A friend of mine from work showed an interest in my hobby. He and his children had never looked at the night sky, not even with binoculars. I took my 20x50 binoculars and my 60x900 Tasco. The Tasco isn't much compared with what you guys have but, it beats what I had, nothing.

I set up on Jupiter first. Everyone took a turn and then I asked what they had seen. On there second round I hinted at the moons. You could tell the very instant that they seen them by there reaction.

Next, we turned over to Saturn. This is always fun. Because at first you can't see the rings that clearly, but after 3 or 4 seconds there they are. This is another one that you can tell when they resolve the rings. The first child would go "Wow" and then the rest would start getting anxious to see what he had seen. About this time a neighbor strolled over to see what we were doing standing in the dark and moaning. Well we got a "wow" out of him too and was stuck with him the rest of the night.

Now we broke out the binoculars. When I bought these the box was marked 10x50. Actually they had a pair of 20x50 in it. I wish I had took them back. Hard to keep steady at 20x. Anyway, I showed how to star hop to the Andromedae Galaxy starting at the triangle from Cassiopeiae. The triangle points to Mirach, then at 4 o'clock move to Mu Andromedae, then to the Galaxy. My friend was very impressed with a galaxy. I had to explain what a galaxy was for them to really appreciate it. We tried the telescope but had a lot better image with the binoculars.

Next we used the bino's on Pleiades and then I showed them the Great Orion Nebulae. This one won them over. I now have some new observing buddies. The weather rolled in and we packed it up.

Clear Skies
Marty Pinson
Crandall, GA

• Nice Report - bobsal - January 10, 2002 - 14:11 UTC
  • My Trusty Tasco - bolintx - January 16, 2002 - 22:00 UTC
    • New eye piece - robertko2 - January 17, 2002 - 18:04 UTC
      • re: new eyepiece - mpinson - January 17, 2002 - 20:55 UTC