Re: [tlug] [100% off topic] Telescope...

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

bruno raoult wrote:

>I had a dream a couple of years ago: To watch stars & planets... I went
>to US (where telescopes are cheap) but failed to come back with anything...
>I am looking again to buy a telescope. An easy one, GPS and Equatorial
>mandatory, then: I will not spend hours to find stars, I just want to
>enjoy watching them...
>
>Apparently, Celestron and Meade are leaders (price/performance), but I
>am really a beginner, so I am not sure.
>  
>

I'm not involved in star-gazing directly, but I have an acquaintance who 
drives out to Ibaraki (I think he said Ibaraki - either that or... um... 
Fukushima?) every clear weekend for pictures.  He has a telescope that 
tracks the stars during long exposures and then he uses some special 
software to put together the cumulative effect of three or four 
exposures for some really amazing pictures.  (Why not just one long 
exposure? - Apparently an overly long exposure with a digital camera 
produces electronic noise - thus the multiple exposures and the need to 
put them together later in the computer.)  Unfortunately, he's using 
MicroMuck though.....

Lyle