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Thanks for your personal invitation to visit this website. I've been viewing for less than a year. First piece of equipment was 12x50 binocs, made my own tripod and swivel head. A friend gave me his old (1974) Edmund Scientific 6" reflector. I collumated it easily and the view beats a couple of scopes that are larger. I've added your site to my links page (http://www.birrendesign.com/rhgpa_links.htm l) the main site for the Reel Hang Glider Pilots Association, of which I'm president. [birds fly to live, I live to fly].

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marvellous

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Haven't you tried John Walker's "HOME PLANET" astronomy program. It's totally free and totally functional and with an open programming architecture, and it's simple to handle, and you reach as faint stars you wish, almost! I can always print a chart (via ord or PhotoShop) to get a nice presentation of my hunting area.. You can download "HOME PLANET" from http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/ (Swiss site, but there is some US mirror site too, i think.) I seldom get the time to observe, nowadays, and light pollution is more and more severe for every year. I live in Gothenburg, Sweden. My telescope is a very little 4,5" Carton, almost a toy, but it has a stable home-made EQ mount, and 7x50 mm finder scope It works well, and the most fabulous view I have had through it so far, was the comet crashes on Jupiter some years ago. I have to travel some 30 km to the east from where I live to se the Milky Way with my naked eye. I would like to buy optics from the S to get bigger aperture, and once I decided to wait until the US$ would cost 6 Swedish crowns.. Now the dollar costs more than 10 Sw. cr.! But anyhow, some day I will realise this... Thanks for Your site! It is always hard to imagine what you can see, and friends who come to look are always somewhat disappointed, as they expect som flashing "Hubble picture". Ake Engstroem

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Just thought I would see what you had . Thanks , Kenneth

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Great idea for a web site. Mike

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Nice web site, very informative, I'll be back!

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Hi, Got your link off Astronomy Digest's site. Read your story and can sympathize with your frustration. I too have crouched in the dark straining to see something, searching way too long and not seeing it. Only to have it pop into view on another night. started out 9 years ago with a 4.5 inch Tasco that had an equitorial mount and a beginner's book of star charts showing stars down to magnitude 6. I still found most of the Messier objects and many NGC objects. I think what happens a lot is we are shown the beautiful multi-colored pictures of the objects as taken (and enhanced) by the big observatories, and that is what we expect to see! My best advice to beginners is Forget About Hubble! Enjoy that tiny faint blue green fuzz-ball for what it is, a plane ry nebula. The last gasp of a dying star. Power up as best you can and use averted vision to see any inconsistancy in the overall density of it. Is it perfectly round or is it odd shaped. Use all the tricks available to you; averted vision, dark adaption, a black cloth over your head or an eye patch (it's dark, no one can see you!). Sometimes a thing will pop into view if you wiggle the scope a little. Study it don't just look at it. I have a bigger scope now and enjoy it very much. Thanks.

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Great site, Thanks