Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Actual Astronomy: Listener Emails and Christmas Presents
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/ ; https://www.deepskyeye.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents Listener Emails and Christmas Presents. We talk about several items listeners received as well as what other people are doing under the stars.
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
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Transcript:
Listener emails and Christmas Presents on Episode 466 of the Actual Astronomy podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for everyone who enjoys going out under the stars.
Shane, next time we record we’ll tackle a non-astronomy topic and are looking for input from listeners about …well…maybe you can explain it.
I’ve got new glasses coming, they are making some mods based on my feedback from the last set. My GSO $80 2” 2x Barlow arrived after almost 2 months in the mail system.
Email from Alejandro:
Hi Chris and Shane,I hope all is well with you. Long email ahead.
I stepped away from the hobby last year due to other things (two bands, for instance), but after taking a casual look at Venus in November, I was hooked once again. Since then, I’ve been adjusting a few things, equipment-wise and going out to the backyard every clear night I can.
Telescopes
I sold two refractors I had, which were not getting used: Celestron PowerSeeker 80AZS and Celestron Omni 102. I also sold an equatorial mount with tripod, which I purchased to learn how to use it. I did learn, and after that, it sat in my garage.
Selling these made room for a new scope: Apertura AD12. Now, I have the OneSky by Astronomers Without Borders (5 inches), Apertura AD8, and Apertura AD12 (which I got used at a great price).
All dobs, all manual.
The scope was in decent shape but needed some love. All the knobs were very tight! The altitude bearings, the focuser, the clips that hold the mirror, everything. I adjusted things accordingly. The slow-motion knob was missing, so I made one out of cork. It works.
I couldn’t believe the views with the AD12 the first night I took it out to my backyard (Bortle 7-ish). I saw details on Jupiter that I hadn’t seen before (features/lines in the central belts). Open star clusters were much brighter than ever before. I saw NGC 1535, Cleopatra’s Eye (planetary nebula) with a distinct blueish hue. I saw the Pleiades like never before, also with a blueish hue around the stars. Wow!
Here’s the list of the objects from that first session:
Double Cluster
ET/Owl Cluster (NGC 457)
M31
M52
M45
NGC 1535 (Cleopatra’s Eye)
M42
Jupiter
Lots of star fields around Cassiopeia and Perseus
Needles to say I went to sleep that night with a smile on my face.
Last night I was out again. I looked at M42, Jupiter, M41, M35, and after looking at M35, I scanned the area and found NGC 2129. Beautiful.
Eyepieces
I sold a few I had in storage and got the following: Explore Scientific 82° 11mm (great performer), Explore Scientific 52° 4.5mm (tighter FOV and the conditions really need to cooperate for this one), and a Celestron Ultima Edge UFF 24mm (another great performer). I want a low-power eyepiece for the 12-inch. Currently, my low-power is the ES 68° 28mm, which is great for the AD8, but things get tighter with the AD12. I’m in between the Astro-Tech 28mm UWA (82°) and the APM/Sky Rover UFF 30mm (70°). Not in a hurry, though.
This is my current eyepiece lineup, which I love:
ES 28mm (68°)
Celestron Ultima Edge 24mm (65°)
Tele Vue DeLite 18.2mm
ES 11mm (82°)
Pentax XW 7mm
Astromania planetary 5mm (58°)
ES 4.5mm (52°)
I also have a set of Plössls: 32mm Celestron Omni, 20mm GSO, and 15mm and 9mm generic.
Here’s is a family pic of the scopes and a pic of the knob I made out of cork.
Clear skies to you!
Adam
Hi Chris and Shane, merry Christmas and happy new year. I hope you are having clearer weather than us (though you can keep your temperatures).
I got some money for Christmas so I decided to buy Burnham’s celestial handbook, the 2nd volume is already here so am just waiting on the other 2. As I hadn’t heard of it until you mentioned it on your podcast, I feel like it’s your fault and I’ll be sure to send you an invoice haha.
Also, a few months ago our observatory’s book club had a trip out to a private library in Nottingham and they had some astronomy themed books out for us to look at. I’ve taken a picture of one of the pages of one of the books that has a now defunct constellation which I just thought was cool.
Clear skies, Adam
Hi Guys,
Happy New Year.
I received two cool astronomy gifts from my wife. Book markers and a new book.
Also, I have been working on understanding guiding better with my setup. Here are two images that have turned out pretty well – Dumbell and Crab Nebulas.
The Off Axis Guider by Celestron works much better than a guide scope/camera. And I found out that for long focal lengths this is the way to go. Even though I am using a planetary camera ASI585mc using darks and bias have helped tremendously. As does flats to remove dust bunnies. What I really enjoy is the abiltiy to image in Bortle 8 city skies. What a treat technology can bring to us amateurs in the backyard. I am not much for the cold so this winter will be more imaging than observing but I do hope to have a few nights observing.
I believe Shane was pondering the AM5 mount and I can say that it works great with the ASIAIR+. As I am getting older it is very nice to grab this setup and move to the garden. Probably later in life I will separate the mount from the OTA but even then it will be light enough.
Happy New Year,
Stan, Philadelphia, Pa USA
Chris Wrote:
Hi Chris and Shane,
Wishing you both a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.
Catching up…
Was given a 10” Meade SCT that I am going to de-fork and mount on my Rowan AZ100. The rail finally showed up yesterday so I’ll have a Christmas project before I go back to work on the 2nd.
I finally sold all my DeLite eyepieces that I won at NEAF. Everyone got a great deal, and I was able to buy a Daystar Quark Chromosphere with the proceeds. I’ve been able to use it once so far and the image is terrific.
Our club met our fundraising goal to replace our 20-yr old dome observatory with a ROR. It will at minimum house our 14” and 16” SCTs. Chris, I’ll write back to ask you some questions from your experiences.
Got my Observers’ Handbook and bought a second copy to donate to a club member. When things settle down, I’ll be sure to read your contributions.
That’s all for now, hope Santa brings you something…astronomical.
Enjoy,
Chris k.
Another Chris had written over the holidays:
Good morning, Chris. Thank you for your ongoing contributions to the community during 2024! The Actual Astronomy Podcast remains a highlight of my audio feed, and your work for the RASC is also much appreciated. Due to the postal strike, City Lights only recently received our 2025 calendars and handbooks. Skipping ahead in the latter to the fabulous “Featured Star Field” has inspired a dive into the splendors of Perseus, where many of the highlighted targets were previously unknown to me. In this effort, I’m employing a fine set of tools recently acquired from fellow club member Paul: a Tele Vue Genesis-sdf 100mm f/5.4 on a DiscMount-4 with pier extension and Nexus DSC. Vast expanses are revealed with this scope using 12mm and 31mm Naglers, so I’m threading on Hβ and OIII filters to work back through your “Wide-field Wonders.” By getting outside on clear nights, reading voraciously, and listening to mentors, I’ll eventually become less of a dilettante with “all the gear and no idear.”
May you and yours enjoy a peaceful 2025 filled with delight and wonder. Please relay my regards to Shane.
Merry Christmas,
Chris
Tim Wrote:
Hey guys, I just finished episode 461 of the podcast and man, that one hit home. I can definitely relate to Shane’s comment on lack of energy. If I had one obstacle looming large over the others it would be that. I work a warehouse job 10 hours a day for 4 days a week, throwing around 25 to 50 pound boxes all day long starting at 5:30am. While that gives me ample time to fill my head with Actual Astronomy, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and a couple F1 podcasts, I’m sure you can imagine how drained I am when I get home everyday, and despite having 3-day weekends the wear and tear on my body from the entire week often leaves me too tired to want to haul out all of the gear and drive 30 minutes away, even on my days off.
A combination of driving distance and light pollution are my other big factors, for sure. Living in St. Louis, a city of 3 million people, I have to get a ways away from the light dome to get some decent skies. My normal site is a half hour outside the city, but it’s still a bright bortle 5 and the entire eastern sky is practically un-observable due to the amount of light being emitted. My new-to-me site is significantly darker, nearing bortle 3, but it’s a 90 minute drive for me which just takes that much more energy and some planning as there are exactly zero facilities out there.
Luckily, I have a very supportive wife, who on several occasions has almost literally kicked my butt out the door on a particularly clear night when I may have otherwise been on the fence. Maybe they just wanted a night to themselves but hey, it got me more time under the stars, so I’m not complaining.
That’s just my 2 cents on a rather relatable episode. I was really pleased to hear that doing the podcast has enabled you guys to substantially increase the amount of observing you do, it serves as strong inspiration to get myself out as often as I can. Keep on chatting, keep looking up, and I’ll catch you guys again soon.
Clear skies!
Tim from St Louis.
P.S. I don’t know if it’s just me but when I went to listen to this episode I was getting no audio on Spotify or YouTube. The file on your website played fine, but it seems there could be an issue on other platforms. Hopefully not the case, but I just wanted to give you a heads up. Cheers guys!
Concluding Listener Message: Please subscribe and share the show with other stargazers you know and send us show ideas, observations and questions to actualastronomy@gmail.com
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