Hello Friend,

    Since it is the chinese calendar  'year of the monkey',   I thought I would offer you a few tips
on demonkeying your telescope.

Now if you look up the word "demonkey" in the dictionary, you are not going to find
it, because I just made it up.

(And perhaps now, it should be added to the Collins dictionary).

However,  there are many ways, your telescope can be monkeyed up (ie misbehaving) and
here are a few tips to avoid that:

1) SCT &  refractor owners:  Always, always use some kind of dew protection system, starting with a simple
    dewshield, and if you live in colder climes,  some  kind of heated dew system to  the frost
    from building up your corrector plate or objective lens.

    I am surpised at how many amateurs do not do this; Over time, you build up residue and stains on your
optics, and that requires cleaning them.  Which is when damage can occur if you are not careful.

Our technician sees this on a repeated basis, and so I am here to remind you.  PROTECT YOUR OPTICS!

2) Reflector & Dobsonian Owners:  One thing that seem's to be consistent here,
     when scopes are handled on a regular basis, is that the collimation (alignment of your main
    mirror and secondary mirror) goes out of whack.

Then you end up with poor quality images. Possibly blaming poor seeing conditions, light pollution
etc.. all the wrong things.

    Solution: Get yourself a good collimation tool, such as the HOTECH
   http://khanscope.com/accessDetails.cfm?productID=2139 
model.

   While it may seem pricey, the fact is that it does a far better job than most of the poorly made ones
    in the marketplace, which may appear to be a good buy initially (but are more of  a 'good bye' to your money).

You will only get really high quality images in your instrument, if the optics are properly aligned.

      Kind of like my sweetie the other day, who is learning to play acoustic guitar, and it sounded like a cat on
a hot tin roof.

Why?

Because her guitar strings were way out of tune, that's why.

I walked over, and  tuned it up, and then what a difference......

Right. That's all for today folks!

Today's class is officially over.

Clear Skies,

Ray Khan