| LASS had several guests fron the Ft Worth club at the April observing session. John Dowell (right), President of FWAS, came out to visit and look at the facilities and said he thought we were in "high cotton" as far as a good location, a somewhat dark viewing area and a dog gone good club house. Thanks John. We hope you and more of your friends will join us in some future sessions.
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Tom Moore from FWAS was another visitor at the April gathering. Tom has a locally designed and constructed 20' DOB that I really like. It has a very short focal length as far as DOB's go and that makes it not quite so tall as some of the Discovery and Obsession scopes. But it doesn't alter the view from the eyepiece. We looked at the M-51 galaxy and I must say I have never seen more detail in any of the scopes we normally have here at LASS. Thanks Tom for bringing that big DOB with you. Tom has a place near Bangs Tx. where the skies ae really dark.
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Mike is looking through the finder on his telescope just to see if there are spider webs in it. With such a fine "go-to" scope like his I can't think of any real reason to use the finder scope but it is always nice to have around just in case the battery pack fails. Mike is starting to get a little competition from more of the LASS group in that there are at least two DOB's that are equipped with digital setting circles. They may not be in the same league as Mike's scope but it sure is nice to be able to enter a little information in a computer and have it assist you to the desired target. Now don't be misled--I still like the idea of star hopping to find deep sky objects but I am willing to give in a little.
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This is the first time in the last three months that Scot has not brought his tent and spent the night. I may have scared him away when I told him I might have to start charging rent. Scot likes to make every viewing session an all night affair. He is probably one of the most determined observers we have and when he goes after a target he is like a bulldog. He just isn't going to quit or give up until he finds what he is looking for.
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