Dear Amateur Astronomer,

We all lead pretty busy lives these days it seems, and sometimes it can be difficult to find the time to
get your telescope out and actually use it.

My experience has generally been that whenever it is a clear night, I might have something else scheduled for that particular evening . Conversely, those events  don't seem to be happening on Cloudy Nights. I have often wondered why that is.

Or maybe I just notice the cloudy nights more!

Regardless, the key to getting the most use of your telescope equipment is that
it has to be accessible and ready to go without a lot of hassle. So for example, if it is buried in the basement, the odds of you digging
it out and actually using it are actually slimmer. In other words, you might think twice about it, and then it won't happen.

That latest episode of "Dancing with the Stars" or "Dr Who" might grab your attention instead..........

So, having your telescope in a convenient and ready to go location, does make a big difference.
Another factor is the size; Maybe 20 years ago it was no problem to lug out an 90 pound instrument and set it up.
That might not be the case now; in which case, you should consider the possibility of trading your instrument in
for something that is more portable, and might suit your current lifestyle better.

Sometimes, even having a smaller, secondary "grab and go" telescope is a good solution. One that you can literally
set up in minutes, and have a quick look at a Planet, double star, constellation or even the Moon.
I found that to personally be very convenient the other evening, when we had just got in the New 3.7mm TeleVue Ethos
eyepiece, and I was dying to try it out. It happened to be clear that evening, and the Moon was going to be the test object!

I grabbed my  William Optics 132mm apo , which I have setup on a sturdy portable  tripod, the Orion Skyview , took it out, observed with the eyepiecefor about 45 minutes, felt satisfied with the quality of the optics, and overall performance (that was really pushing it at 250x).
Just for fun, I also used a Meade 80mm f6 triplet apo which at 130x was a bit more reasonable. What I like about the Orion Skyview tripod
is that it actually lets me set up the Telescopes side by side, which is a really cool feature!

Being a working weekday evening, I would have thought twice about doing any of that, if I had to take out one of the
heavier instruments I own.

With the wonderful fall skies coming up, be sure to take advantage of some of the observing opportunities that present themselves.

Clear Skies,

Ray Khan

 

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