Re: Getting a bigger telescope (was: Lunatic in Palo Alto ...)

>> D) Never argue with Jay :D ;)

> .... and never enter into a singing contest with Jay either. He'll
win ;)

What Michelle means is that I will be the last person left standing. My
singing is more than sufficient to render most people unconscious, but I
am at least somewhat used to it...

One thing that has come up in this thread, I might mention again:

In my opinion, the ability to observe make observations for many minutes
at a time, with neither observer nor field of view drifting or jiggling,
is invaluable for viewing many kinds of deep-sky objects. My emphasis
on
a comfortable seated observing position and a driven telescope is not
based on laziness, but on my experience that I see more when I can
contemplate for a long time, without losing the object and without
teetering back and forth on a tall ladder. I think that one of the
reasons I have been able to push my C-14 so much is that it is driven
and I do have a comfortable seated observing position, and a driven
telescope. (In considering the part about "driven telescope", remember
that I often like to use exit pupils of around 1.5 mm when observing
galaxies, which works out to about 240x on the C-14 and would be 400x
on a 24-inch.)

-- Jay Reynolds Freeman
---------------------
Jay_Reynolds_Freeman@No-Spam
http://web.mac.com/jay_reynolds_freeman (personal web site)

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