Kim F. Smith
My Astronomical Drive
I am an Amateur Astronomer. A real newbie. When it rains, I stay inside and program in python or for my Hewlitt-Packard HP20S Calculator. I've seen precious few practical Astronomy programs for either python or the HP20S calculator so I decided to roll my own, imperfect, probably buggy programs for general release for other amateurs.
Why these programs?
These programs will not replace your detailed planetarium programs such as RedShift, KStars, and others. When I get home, I have limited time and energy. I want to know what's out in the sky above me now! With these programs, I get a text readout very quickly, usually on the order of seconds after I've entered in time and date. You can "hardcode" your own latitude, longitude, and GMT offset if you wish. The Moon and Sun programs tell me the altitude and position of the Sun and Moon as well as moonphase. I also have a version of that program "in development" which has an accurate time for sunrise/sunset at middle latitudes, but I need to work out the exception handling and algorithims for arctic/antarctic geographical locations before I feel comfortable in releasing it. Also, I have yet to start on the moonrise/moonset portion, which is much more involved. I am trying to build a program you can take anywhere on this planet and be accurate to within 2 minutes of arc on positions and a minute or two on time for Sun, Moon, Planet risings and settings using the python interpreter in any free linux distribution. I am happy with the position accuracies and so those versions; one for the Sun and Moon position, the other for the formally recognized planets (PlanetPeek) - are located here in python files. Since Geocities will not let me store them with the *.py extension, for obvious security reasons, you must download and save them as *.txt files and then resave them with the *.py extension. I've tested the same python scripts with linux, Fedora Core 5 - standard "development" installation, and with Windows 95, Second Edition, with the Python for Windows shell, "Idle" installed. I wanted to make sure these programs are easy to run and give you what information you need in a hurry to plan your quick look at the planets. I then usually find which targets I want to look at, go to RedShift 5 and print out a reversed and upside down chart at about 30X magnification, which is how I spotted Neptune at magnitude 10+ on my small Newtonian - a 4.5 inch mirror at 910mm fl, at the very limits of it's aperture capability for an inexpensive telescope. But I do use the best eyepieces I can afford, often more expensive than the telescope was originally!
My Goals
I made a promise to myself - I would not purchase another telescope until I've really learned to master finding objects and planets with this one, a Celestron FirstScope 114 (114mm or 4.5 inch mirror). For ease of use, especially for these presbyopic eyes like mine, I replaced the finderscope with a green laser pointer. I've found it to be much faster, just as accurate, and less confusing than using a 4X or 6X finderscope! I then use a 42mm Celestron Ultima eyepiece (about 21.7X mag.) to help "center", turn on the equatorial motor, and keep a good center with the remaining Ultima eyepieces, 12.5mm (72.8X), and 5mm (182X) till I get what I want. I've been very happy with both the telescope and especially the premium Ultima eyepieces. I've often found the viewing with the 42mm eyepiece (21.7X) to be the most satisfying because of it's clarity and sharpness as more desirable that a "blurrier" close-up view! Often, the 42mm is all I take in the field at times. I also have learned to accurately collimate my own scope as well. I've made a few minor additions to the RA and Declination knob/cables - I added a paper overlay on the ends at the knurled setscrew end, one for minute tickmarks on the RA (10 min to a rotation) and degree tickmarks (2 per rotation) on the Decl. Finally, a set of two small, picture-frame, spirit levels epoxy glued on the tripod base. After all, I want to get leveled quickly, find and set-up the equatorial alignment quickly, find a known bright star with RA and Declination values verified, set the RA circle with the known star RA value, and then immediately find the night's target RA and Declination while I still have a good RA value. I could purchase a computer aided telescope and "punch-in" where I wanted to look at but how would that help me in actually learning how to find and observe these objects? What skill is there in throwing money at something that takes the satisfaction away from acquiring the skills to take a $300 telescope and find the same object with the same clarity as the $1500 computer-aided one?
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