[Lvas] FW: Object change

Thu Feb 19 06:17:47 PST 2009

Rob,

That would be fantastic...great idea. It is always good to have a photo of the object being discussed. One of the first things I do after an observing session is to compare my sketches and notes with a photo.   

"The Messier Album" by John Mallas...first printed in 1978 has visual observing notes,  a sketch, and a nice photo by a variety of astrophotograhers. I used this book exclusively many years ago when I was trying to get my AL Messier certificate. I used the photo's at the scope for comparison. The photo's allowed me to insure that I was seeing and logging the correct object...especially the faint and mostly round galaxies in Coma-Virgo region. His visual survey was made between 1958 and 1962 using a 4-inch f/15 Unitron refractor. The good thing about this old and out of print book was that he used visual notes, a sketch and a photo...as they all compliment each other. He was pretty far ahead of his time.

I have been looking at your "Crab Nebula" image and it is great. To be able to see all the tentacles and stars within is pretty cool. The Mallincam certainly does a good job.

I hope to have our first deep-sky project article complete by the weekend. We will use your Mallincam view as a regular for all objects. 

As "our" trial four month deep-sky project will possibly reach hundreds of amateurs...a photo would be essential. Just communicated with a member of the Charlotte Amateurs which is a very large club and many of them are interested in receiving this material. 

Jim Mullaney e-mailed me yesterday saying how excited he was about receiving a forwarded copy.  

Our readers will include a diverse group. We will have astronomers, book authors, to some that are just getting started and want to learn from us. 

As your image of M81-82 is so good we need to try to get these objects in the coming spring months. We will know if the project is a success when someone with a 60 mm refractor wants to share their excitement about viewing M81-82. I will never forget when I "stumbled" across them one night many years ago in my backyard using a 4-1/4-inch f/10 spherical mirror ES reflector. I wish that there was a forum then.  

It is my opinion that stuff like this can be far better than a newsletter as it is small, requires little time, and can inspire us to look at a few objects. We had a very lenthy newsletter for over 15 years and it almost killed us all. We had to stop.  

John Heller is the only person that I personally know that has a scope as large as 25-inches. I would love to be able to see M-1 through this scope...    

Best regards, Roger Ivester     

Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:40:17 -0800
From: scopegeek at gmail.com
To: lvas at lvlug.org
Subject: Re: [Lvas] FW: Object change

Roger,

Are you interested in observations from a Mallincamer like me?  If not, I really do understand you observing purists.

I blew the socks off some old hats Saturday night at our Red Rock Public Star Party.  I was able to pull down the Horsehead Nebula with only a 14 second integration through the light pollution of Las Vegas.  These old hand astronomers were completely gassed out.  They were seeing the Horse at near real-time and were amazed at what they saw.  One of the guys left his 12.5-inch Obsession and spent most of the evening at my scope.  And I was only using an Orion ST120 (Achro) as my primary scope that night.  

With my somewhat weakening eyes, I'm seeing things I would never see otherwise, even through a 25-inch scope.

Anyway, if you're interested in some unprocessed captured images of the objects you specified, I would be glad to contribute them, even if they aren't used for anything other than to validate your eyepiece observations.  Let me know.

Your friend,

Rob Lambert
President, Las Vegas Astronomical Society

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