Improvised Equipment

In my quest to collect more equipment for my observation, I managed to come up with some innovative eyepieces. These are not the expensive ones with high quality glass and hi tech stuff. The eyepieces that I was able to salvage has plastic lenses and is of Ramsden design. They were taken from binoculars and were fitted accordingly so that they will slip right in the .956 diagonal.

Here is a picture of the two eyepieces together with the 22mm eyepiece.

I don't know the exact specifications of the two salvaged eyepieces but the one on the far right is an original part of the telescope set. I included it for size comparison.

Here is comparison of the views between the 22mm eyepiece and the large salvaged eyepiece

22 mm eyepiece

big salvaged eyepiece

Here's a view of the eyepiece inserted to the diagonal

Using the big salvaged eyepiece for low power views was great. I used it all night yesterday for the M41, M42 and M44. The smaller salvaged one was great for planetary observation. Saturn appeared crisp and bright. One doesn't need expensive sets of equipment to have great views. All you need is some imagination and do it yourself know how.

A tribute to the moon

Here are some more pictures of the moon taken between February 25 to March 1, 2010. I decided to do this because the moon is ever so present and I have realized that I tend to forget how beautiful the moon is and how I felt when I saw it for the first time using a telescope. Because of greater pursuits like locating planets and deep sky objects, I sometimes forget to turn my scope at one celestial object that will always be up in the sky, ready to amaze the amateur astronomer during their first light. I bet that every first timer would point their scopes at the moon and marvel at its beauty. For that, I make this small tribute to our lovely moon.

The images were taken using a 60mm f/15 achromatic refractor and a decent webcam.
The other photos were taken with a moon filter in place because of the moon's brightness.

Sometimes the moon can be blinding, too!

The moon's craters - eerily beautiful.

The full moon.