attention to it, though. The cover was looking a little tattered…but so what?
The “so what” is we got a right good rainstorm in the early hours one morning
and the cover leaked. Badly.
There was some water intrusion into the
tube of my SCT, Mrs. Emma Peel. That was not a huge problem to fix, however, since
I’d become rather experienced in disassembling the Celestron (I’m still mad at them). However, what was even more drenched
with water was my Advanced VX mount head. Rut-roh, Raggy.
· I love the AVX.
It has never failed me for anything I’ve wanted to do with it. Heck, I’ve even
gotten good guided astrophotos with it and the SCT at f/7. I’d hate to have to
think about replacing it. I opened up the mount, dried it out, and let it sit in a
low humidity environment disassembled for some days. Back together, I did a fake
alignment indoors and the mount seemed fine. The only true test is under the
stars, of course, and I have not been able to do that yet. Fingers and toes crossed.
· If I have to replace the mount, what would I
replace it with? Maybe not an AVX. You never know the truth of what you
read on the consarned Internet, but it seems like not everybody gets a VX as
good as mine. I’d probably replace it with… I dunno… An HEQ-5? iOptron’s new
lightweight mount, the GEM 28? Search me and hope I don’t have to find out.
· What else…what else? Some folks get the
impression I’m now telescope poor. Yes, I did sell off a lotta
stuff, the larger instruments (good thing I did given my current condition), and
also some of the less used astro-junk. But I’ve still got…
66mm William Optics SD patriot refractor.
80mm SkyWatcher f/11 achromat.
· What gets used the most? That’s easy, the 80mm
APO, the SCT, and the 120mm APO. That’s for “serious” astronomy. What do I
mostly use for a quick look at something and to keep my proverbial hand in? The
80mm f/11 SkyWatcher on the AZ-4 alt-azimuth mount.
· Do I at least think about new stuff? Not much. I don’t need more eyepieces, I’ve clearly got all the scopes I can
use, and the three mounts are more than good enough. Assuming the Advanced VX
still works. If it doesn’t? I need something in a similar weight class. As above, in the event, I’m
thinking about an HEQ-5. I wouldn’t mind going back to EQMOD for scope control.
I’ve also, yes, considered the iOptron GEM 28. Its weight and payload are impressive
sounding. But I hear a lot of not-so-good experiences with their mounts. But I’m, yeah, hoping not to have to go our and buy any mount anytime soon.
· Astronomy software? These days my needs are
simple. What I mostly use is three programs, which
tend to the simpler compared to what I ran during, say, the go-go days of
the Herschel Project: Deep Sky
Planner, Stellarium, and Nebulosity.
· There are many things to like about DSP. It is a mature and capable astronomy program. But sometimes it’s the little things. What has encouraged me to adopt it for my personal use? Nice
large fonts. Having to squint at minute text on a dim red screen, even with
your glasses on, ain’t no fun.
· Stellarium? I still love Cartes du
Ciel and use it for some tasks. But Stellarium has come an awful
long way in the last five years, and I don’t know what else I require. It’s
just so pretty, too. That it now has built-in support for ASCOM makes
the deal on this (free) software even sweeter.
· Nebulosity? It just works for
acquiring images with my old Canon 400D and 60D (which are actually more
sophisticated and capable than your silly old uncle needs for his astrophotography). It also has the best stacking routine in the bidness.
And…and…and… Can’t think of nuthin’ else campers. I
hope to be back here again soon. Probably with the results of the AVX post
deluge check ride. Till then, then…
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