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For those interested in how I came out
with my 20 inch Obsession at the Chowchilla Fair, I thought I’d
provide you with this update.
This was not
my initiation to this type of activity. I’ve been showing family
and friends the “stars” for almost 50 years now. Plus I taught
astronomy at NMSU-Carlsbad using a
Celestron NexStar 11 GPS, and
we took it out twice a week. This taught me that for group
activities, there’s nothing like GoTo
capability and tracking. I’ve also held a few one-telescope star
parties as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. However, this was
my first venture (other than showing my family and a few
friends) with my new Obsession and the general public.
The Fair
started Wednesday and went through Sunday evening, but I only
attended Friday and Saturday from 7 to 11:30. Sundown was at
8:10, so I had plenty of time to unload,
setup and collimate before looking for alignment stars. I have
the ServoCAT/Argo
Navis with the
Powerboard and Stalk, which eliminates the need to worry
the wiring and keeps the public from getting their legs tangled
up in them. The one wire leading into the telescope is the power
cable that enters through one of the
Powerboard feet. I sat my 12 volt power station on the
ground by my car about fifteen feet from the telescope, stuck
down the power cord with duct tape, and forgot it. This worked
much better than I had expected. Not even once did I have a
problem with anyone interfering with any of the telescope
equipment, with one possible exception as I’ll describe below. I
also have the wireless Handpad, so I
could peer into the eyepiece and center the object in the field
of view when necessary, which wasn’t often. My Obsession aligns
and tracks dead on, and I believe it would track dead center
forever if no one touched it. Truly amazing.
Much better than my experience with the
NexStar 11, I might add.
My steel
five-step Cotterman ladder was also
amazing. Adults and children of all ages climbed it, sometimes
to the top without difficulty. Not once did anyone come close to
losing their balance or having some other type of accident. The
handrails make all the difference. I have another aluminum
ladder (from Costco)without handrails for my personal observing, but I have
to admit that when putting up the UTA, I love standing on the
top step of the Cotterman and
steadying myself against the top rails while I center the poles
in the braces. But this is a luxury ladder and not a necessity.
I was
stationed just inside the Fairgrounds front gate. I would
imagine 80% of fairgoers saw my setup either entering or
exiting. I was on a large cement courtyard with more than enough
room. Just to the south was an auditorium where the painting
competition was being held. To the east, I had a vender display
where they sold spa’s and swimming
pools. One of them gave me a hand getting the large base unit
out of the back of my Honda CR-V. To the southeast, and just a
little further away, was a heavy metal rock band. Though at
first I was horrified, I later came to rather enjoy having them
“serenade” us. The loud music seemed to inexplicably sink into
the background. Plus, they brought a lot of teenagers and
aging rockers through my area. To the north was the cyclone
fence, the main gate and row upon row of lights. To the west was
a large courtyard and display building, and beyond this were the
rides, Ferris Wheel, etc. My biggest
surprise was that my green laser pointer, which is such a
magnificent asset on even a bad viewing evening, wasn’t visible
at all. So much so that I had to shine it on the ground to make
sure the batteries weren’t dead.
I had a
constant line of viewers with one or two rather surrealistic
lulls that lasted maybe 30 seconds where I was totally alone. I
estimate something over 400 people total had a look through the
Obsession. The typical response was “Wow!” I had a couple of
three-year-olds who couldn’t be taught how to look into an
eyepiece. I’ve had this problem before, and have not as yet
found an approached to showing them that works; however, I was
actually impressed that almost all of my viewers needed no
coaching. Everyone locked on immediately.
Must have been the eyepieces (see next paragraph). I did
have a couple of teenagers ask me (seriously) if I was going to
shoot something out of the cannon later that evening. This is
not a response I’ve had before. Of course, I was at a county
fair and not a star party. I also had four viewers who were so
overwhelmed by what they saw that they accused me of using a
picture inside the tube. Most viewers were just simply blown
away. “Wow! Wow! This isn’t possible,” they’d say. “Are you sure
that’s Jupiter? This is just so incredible!” “That is really
Saturn? It’s so amazing!” Some had never looked through a
telescope before, but those who had were even more impressed.
For eyepieces,
I used both the Tele Vue 35mm
panoptic and the 22mm Nagler. I’m
really partial to the 35, but the image was better sized in the
22. Still, I plan on selling the 35 (anyone interested?) soon
because I’m purchasing the Tele Vue
Nagler 31. Early in the evening, I
kept it on Saturn, but later on I turned it on Jupiter.
Occasionally I’d turn it on the Moon to listen to the
exclamations. Everyone wants to walk on the Moon. I never made
it to the nebulas or galaxies as I’d tentatively planned. It
would have required a lot more explanation, and with the crowd I
was drawing, I thought better of it. Plus I wasn’t convinced
these dimmer objects would be very impressive with the bad
lighting conditions.
Several times
someone (usually a child) would ignore the “Do Not Touch” sign
just to the right of the eyepiece and grab hold. Several times I
had to re-center. I only had one incident. Quite suddenly the
Argo Navis dropped the alignment and
quit tracking. The red light on the
ServoCAT box was blinking and when I looked at the Argo
it read “FIX ALT REF”. I had everyone step back; I set vertical,
did a two-star alignment and was ready to go in a couple of
minutes. I believe someone turned off the Argo without me
noticing, but I’m not absolutely sure. Anyone ever have an Argo
spontaneously drop alignment? I had a lot of teenagers look at
the Argo as if they’d sure like to get their hands on it.
Otherwise both nights went incredibly well, and both evenings
certainly lived up to all my expectations.
I did it all
for free, and I just hope that somewhere in the multitude that
bothered to take a look was a young boy or girl who will
consider astronomy as a profession, or at least become an
amateur astronomer because of what they saw that one night at
the county fair in the middle of farm country. But even if that
doesn’t happen, many of the adults, some of them getting along
in years, were so pleased to have at last seen something they
never imagined they’d see. They told me so.
One last
comment.
Since I’ve added the Power Board and Stalk, my alignments have
been incredibly accurate. The lateral bumpers on each side of
the rocker box seem to have made a major difference in the
stability of the alignment and tracking. When I align, I get all
zeroes even on the first star (I’ve been using either Pollux or
Castor and Spica). I didn’t expect
that degree of accuracy. |
