Activity

Good news from Gameheaven. At the same time, we (Jeff, Mike Q and I) were able to observe round Venus low over the western horizon from Watson from about 8:40 to 9pm. In binoculars, Dobson and with the naked eye.

About 10 visitors came later. Also two astronomy and physics students, I think from MN State University Moorhead, Emily is from…[Read more]

The Gamehaven Summer Camp outing was well attended by scouts and staff, the latter very accommodating to RAC members.  Lights were off and the camp director’s plan for the activity was just right.  RAC members were given a Gamehaven Summer Camp 2024 patch at the end.  The patch appears in the attached figure, a dark sky meter recording below (t…[Read more]

If you want a crazy bright laser… the one that I bought on Amazon that disappeared was listed as this:

UNBIU Long Range Laser Pointer High Power – Green Laser Pointer Flashlight with Adjustable Focus for Night Astronomy, Outdoor Camping, Hunting, and Hiking – USB Charging

It was only $13. But like I said, I basically treat it like a gun. I…[Read more]

Thanks again for all the great info, I actually just ordered a zbolt green laser pointer,

not the exact one you mentioned. I really like my Orion skyline deluxe green laser pointer,

and I’ll let you know how the z-bolt compares, hopefully the friend I’m getting it for will like it.

Colin

I posted to this thread yesterday, and my comment is not here today. This site is very frustrating. I’ll do it over again.

My favorite pointer is:

https://www.opticsplanet.com/z-bolt-military-pride-green-laser-briefing-pointer.html

I don’t know if you can get it as a non-military pride version or not.

What I like about it is that it has a…[Read more]

I think any of the <$20 options on Amazon are decent options. I’ve been ordering more of the rechargeable types. So far they seem to work OK.

For e…[Read more]

Thanks for the info all.

We haven’t seen a charge on our credit card, so thinking I’ll be okay.

Any suggestions for an alternate green laser pointer?

Colin

Hi Colin,

You are correct. Orion’s website went dark July 31 and they along with Meade (who is another major astronomy equipment vendor being acquired by Orion) is gone too. Very unexpected and surprising since Orion has been perhaps the major supplier for amateur astronomers for decades.

If you have money sent for your purchase, I would c…[Read more]

Upon further review, looks like they are toast.  If they took your money, you may be out of luck.

Wow, hard for me to believe, but they might be going out of business.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meade-and-orion-cease-operations-maybe/

You can do a google search and find other references.

Of course this still requires two logos, one for dark on light and one for light on dark.

Great info. I always thought it was an 11 year cycle but that must be short of what’s happening now.

Josef, thanks for the spell check. I’ve been saying it wrong for years. 😮

And thanks for turning out the light.

Check this out. I got a Cricut for my daughter and I decided to print out a tribute to Dean for my scope. Just added this…[Read more]

Beautiful images of the northwest horizon with crepuscular rays! I added one of them with the crescent Moon to the article about Root River Park.

Terrific Milky Way shot Duane! Nice corpuscular rays. Glad you two had fun at Root River.
I’ve been following solar cycle 25 closely on unmanned spaceflight. I don’t think the cycle has peaked as yet, at least based on sunspot numbers. Check out this link: https://spaceweather.com/images2024/02aug24/sunspotnumber2.jpg

Also, Joseph spotted this… Corpuscular rays shooting upward!

Ooooo….   What scope and mount did you get? Do tell!

I’m thinking the same thing… I want the rig I want and it’s taking forever to get it; but eventually I’ll get there. I keep seeing cheaper compromising equipment for less and I keep ignoring it, but it’s so tempting.

Equipment I need to get to finish my setup: Astro-Camera (preferably the…[Read more]

Here’s the Milky Way shot I took last night:

I was lazy and stayed at my home observatory last nite.  Good skies for sure, so I hope Josef and Duane enjoyed observing at Root River.  I have a new mount and scope and was educating myself on how to operate them.  The mount is the HEQ5 Pro and the scope is the Quattro 150P, all Sky Watcher hardware.  Spent $2000+ of my savings, but hey I’m not…[Read more]