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Clear Sky

Entry 587, on 2007-08-14 at 22:45:27 (Rating 1, Activities)

I've been away for the last few days and my computer battery was faulty (its fixed now) which is why there has been a delay since my last blog entry. It showed me how hooked I am on portable computing though because I could only use the computer near a power outlet. The more useful a technology becomes the more dependent we become on it and the bigger a disaster it is when it fails! Anyway, I've got a new battery now so I'm back in business!

The main topic for this blog entry isn't computing though, its another one of my geeky interests: astronomy. As I blogged about 6 weeks ago I have bought a new telescope and it is finally operational now that the mount is complete. There was a week of cloudy weather but finally, last Thursday, we had some clear weather so I was outside for several hours looking at the southern sky.

When I was more active in astronomy I was quite a skilled observer. When I showed the sky to public groups I had to find objects quickly using an altazimuth Dobsonian telescope with no automated pointing systems. I could generally find anything within a minute because any longer and the people I was showing around would get restless. Unfortunately my skills seemed to have slipped a bit but I was starting to regain them after a few hours of using the new 'scope. Eventually I hope to get a proper automated mount which will point itself, but currently I do it all myself which means I'm starting to get to know the sky again.

I'm pleased to report that the new telescope performed very well. Its smaller than the one I have used for the last few years (I borrowed it off someone else but didn't use it much) but the quality of the optics is better. It resolves stars into very nice tiny pinpoints (stars look smaller as the quality of the image increases) and Jupiter showed better detail than the bigger 'scope. The C8 is also easy to transport so I'm looking forward to my next trip out of town to a dark location.

So its going to be tough now when I have an important computing project I need to work on but the sky is clear. I guess there will be a few late nights coming up!

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