WatsonWorld Astronomy

WatsonWorld Astronomy Page

After years of gazing with a home-built (not by me) Dobsonian, we took the plunge and bought a 10" Meade LX-50 . We love it!! What a difference quality optics make. (Meade no longer makes the LX-50 series.) The only problem is the thing weighs about eighty pounds. I used to drag my lightweight Dob out all the time, but the Meade is a lot of work to set-up. Needless to say I wasn't getting out as much. Then came Mary's birthday and I was faced with the annual dilemma of what to get her. One evening when I.... I mean she..... was really wanting to go out observing it came to me. I ordered her a Tele-Vue Pronto for her birthday!! She was....uh....elated, yea that's it, elated. She hadn't been that happy since I spent a bunch of money building her a mighty fine Target Rifle. But that's another story. Anyway the Tele-Vue is fantastic!! Our first high quality refractor. We keep it right by the back door, and use it all the time. Exceptional optics and convenience. I guess what I'm saying is, if your looking to buy a nice scope think about weight and set-up time. We still love the Meade. We use it mostly on weekends or when my brother-in-law Peter comes and helps with the set-up. The two scopes compliment each other well, but now I can't afford the stuff I need for astro-photography. Mary's got another birthday coming up tho.........

If you spent all your money on your computer, there's plenty of star-gazing to be had on the Web.
One of my favorites is The Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can see planetary images or deep sky objects all over the web. If you'd like to find out what you can see from your backyard tonight or in the future check out Sky & Telescope magazine on-line.
If you can't find what you're lookin' for in those, there's always Yahoo .

One of these days, we'll have the WatsonWorld Observatory. When we do I'll publish some original pictures on this page. Like I always say, work hard, save your money and you can have anything you want. If it doesn't kill ya first.

Mary's Favorite

The Pleiades

This photograph of the Pleiades comes to us courtesy of The Bradford Robotic Telescope in Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. This is probably the coolest link known to mankind. You make the telescope work for you. Check it out!!

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