Atmospheric Study - Spectacular Captured Weather Subsystems

Atmospheric Study - Spectacular Captured Weather Subsystems for Extended Observations
It was discovered that spectacular weather subsystems exist in and around regional active volcanic mountains where it can be clear in one area and obscured and raining in another. How is this useful to astronomical imaging? Can the telescope view sky objects during rain? Do these weather subsystems divide and what are their rates of changeability?

PHOTO

In a general example, entire mountain ranges can disappear while others remain visible, depending on weather conditions. In other specific examples, clouds are seen in front of some clear area mountains and not others.

WEATHER POSITION These weather systems move inside, over top side, surrounding the sides, and extending to the base of volcanic mountains.

VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS

There are five main surrounding active volcanic mountain regions, each at varying sizes, distances and elevations. 

LOCATION

The volcanic mountains border on the Pacific ocean where a weather front can spill over into the mountainous formed depressive bowl and weather is thus held captive. Weather inside the bowl is shown to move around, affording clear views in one location and not in another. Sometimes these systems are static more or less, or can be in a high rate of motion and change.

RATE OF CHANGE - SIZE - CONTENT
Weather can change in 20 minutes and one weather cell may have a different rate of change compared to another. Cells can vary in size and content. Some cover entire mountains while others are seen as small prevailing cloud systems obscuring a small mountainous fraction.

CONCLUSION

During daytime, subsystems are visually spotted and the telescope is directed to open areas of the sky for astro imaging or to specific mountains for conservation study. At night, weather subsystems are found with imaging cameras that see in the dark.

Monster Astro Projects

New Orion brand telescopes wait as skies begin clearing

Monster Astro Projects & Updates
The largest projects are described as of Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Numerous ongoing projects make use of the telescopes for astro imaging, conservation, weather, and technical studies. Never a moment lost - if the day is clear, the telescopes are pointed to the mountains to study and statistically categorize the ecology to include plants and animals, large insects and terrain. This area is surrounded by mountains, some 100 miles away, and the telescopes provide exceptionally clear magnified views for visual studies and photographic imaging.

If the night is mostly clear but with sections that may have upper atmosphere haze, or smog, fog, air pollution, heavy humidity, or breaks in the clouds, various inventions are deployed to penetrate the hood to resume astronomical observations.

Main divisions include:

* Singularity Observatory

* Solar Observatory

* Astro Imaging Laboratory

      Equipment, telescopes, accessories purchases

* Conservation

      Forestry study of mountains, plants, animals, birds and resources for

      conservation

* Cartography

      Moon mapping & atlas creation for lunar colonists

* Atmospheric Studies

      Invented methods to penetrate clouds, haze, air pollution, water vapor and haze

Main Sections

* Outdoor Pacific Ocean Astronomy

* Indoor Astronomy

* Armchair Astronomy

Perfect Weather & Clear Skies

The month of November is going exceptionally well. The weather has cooled to the perfect temperature of around 70 degrees and the skies are mostly clear and transparent, providing outstanding views of the mountains for conservation studies and the sky for planetary observations and weather studies. Mother nature has given five months of clear nights after two years of rain and overcast conditions.

Accessories, Inventions

This year has see the purchase of accessories and inventions to penetrate clouds, haze, air pollution, water vapor and haze. 

Telescope Trends

The trend of telescopes: at age 20, the goal was to make the largest telescopes possible. The progression went from 4.25" to 8 and then 12.5. At age 30s, weightlifting helped with strength to build and hoist the world's largest amateur telescope with a plate glass objective at the time - 40 inches in diameter. This was followed by two 50-inch telescopes around age 40s. At age 50s, the telescopes progressed into new inventions - giant power telescopes and then super large space telescopes using recycled nasa parts in space worth trillions of dollars. By age 60s, methods were invented to amplify the power of smaller telescopes into 925 and 1,400 inches aperture. By age 70, the telescope continued to shrink so they could become more manageable, easier to carry and set up.

Digital eVscope Not for this Region

It was finally discovered that, among other problems, Unistellar eVscopes in this region fail due to the combination of severe light pollution combined with haze that occludes and obstructs swaths of stars preventing the telescope from properly calibrating and plate solving.

Busy Making the Lunar Atlas

With renewed interest in the Moon, new private industry moon landings, scientific lunar outposts in the making, upcoming vacation tours to the Moon and potential off-planet colonization, a lunar atlas is in the works. It uses actual raw and processed lunar imaging from our best and most powerful telescopes at Singularity Observatory.

Observing the Sun

Recent telescope upgrades now include a solar observatory, complete with solar filters, abilities to view and image and count solar sunspots to determine sub periods of min and max, transits, eclipses, specula, and other phenomena. Tests will be made on prominences and the solar corona, and correlations with the aurora borealis and aurora australis.

Armchair Astronomy Astronomical Imaging

"Armchair Astronomy" Astronomical Imaging the Jovian System
Focus on the Jupiter system Thursday, November 4th, 2021

Left: Ganymede moon of Jupiter, Space1 is developing a mission to Ganymede with the Dynamonic Propulsive Star Gate

Left: Europa moon of Jupter presumed to have live in the ocean beneath the surface crust

Left: Io moon of Jupiter

Top: Planet Jupiter in various stages of processing

AMPING UP THE NEW ASTRO IMAGING LABORATORY
Today is a good day for revamping the entire astro imaging laboratory, taking advantage of a rare good health day and some remarkable weather inside one of the 20M slots.

We are deploying three telescopes simultaneously for departmentalized work. Mountains 25 miles away are crystal clear and it's now possible to collimate our new lasers by beaming directly into the mountain.

When MB Mountain Beaming is complete, the Moon is next. Apollo astronauts left a moon reflector plate on the moon for laser experiments, to our benefit. Current work is on a new sequential tunneling penetratory imaging project.

In regard to multi-purposing, work progresses on  ground penetrating electrodynamic imaging for moons and planets as the precursor to our colonization and the search for underground resources or the penetration of lunar and planetary atmospheres.

Unboxing the Orion StarBlast II EQ 4.5"

Unboxing the Orion StarBlast II EQ
Orion makes two different StarBlast f/4  4.5-inch diameter telescopes, the StarBlast and the StarBlast II EQ. The first sets on a modified Dobsonian mount, and the latter has an Equatorial mount and motor drive. Let's take a look at unboxing the the StarBlast Equatorial version, with the AstroTrack Drive.

The telescope is shopped in one box which is protected by another full size box. The assembled weight of the telescope is listed as 20.7 lbs. Inside are a series of smaller boxes fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle, each holding parts except one box which is an empty space holder. The parts and components were adequately protected for international shipping.

The telescope parts were set out on a round table and then sorted. Everything was present except for the printed manual - it was for another telescope. So I had no assembly instructions but assembly is so simple and easy that no instructions are needed. If instructions are needed, the pdf file can be downloaded at the Orion website or several videos from Orion are available on YouTube. 

In the Box

Orion 4.5" f/4.0 reflector telescope optical tube assembly

Orion AstroTrack Motor Drive

25mm Orion Sirius Plossl telescope eyepiece (1.25")

10mm Orion Sirius Plossl telescope eyepiece (1.25")

Tripod legs

EQ-1 equatorial telescope mount

EZ Finder II reflex sight aiming device

Collimation cap

Tube rings

Counterweight

Counterweight shaft

Tripod accessory tray

Slow-motion control cables

Latitude adjustment T-bolt

Orion MoonMap 260

Orion StarBlast Color

Orion StarBlast Color
The color of the new Orion StarBlast Dobsonian telescope is a remarkable story to behold

Many white OTA telescopes had flooded the market in the past and white became so common that many telescope makers began using alternate black color.

After a number of years of stumbling over and into black telescopes in the darkness of night, black was deemed no longer creative and Orion began looking for new colors of originality for the lineup.

Signature red was of course taken up by Edmunds red Astroscan telescope and Celestron made a popular line of orange Schmidt-cassegrain telescopes.

The most creative and unusual esteemed and royal colors were sought after and reviewed. Teal was a new web color formulated in 1987.

In the 1990's Teal was a cyan-green fad color for sports and it was adopted by many teams for the color of their uniforms. The color is believed to originate from the common Teal, a member of the duck family whose eyes are surrounded by this color.

Teal green is a darker shade of teal with more green and is a variable color averaging a dark bluish green that is green, darker, and stronger than invisible green or pine tree. Teal green is most closely related to the Crayola crayon color Deep Space Sparkle. Air New Zealand picked Teal green as their signature airline color.

In 2003, the California-based Orion Telescopes and Binoculars introduced the StarBlast, a 4.5-inch Newtonian reflector grab and go telescope with a Dobsonian mount. The telescope became popular with both kids and adults and even libraries have some for checkout. When Orion Telescope Company formulated the signature StarBlast OTA color, they went a step further than white or black and formulated metal teal pearl color. The tube finishes were embedded with scintillating sparkles of a metal appearance (a borrowed technique of creating finer car finishes).  Under certain lighting it looked like tiny pinpoint stars making up the tube finish, a fantastic and very original sight to behold.

Laser Calibrating the Orion StarBlast Telescope

Laser Calibrating the Orion StarBlast Telescope using the Svbony Next Generation Adjustable Deluxe Laser Collimator

First make a mount to hold, test and calibrate the laser collimator using some everyday common household items. Supplies and tools include a bag of aquarium gravel, peanut butter jar, extra peanut butter jar lid, duct tape, scissors, wire cutters, emory stick, and the wrench for the laser collimator. 

Left: the laser collimator is set on top of the homemade mount as shown. Turn on the laser and point it to the opposing wall about 3 meters or 12-feet away. Slowly rotate the collimator and observe the red dot. If it stays in the same position, the collimator is ready for use.

Fill the peanut butter jar with aquarium gravel to give it weight. Cut two opposing V notches in the extra jar lid. Sand smooth with the emory stick. Duct tape the lids together as shown. On the collimator, remove the threaded collar to expose the adjustment set screw. Turn on the collimator and point to the opposing wall about 9 meters or 12 feet away. Rotate the collimator and observe the red dot. If the dot remains in the same location, the laser is collimated. If not, use the allen wrench and adjust the set screw until the dot remains centered. The laser collimator is now ready to adjust the StarBlast telescope and other Newtonian telescopes.

Left: the Svbony collimator includes the adjusting allen wrench, a 2-inch adapter, a preinstalled battery and
instruction manual.

      

Orion StarBlast Telescope Differences

Orion StarBlast Telescope Differences
The purchase was for two identical Orion StarBlast telescopes of 4.5-inch aperture at f/4. Only the mounts are different, so we thought. This page will describe the actual  differences between the two.

BIG BLUE
Nicknamed Big Blue because of its beautiful blue metal tube and larger footprint created by the mount style, this telescope is shown on the right in the photo. The Orion Starblast II EQ with motor drive has many obvious differences when compared to the Dobsonian mounted version. With a total weight of 20.7 lbs it comes with a German Equatorial mount and requires some assembly. A motorized clock drive moves the telescope in right ascension using one motion control knob and a single 9-volt battery. It also has manual slow motion controls for right ascension and declination. Setting circles are provided. Differences also include the primary mirror  - Orion specifications say it's made of soda lime plate glass. Also different are the two eyepieces, both Plossl design at 10mm and 25mm focus. The telescope comes with a Moon map. The product manual must be downloaded. Assembly instructions are in the manual or found on Youtube with Orion's video.

LITTLE GREEN

Nicknamed Little Green because of its beautiful green metal tube and small footprint compared to its sibling, this Orion StarBlast is Dobsonian mounted and is a true grab and go tabletop telescope. Weighing only 13 lbs., no assembly is needed. It sets inside the shipping box fully assembled. There is no motor drive. The primary mirror is made from low expansion borosilicate glass and the includes Ramsden eyepieces 6mm and 17mm focus. The entire telescope weighs only 20.7 lbs. and can be lifted with one hand. This is a grab and go tabletop telescope, setup and ready for action. It comes with a product manual, and Starry Night SE software.

ADDED DIFFERENCES

As of the date on this posting, Little Green gets a replacement Celestron 5x24 lightweight resin lensed finderscope to do star hopping. Big Blue gets a cell phone holder, Apple iPhone Max X, and Celestron software to do push go goto to find sky objects.

Orion AstroBlast Telescope Unboxing

Orion AstroBlast Telescope Unboxing
On July 1st, 2021, these photos were uploaded to the Astroimaging server

Inside the box, the Orion 4.5-inch f/4 AstroBlast telescope comes fully assembled and connected to its Dobsonian mount. Remove the packing paper, screw on the red dot finder, and the telescope is ready for use.

Left: The fully assemble Orion StarBlast telescope was well protected with form fitting styrofoam panels. Separate items included the red dot finderscope, two eyepieces, a collimator, and the operating manual.

The one box package is actually a box inside a box for extra shipping protection, and arrived in about four days of shipping time. The prepayment included customs charges and tax, so the delivery was fast and no need to wait for money to be collected at the time of delivery.

Left: The OTA was fully assembled, however the optics, both primary and secondary (diagonal) mirrors needed collimating. To collimate, a telescope collimation PDF guide was downloaded from the Orion website. Also included with the telescope is a small plastic eyepiece collimation guide with a hole in the center.

Right: The plastic bag was carefully removed so it could be recycled as a telescope protective dust covering. The OTA was already mounted onto the Dobsonian mount with a large ring mount so the tube can rotate for balancing. One can simply reach into the box, grab the telescope, and lift it up and out.

Left: Orion's EZ Finder II is a zero magnification red dot finderscope designed to help find naked eye visible sky objects at a glance. It easily bolts onto the tube. It was removed and replaced with a practically zero weight resin-lens 5x24 finderscope by Celestron originally intended for the Celestron FirstScope.

Right: The diminutive size and low weight of the complete telescope make it a "grab and go" variety telescope. Pulled out of the box and directly placed in a chair, the small size becomes evident. Loosen the ring mount holding the OTA to remove the protective paper.

The Orion StarBlast Dobsonian has a total weight of 13 lbs. The removed OTA optical tube assembly weighs only 4 lbs. and the entire Dob mount weighs 9 lbs. The telescope has a handle on the mount and can be carried with one hand.

The telescope is known as a tabletop telescope. Here it sets on a small stable round table that will be used for observing both indoors and outdoors. The table, made in Taiwan and purchased at furniture street, folds up for transport and has a safety catch underneath.

The Orion StarBlast has a front end dust cap and a tight but smooth oving 1.25-inch rack & pinion to hold eyepieces and accessories like cameras. Both mirrors, primary and secondary are fully adjustable for precise collimation.

Left: The Orion StarBlast telescope, Dobsonian version, comes with 17mm and 6mm Kellner eyepieces. The telescope works well with added simple low cost aspheric design eyepieces. In this photo, the Orion EZ Finder II is replaced with a Celestron resin-lens 5x24 plastic finderscope which has performed well on other telescopes. Originally designed as an accessory for the Celestron FirstScope, it has practically no weight, yet offers magnification and light gathering ability to see more stars. The primary mirror is claimed to use low expansion borosilicate glass.

Manual push drive motions in azimuth are very smooth and the altitude has a locking knob which can set the tension on the motion. The ability to balance the telescope is an excellent feature when attaching accessories.

Orion StarBlast II Telescope Wins Red Ribbon Award

Orion StarBlast II Telescope Wins the Coveted Red Ribbon Award at Singularity Observatory
Ten telescopes were analyzed in twenty different categories and the Orion StarBlast winner took the coveted Red Ribbon Award

Telescopes reviewed were the (1) Celestron CGX/L 14-inch edge HD, (2) Celestron CGX/L 9.25-inch Edge HD, (3) Orion StarBlast Dobsonian, (4) Orion CT80 Refractor, (5) Celestron FirstScope Dobsonian, (6) Orion StarBlast II EQ, (7) Unistellar eVscope digital telescope, (8) Meade 60AT Refractor, (9) Celestron 9x50 refractor, 10) Meade ETX/90

It's agreed that analyzing a telescope may in part be directly dependent on a person's goal. For example, will the telescope go into a permanent observatory or is it designed as a lightweight grab and go scope? This contest is an overall average and an overview of the most likely and desirable key points.

The telescopes were rated in twenty categories, with ratings from 0 to 10 with 10 best. Points were added up and the telescope with the highest number of points is the winner.

1) Weight: easy to lift, carry

2) Size: ability to move through door, assembled

3) Portability

4) Setup time

5) Takedown time

6) Learning curve

7) Ease of use

8) Ability & ease of calibration

9) Number of defects: does it work?

0) Amount of time used

12)  Diameter: light gathering ability
13) Optical Quality

14) Rich Field Ability or Planets

15) Tracking ability

16) Grab and go

17) Convenience: power, computer, usb, cables

18) Cost

19) Availability

20) Support

Telescopes Analyzed

Celestron CGX/L 14-inch Edge HD

Celestron CGX/L 9.25-inch Edge HD

Orion StarBlast Dobsonian

Orion CT80 Refractor
Celestron FirstScope Dobsonian

Orion StarBlast II EQ
Unistellar eVscope digital telescope
Meade 60AT Refractor
Celestron 9x50 refractor
Meade ETX/90

The Winner: Orion StarBlast II EQ with Motor Drive
In summary, key award winning points and amazing features of the Orion StarBlast II EQ were ease of use, portability, light weight, easy to lift and carry, and with a very small learning curve. The telescope is easy to initially assemble, has a small footprint, fits through doors and inside cars when fully setup, and sports parabolic quality optics at f/4.

It's fast and large enough optics to show deep sky objects, setup and takedown time is either none or very fast and easy, no computer or AC electricity needed, it has good slow motion controls, and is good for astrophotography with a cell phone camera and camera mount. It can be used for lucky imaging with a CMOS camera, the scope and mount have a fast setup time of about 2 minutes or none at all.

The StarBlast telescope is low cost, has a one button motor clock drive, has calibration ability and is very easy to calibrate, it's supported by Orion, However availability is at high demand: I waited 2.5 years for new stock to arrive. The number of defects is 1 (locked on toe stopper). The PTA has rich field wide angle ability and is outstanding for the Moon, deep sky objects, and moons around planets, it's an excellent star hopper - it can upgrade to the lens-based Celestron finderscope with matching mounting bolts.

Orion has fast shipping, the telescope by choice is used very frequently, features include grab and go, German Equatorial with rapid takedown time, sets up in seconds with a compass, and this telescope has extra powers - the aperture is ideal for more seeing days due to its size, the primary has glass conducive to rapid cool down thermal, it sees better through window glass, and has adjustable secondary diagonal).

Included eyepieces are excellent. Focuser is tight and smooth. Upgrades with with a Bahtinov mask for achieving good focus, a front end full diameter specialty solar filter for studying the sun, and an iPhone for making a push to goto DIY finder. The telescope has many uses for many projects.

Orion StarBlast II EQ Telescope Assembly

The Orion StarBlast II EQ telescope arrives in kit form with these parts ready for assembly

Assembly of the Orion StarBlast II EQ Telescope 
The Starblast II EQ telescope is easily assembled by following these guidelines

Assembling the Orion StarBlast 4.5-inch equatorial telescope is routine for the most part. The kit comes with an assembled OTA optical tube assembly and the German equatorial head is for the most part ready for mounting. Unfortunately my telescope kit arrived without the instruction manual and therefore no assembly details were provided. Fortunately the assembly is very basic and straightforward and no instructions are needed when following a photo from online sources. For more details, Orion provides a YouTube video for assembly. The telescope manual is also found online in PDF format at a link on the Orion website.

The Chinese manufactured Orion StarBlast II EQ Equatorial Head is a marvel of exquisite engineering. It arrives with most of the main parts assembled.

I had no problems assembling the telescope kit - all the parts were present with no hardware missing. A wrench and screwdrivers are provided in the kit, however when it came time to assemble the tripod tray to the tripod legs, the nuts were very tight turning onto the bolts and a pliers, vise grips, and larger philips screwdriver were used as additional tools.

On caveat is the toe saver - a washer and nut at the end of the weight shaft which was already screwed to the shaft. It appeared to be permanently locked on so tight that nothing would remove it. As a simple solution, it was kept on, the counterweight slid onto the other end of the shaft, and the shaft was then screwed into the equatorial head. The counterweight easily removes by removing the shaft.

Remember to engage the slow motion control nuts onto the flat sides of the shafts. Setting the latitude is extremely easy. Overall the EQ-1 mount is lightweight and easy to carry. Setting it up is nearly instantaneous. I added a compass and turned the tripod and mount to calibrate to North, as the northern hemisphere is not visible from my sky window.

The second caveat is related to the red dot finder (Orion EZ Finder II Telescope Reflex Sight). The finder is held together with two side screws. This finder was assembled without any tightening of these screws. After placing it onto the OTA, it fell apart. Lucky the telescope was being moved with a plastic bag over the top and the finder fell into the bag and did not crash to the floor or break into pieces.

The final step was to install the clock drive. Printed instructions are available and are straightforward. see links

Final thoughts: the Orion StarBlast II EQ Telescope is exactly what I wanted. It's very lightweight, easy to setup and hand carries around like a small charm. The mount and tripod are already setup, just dial in your latitude and use a compass to set it facing the north pole. It works simple and might hold another small telescope set piggyback. The clock drive keeps the image in the eyepiece when polar aligned and overall the system should be good for lucky imaging. This is the telescope I can lift and move around, and will get the most use. By comparison, I'm not able to lift or move a Celestron CGX/L 14". Is there a downside to the 4.5-inch telescope? Not really - just keep in mind the lightweight mount will require a few seconds to settle down each time the telescope is moved or touched.

Orion StarBlast Webpage

https://www.telescope.com/Orion-StarBlast-II-45-Equatorial-Reflector-Telescope/p/116895.uts

Orion EZ Finder II Telescope Reflex Sight Webpage

https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Orion-EZ-Finder-II-Telescope-Reflex-Sight/rc/2160/p/7228.uts

Orion AstroTrack Drive for EQ-1 Equatorial Telescope Mount Webpage

https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Orion-AstroTrack-Drive-for-EQ-1-Equatorial-Telescope-Mount/rc/2160/p/99600.uts?keyword=astrotrack%20motor%20drive

Instruction & Assembly Manual

EN: Orion StarBlast II 4.5 Equatorial Reflector Telescope

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29576_03-17.pdf

How to Set Up the Orion StarBlast II 4.5 Equatorial Reflector Telescope - Orion Telescopes (YouTube video by Orion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuJYoah4QU8

How to Use the Orion StarBlast II 4.5 EQ Reflector Telescope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3DbAz_QKvA

EN: Collimation of a Newtonian Reflector Telescope

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29563_11-15.pdf

EN: Orion AstrTrack DC Motor Drive for EQ-1 Mount

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29154_11-14.pdf

Big Blue Captures Tau Ceti Lunar Conjunction

StarBlast Telescope Project 1

Big Blue Captures Xi Cet Lunar Conjunction
65 Ceti is a type E variable double star in Cetus at 4.36 to 4.4 magnitude at RA 02 hr 14.1 m and DEC _08 Deg 57'

by Mike Otis

Otis Astroimaging

Some astronomers believe this is the system likely to harbor planets in the habitable zone and hold evolved life forms. One can only speculate about the origin and nature of these faraway worlds, 380 light years from the Earth.

Technical Data - Above Photo

* Orion StarBlast telescope project 1

* July 4, 2021 3:03 am local time
* Hand held Apple iPhone 6 Plus

* Built in 4.15mm lens at speed f2.2, ISO 500, 1/4 second digital exposure
* Blue StarBlast II EQ 4.5" with 23mm eyepiece, no active drive

* Image processing: remove window glass, temper grain, enhance star,

          preserve reflected Earthshine

* Software: iMac Catalina 10.15.7 OS, Photos v5.0, PhotoScape X v4.0.2

* Location - South Pacific Ocean

This is the First Light project conducted with the new Orion StarBlast II 4.5-inch aperture reflector telescope on the EQ-1 German Equatorial mount.

Left: enhanced AR image created by Celestron's SkyPortal app running on an iPhone with a focus on Xi1 Cetus variable star at conjunction with the Moon. Don't think about looking for the double star as it's far too close to the primary. The star is a yellow orange giant has its second component at 0 arcseconds distance or 1 AU.

This highly unusual photo was taken inside the new Indoor Observatory and shot through window glass. The image has received computer image processing to remove window glass and take care of internal window glass reflections.

Stars are very tiny pinpoints of high resolution in the parabolic StarBlast and only cover a few pixels in the cell phone camera images. Image processing is necessary to somewhat expand a star to make it more visible. This is opposite of what usually happens with seeing conditions that are less than ideal causing bloated stars or with varied optics.

Due to additional stars in the Cetus system which are located at habitable zones, contention by astronomers, and debated, is that life can exist on these planets around the star system. This refers to the famous Tau Ceti system long thought to harbor alien life forms.

Red Dot Finder

Red Dot Finder
What is this strange looking piece of plastic doing on my telescope?

Telescope companies began shipping telescopes with a red dot finder, a cheap piece of plastic that projects a red dot onto a small piece of viewing plastic. Using the human eye, objects visible can be found and centered. This is usually the Moon and brighter stars. For areas of heavy light pollution, it won't show any stars dimmer than what the human eye can see, so basic star hopping may not be an option. The illustration shows the Orion EZ Finder II for $39.99 and it's included on beginner telescopes. The same red dot finder sells for about $12 from China sources. The device uses a button battery and it's easy to forget and leave the finder on and then the battery burns out and needs replacing. Button batteries are not always easy to find at the store.

The finder design is not new. Many old timers will remember the Telrad finder from decades ago. It originated in the late 1970s when Steve Kufeld of Huntington Beach, California came up with the idea to manufacture an economical sight to help amateur and professional astronomers find their way across the night sky. "The Telrad is a different kind of device for aiming a telescope. It has been very popular with amateur astronomers since its introduction in 1978. The Telrad works on an entirely different principle, and has some distinct advantages over its optical finder scope cousin. 

Using a lens and light from a red LED and a glass beam splitter, the Telrad projects a nearly parallax-free, illuminated red bulls-eye into the observer’s eye. When the observer looks through the glass window, the bulls-eye appears to be projected onto the sky." Source

While the red dot finder is a great invention, and good for bright objects and beginners, the telescope may need another finder for dim objects. I recommend a 5x24 finderscope with lenses to see dimmer stars over the human eye, but not too many stars making the star field confusing. A 6x50 finderscope might show too many stars. It depends on the location and application. One could keep the red dot finder for locating bright objects and add another finder to the telescope for seeing dimmer stars when starhoping.

More about red dot finders, etc.

https://www.cloudynights.com/documents/9finders.pdf

Orion Starblast Telescopes have a red dot finder

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2021/06/new-orion-telescopes-on-order.html

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2021/06/orion-starblast-telescopes-order-update.html

Celestron FirstScope 5x24 Finderscope

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2021/04/plastic-telescope-takes-cake.html

Orion StarBlast Telescopes Order Update

Orion StarBlast Telescopes

Order Update

The order was placed online late night (around 11 pm) Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021 and was shipped on Friday, June 25th by Orion. It's scheduled to arrive internationally in only two more days (today is Tuesday, June 29). It took a phone call to Orion's international phone number to find out the UPS tracking number and get the order shipping details. Ordering internationally is always far more expensive. Here's a breakdown of the details: nternational: 1-831-763-7000 (not toll-free). Monday through Friday 6:00 AM - 5:00 PM Pacific Time and Saturday 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time. Closed Sunday.

$229.99 StarBlast II 4.5 EQ Reflector & AstroTrack Motor Drive  (US $253.47)

$199.99 StarBlast 4.5 Astro Reflector Telescope  (US $220.33)

$199.99 1.25" Premium 20-Piece Color Planetary Filter Set x 1 (US $220.33)

Shipping UPS Expedited 4-7 Days (US $501.47)

Customs Duty and Tax (US $125.47)

Order Total  (US $1320.95)

New Orion Telescopes on Order

New Orion Telescopes on Order
The goal is to have old school smaller telescopes which are lighter weight, easy to carry, fast to set up, adjustable, occupy a small footprint, and easy to use!

STARBLAST II EQ
First up is this Orion StarBlast II 4.5" EQ f/4 parabolic Reflector & AstroTrack Motor Drive is capable of astro imaging and has a total weight of only 20.7 pounds. The OTA is 4lbs. and the mount with tripod is only 11.9lbs. The German Equatorial counterweight adds a mere 4.8lbs. One welcomed old school feature is the clock drive. It can set a simple sidereal tracking drive rate with only one button. Power is from a simple 9-volt battery. Setting circles and a finder will facilitate star hopping to find deep sky objects without a computer. A computer however can dedicate

itself to imaging and processing images.

STARBLAST
The second telescope ordered is the tabletop "grab and go" Dobsonian version StarBlast. Remarkably, the total weight of this telescope is only 13lbs (7.7lbs lighter than the EQ). It can carry with one hand, and will be ideal for Lucky Imaging of sky objects where they are left to drift across the FOV without a drive, a camera takes thousands of short exposure images, and a video is captured and processed. This works for both telescopes.

TELESCOPES COMPARED

The OTAs appear to have a blue and green color variation and they come with different oculars - the EQ has better Sirius Plossls,  a 25.0mm and 10.0mm giving a magnification of 18x and 45x respectively. The tabletop comes with lesser quality Explorer II Kellner 17.0mm and a 6.0mm giving magnifications of 26x and 75x respectively. Another curious difference quoted in the specs concerns the primary mirrors. EQ has soda-lime plate glass and the tabletop has low thermal expansion borosilicate glass. Both versions offer the EZ Finder II finderscope. This is 1:1 and has no light gathering ability - it can be replaced with a standard lens finder or a cell phone with a sky app for starhopping.

ADVANTAGES ARE MANY

These telescopes are physically small taking up very little space - a footprint ideal for operating from a room and window in the home or a small observatory. The tabletop is extremely easy to use with only a simple altitude knob. The tabletop and the EQ can adjust weight by rotating and changing the OTA tube position to compensate for the addition of accessories.

MODIFICATIONS

For serious starhopping, the EZ Finder II finderscope will need to be replaced or supplemented. At 1:1 and no light gathering ability - it does not offer ability to show dimmer stars over that of the human eye. In a severe light polluted environment, it's likely the EZ Finder II finderscope will show no stars or only one or two of the brightest. It may have strength in quickly centering the Moon and bright planets. The addition of a cel phone finder with a sky app will create a push to goto telescope. These generally lose accuracy when moving across a large section of the sky, from East to West or North to South for example. However, observing from a room or deck, only one quadrant of the sky is viewed at a time and the cell phone finder will perform well.

EQ-1 MOUNT

This mount is compatible with other small telescopes, like the Orion 80mm refractor and rings. Having a clock drive gives it many advantages.

EMULATION & APPLICATIONS

Emulating a $3,000.00 4.5" aperture Unistellar eVscope with a $200 Orion StarBlast is one project, for imaging deep sky objects. Instead of trying to find objects using an unreliable eVscope's internal computer, the StarBlast telescopes will use manual starhopping to locate objects and a new technique called Lucky Imaging, with and without a drive. A computer will handle the camera software and processing.

Indoor Observatory

Inventing the Indoor Observatory

Above: observing indoors with a focus on the Moon - the sky portal size, area of visibility and which objects are visible at any given date and time, are calculated with an astronomy app. The Celestron CGX/L goto mount with the short OTA 14-inch EdgeHD catadioptric is ideal for indoor observing through an opened window or window glass. Adjacent to the telescope are indoor electrical receptacles, camera imaging computers and accessory racks - the epitome of indoor observatory convenience.

Indoor Observatory

The indoor observatory includes telescopes kept in a room inside a home, and are used for observing through window glass or an open window, in a comfortable regulated environment. This achieves the greatest convenience.

Left: small Dobsonian tabletop telescopes, like the upgraded "grab and go" collector's

signature edition Celestron FirstScope, are extremely convenient when observing indoors

Chromatism

Instruments, such as optical atmospheric chromatic dispersion correctors (ADC), may be used to compensate window glass to improve the overall image quality and to reduce and mitigate optical defects. 

Plane Dimension

Telescope optical orientation to the plane of window glass is corrected through software.

Observing Through Window Glass

Obtaining good astro imaging through window glass necessitates image processing to correct double images, image softening, planar deviation, contrast reduction, color skewing and other factors.

Left: the Moon through the indoor Celestron 14" Edge HD

Experiments were performed with large and small telescopes and the result compared for the notion of an indoor observatory. Telescopes reside indoors, completely isolated from the outdoor elements, such as bugs and mosquitoes, extreme heat and humidity, and bitter cold and wind.

Remote Controls

Extra remote observatory control elements are not needed and power is readily available, often with several computers. Visual observing and imaging are possible with astro imaging using computer image processing to improve the images. 

Telescope Aperture

Telescope size makes a difference in the quality of the observation. Observing through window glass is a lot like observing through the atmosphere - small telescopes perform better across the smaller wavefront than larger scopes because they look through a smaller diameter of window glass which will have less deviations.

Window Glass Quality

Other defects up for compensation and correction include off axis planar orientation, nonhomogeneous glass, and chromatism. The quality of the float window glass can also widely vary.

Room Reflections

Eliminate and minimize internal nuisance ghost reflections from the glass window by turning off indoor lighting.

Left: the Moon image taken with the indoor 2.99-inch Celestron FirstScope Dobsonian is processed to subtract window glass. Imaging through window glass can change the focus, reduce contrast and soften the image.

Double Image

The double image anomaly can result from two sided reflections off the window glass, front and back surfaces. Design image processing to subtract (more complex) or suppress (more simple) the weaker of the two images, which is normally the backside image coming back through the first surface.

Glass Thermal Insulation

Be sure to avoid thermally insulated glass of the double pane type. This would create additional unwanted reflective images and aberrations. Window glass can also cause thermal convection if the indoor and outdoor temperatures vary too much. In this case there are two corrective options. Make the temperature indoors the same as outdoors, or use lucky imaging techniques.

Polar Align Indoors

The indoor telescopes are set up, calibrated to north as needed using a compass, and positioned for maximum viewing. 

Window Size

It helps to observe through a large deck glass door to see more of the sky. Of course a small telescope and a small bedroom window sill may be ideal.

Glass Avoidance

As a simple option, put on bug repellant, slide the window open, equalize the temperature differential, and bypass the glass.

Telescopes Indoors

Telescopes kept indoors under regulated temperature and humidity have an advantage and will not be as prone to dewing. In some cases, expensive large outdoor telescopes were known to dew over inside the sealed Schmidt-Cassegrain tubes, ruining the telescope or causing a very complicated repair disassembly.

Sky Area of Visibility

A portal of sky visibility is determined and a planetarium app calculates which objects will be visible in the window on any given date and time. It can also determine how long the object will be visible.

Blast from the Past: Old school telescopes often had the front end capped with a flat of conventional 1:1 plate glass. These telescopes were primarily visual and the user dealt with any problems caused by the telescope's glass window. Essentially these old telescopes were looking through a window, not much different than a house window.

Left: Celestron's cell phone mobile sky app, free SkyPortal, can determine the window of opportunity for available objects at a given date and time when observing from indoors

Indoor Observatory

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2021/06/indoor-observatory.html

Singularity Observatory Telescope Indoor Observing
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-singularity-observatory_20.html

Singularity Observatory Indoor Observing Success!
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-singularity-observatory-indoor.html

Space1 Glass Portal
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2018/09/space1-glass-portal.html

Celestron Firstscope Image Through Glass
https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2020/08/celestron-firstscope-image-through-glass.html

Singularity Observatory Diving through Glass

https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-singularity-observatory-diving.html

Telescope Thoughts

Telescope Thoughts
Rambling through telescope thoughts tonight

Nobody knows why the three thousand + dollar Unistellar eVscope failed so miserably. Yeah, we were prepared to be amazed as they promised in their advertising, but we only got a disappointing defect that had to be returned to the dealer. Perhaps the telescope could not deal with the heavy light pollution that exceeds the Bortle scale, or high altitude mist that blocks some stars, or just maybe the metal in the building killed the WIFI. After that fiasco, our taste for digital telescopes went to zero indefinitely. And with advertising filling our box for its competition, Stellina, we easily look the other way and delete the claims readily.

What about the long standing GOTO Celestron digital mounts as in the Celestron CGX/L? We've had a mental block in using one and after three years, still no luck with the system. Blame it on a different Asian set of GPS satellites, or problems with the Asian time zones, or a magnetized slag mount needing a protective Faraday Cage, or whatever. After that, my taste for digital mounts went to zero.

Alas, the working solution is at hand. I'm going back to trusted old school, reliable setting circles, finding objects manually with a finderscope and a small equatorial mount, and running a clock drive from a 9-volt battery that has one simple knob. I will use small telescopes that can be lifted with one hand, easily moved and ones that are fun to transport, and a real joy to use. I'm taking back astronomy and astrophotography the way it was, fun and exciting and every time out was a new discovery.

Light Pollution City

 

Light Pollution City
This city has a rating beyond a Bortle number with all its light pollution and air pollution sky haze

The author has invented the Penetrator, an invention to cut through sky dynamics such as light pollution, haze, fog, smog, air pollution, light overcast, a sheen of atmospheric water vapor, and thin clouds.

Upgrade the Celestron FirstScope with a Rotating "Multiple Eyepiece" Turret
This revolving eyepiece turret accessory increases convenience in switching eyepieces, cameras, and those with filters or other devices

Adding light weight accessories is important for maintaining telescope balance, especially for telescope tube OTAs that have no means of balancing. The Celestron FirstScope is one of those telescopes.

The Eyepiece Revolver fits my complete set of Svbony Gold series Aspheric eyepieces consistently. This includes 4mm, 10mm, and 23mm focus oculars. The Revolver has good lock rotation and can be adjusted with a centerline screw.

Tips & Techniques
It's ideal to put on camera and sight in first with eyepieces to center the image. The revolver adds about one inch of back focus so adjust the mirror position or substitute a different focuser accordingly to compensate for focus.

Procedure
The Revolver holds a complete set of Svbony eyepieces and rotates each into view on a Celestron FirstScope. Scope balance is not significantly changed with the lightweight revolver and lightweight eyepieces so manual tracking remains the same. The product is outstanding.

Adjustment
I adjusted wherever possible, including the tightness of the screw in barrel for rock solid performance. Overall, the unit matches the telescope and eyepieces perfectly and has free and smooth rotation. The eyepiece barrels are not too long and do not protrude.

Specifications
Item - 1.25" Eyepiece Revolver
Brand - KSON
Sold By - BestGoBuy
Cost - $28
Capacity - 3 Eyepieces
Adjustable - Yes

Focus - Adds 1-inch of Back Focus
Hold Other Equipment - Yes. Camera, eyepieces with filters