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| Amateur Radio and Amateur Astronomy: A Cautionary Tale
[Article] | 09/25/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | I’m guessing most of y’all amateur astronomers know at least a little bit about amateur ("ham") radio. There’s always been a lot of overlap between these t. . . |
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| Do you VMA?
[Article] | 06/01/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | If you’re a Lunar observer, you really oughta. What the H-E Double L is Ol’ Unk goin’ on about now?. . . |
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| Doin’ It the Old-Fashioned Way
[Article] | 06/09/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Your Old Uncle Rod has been doing astrophotography for nigh on 45 years, since that first magical evenin’ when I lined-up the lens of my Argus box camera w. . . |
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| Ethos Mania and the Cost of a Good Eyepiece
[Article] | 10/02/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | I can’t believe how much cryin’, whinin’, and downright bad-mouthin’ has resulted from TeleVue’s release (in batches) of their new Ethos 100 degree apparen. . . |
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| How to Make Your Star Party Almost Heaven
[Article] | 08/06/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Puttin’ few decades of partying under my (ever expanding) belt, however, has taught me a thing or two about the star party game. Dark skies are good, yeah. . . |
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| Is There Cheap and Good?
[Article] | 06/23/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | What is a good eyepiece? I could go on and on all day jawboning that—within the limits of my paltry optical knowledge.. . . |
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| Old 37 Under the Stars with a DSLR
[Article] | 10/05/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | How do you get down to these short(er) f/ls with a Meade or Celestron? You use a focal reducer. Which I do almost always—both f/6.3s and f/3.3s as appropri. . . |
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| Old Go-Tos Made New Again
[Article] | 08/12/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | What’s troubling you, Binky? Your once cutting-edge go-to telescope is yesterday’s news? That formerly artful and elegant LX200. . . |
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| Rod’s Resolutions
[Article] | 01/06/09 | by Rod Mollise
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| | New Year’s Day and Oh My Achin’ Head Time. Again. Your Old Uncle Rod was fairly sensible this year; at least he didn’t run amok or say anything acutely emb. . . |
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| SCT Mythology
[Article] | 08/21/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | There sure are a lotta tall tales floatin’ around about Unk’s favorite telescope design. Some patently ridiculous, some containing at least a grain or two . . . |
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| SCTs: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
[Article] | 11/17/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | This ain’t got nothin’ to do with Sergio Leone’s urpic spaghetti westerns, but his title seems apt to describe the SCTs us amateurs have been . . . |
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| Telescope Anxiety
[Article] | 07/10/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Brothers and sisters, telescope anxiety is abroad in our land. Telescope company anxiety, that is, and us Schmidt Cassegrain fanciers, us bubbas and. . . |
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| The 37-Year-Old Telescope
[Article] | 09/16/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Some Amateur Telescope Making projects are like fine wine. Set them aside for a while, let them mature, and they become sweet. Others? More like Boone’s Fa. . . |
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| The 8-mm Ethos Faces Dark Skies
[Article] | 11/11/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | "Astronomy is a game for the patient." How well ol’ Unk knows the truth of that little maxim. After 43 years in this glorious avocation, I know all too wel. . . |
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| The Astronomer Looks at 55
[Article] | 07/22/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | There is little doubt in my formerly military mind that amateur astronomy may have skewed a little younger back in ‘65. Why do I think that? The Space Race. . . |
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| The Celestron SkyScout: Uncle Rod was Wrong
[Article] | 10/12/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Yeah, despite what you might think (or more likely what I might tell you), it happens. Unk is wrong, wrong, wrong. Now, some folks might say that that is n. . . |
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| The Cost of a Good Eyepiece Redux
[Article] | 04/20/09 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Me? I wouldn’t call myself an Ethos-a-holic, not yet, though I have two and am thinkin’ about a third. I still use other eyepieces. Once in a while. Yes, I. . . |
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| The Good Tasco
[Article] | 07/14/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | The good Tasco? Ain’t that what the bright boys call an "oxymoron?" Wouldn’t you need to be a moron o’ some kind to call one o’ them stinkin’ Tasco, TRASHC. . . |
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| The Guiding Game
[Article] | 09/09/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | How can I adequately describe the pain we used to go through in order to get a fuzzy Kodacolor drugstore print showin’ a smudge that might look a little li. . . |
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| The Laser and Laptop Wars: Star Party Etiquette for Modern Times
[Article] | 10/19/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Until just a little while ago, formulatin’ and enforcing light rules at the average star party was a pretty easy thing to do. You made sure everybody under. . . |
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| The Nights Everything Goes Wrong
[Article] | 09/03/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | In any pursuit, from turnip farming to teaching third grade, there are those times when everything goes to pot.. . . |
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| The Silicon Sky Part 2: Planners
[Article] | 11/24/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | If you’ll recall, we talked about astronomy computer programs a couple of weeks back, specifically amateur astronomy software for observers. Even more spec. . . |
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| The Silicon Sky Part I: Planetariums for PCs
[Article] | 11/09/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Your ol Unk Rod ain’t gonna pretend he’s the most computer-savvy dude out there. What exactly goes on inside them mysterious boxes that set on the desktop . . . |
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| The Trouble with the Magazines
[Article] | 06/30/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | If you’re an American amateur astronomer, you won’t have to ask what I am talkin’ about when I say "the magazines." You know I mean. . . |
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| Those Other Astro Rags
[Article] | 08/26/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | I received quite a bit of comment about and even took a wee bit of heat over a blog entry I did recently, "The Trouble with the Magazines", Sky and Tel. . . |
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| To Set Sail on a Wine–Dark Starry Sea…
[Article] | 06/19/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | You gotta have sails and a rudder. You need stuff, astro stuff. Telescopes, eyepieces, atlases, filters, computer programs—all that wonderful gear you and . . . |
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| Two-and-half Years After the Honeymoon...
[Article] | 05/26/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | With my little ETX 125PE, a.k.a. "Charity Hope Valentine", how are the two of us gettin’ along?. . . |
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| Uncle Rod, I Want to Take Pictures
[Article] | 07/29/08 | by Rod Mollise
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| | Sure you do. You think you do anyway. Despite its very real rewards, astrophotography is still the most frustratin’ way for a beginner—or anybody else--to . . . |
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