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[erikruud]

I stopped by American Science and Surplus the other day and picked up a schedule for their telescope workshops. I don't know why they don't post this information on their website.

They have three retail locations.

Chicago at 5136 N Milwaukee.
Aug 24th 8-10pm
Oct 19th 7-9pm

Geneva at 33W361 Route 38
Nov 2nd 7-9pm

Milwaukee at 6901 W Oklahoma
Nov 16th 7-9pm.

According to the flyer:
These events are free.
You are welcome to bring your own scope along.

Weather permitting, telescopes will be set up outdoors for all scheduled events during the listed times. In the event of questionable weather, please contact the store for event updates.

Telescope assistance and Training

Our staff will be available one hour prior to the scheduled events to assist you with any difficulties you may have with your own telescope, or to answer any questions you may have regarding telescopes in general.

I went to one of these last year and it was very interesting.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Erik,

I think that the Chicago Astronomer will attend the American Surplus telescope event and make friends with the staff on the 24th of August. And even buy that eyepiece that you got while I am there.

Thanks for posting the data... ;D

[erikruud]

I did get to test the eyepiece out a bit on Friday night. As expected it gives a wider field of view compared to the 12.5mm.

I was getting a bit of distortion as I tried to get Jupiter in focus. couldn't seem to get it to be a perfect dot. I could clearly see three moons. the fourth was too close to Jupiter to make out at 20mm.

It is a two or three element eyepiece. I haven't disassembled the ocular portion yet.

By the way, I had a little trouble finding the eyepiece at the store when I went to buy it. It was not on the shelves with the other surplus optical bits and it wasn't in the case with the new telescope accessories. It was in another case along with the microscope accessories.

I think I may go back and buy another one and either one of the copier lenses or a projector triplet that the have to make a "copyscope".

[erikruud]

There is a good chance that I will be able to show up at A.S. & S. on the 24th.

[erikruud]

We just decided to cancel our trip into the in-laws tonight, so I won't be at A.S. & S tonight.

God only knows if the weather is going to cooperate so i would call the store to confirm that they are going to hold the event as scheduled.

773-763-0313

[erikruud]

OK, Round Two!

I will be at the A.S.&S in Geneva tonight for their Star Party.

www.sciplus.com

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Erik,

The skies were not too too cooporative last night in Chicago, but I would like to hear about your experience in St. Charles.

Fun place, that AS&S!

[erikruud]

The skies were probably a little better out here. There were some high thin clouds that kept obscuring things, but the moved through reasonably fast. We just kept switching targets from the eastern to the western sky.

I did not get specs on the scopes that were there, but most of the people that brought their own scopes had 4.5 to 6 inch reflectors. Two of those had "GoTo" mount and another was on an EQ. The store brought out a 10" Dobsonian and the guy running the show brought out an SCT that I think was an 11 inch.

The two guys with the GoTo's got a lot of help learning how to align and use them from the store staff.

They also brought out a Celestron SkyScout which is a nifty, but expensive, little gadget.

With my scope I was able to get a pretty good look at Comet 17/P Holmes, Capella (I couldn't quite split the binary), and Vega.

With the big SCT, we looked at the comet, the Ring Nebula(M57), The Andromeda Galaxy(M31), Mizar, and Capella.

While I was looking at Mizar through the SCT, I got to see a satellite transit just below the stars.

We had quite a few people stop by to check out the scopes and get advise on buying a scope.

Overall it was a pretty good night.