I recommend getting the widest-field eyepiece that you can get (shoot for a theoretical 1 degree-wide field or larger). With my 10mm eyepiece coupled with a 2x barlow (thus, effectively 5mm), it is hard enough to just get Jupiter or Venus in sight after aligning the telescope with a finder scope. Whenever I try to track satellites, I do it with a 26mm eyepiece, that produces a theoretical 61' wide field (though, in actuality, it's more like 50'). It's still extremely difficult to track satellites with it. I've learned by experience that it is easiest to acquire the satellite at lower elevations (which is when it travels at the lowest angular velocities). It takes awhile to get good at it (and I haven't yet). Practice with planes, they travel at about the same speed, unless you've been blessed by living in a desolate place . I was watching CNN, and Miles O'Brien was reporting live. The usual weekday afternoons dark-haired woman was at the 'desk' (for lack of a better term), and she sounded like it was by some miraculous technology of the new solar panels that you could actually GLIMPSE the ISS !!!!! Like that was something new, and that you couldn't see the ISS until the new solar panels were attached !!! Once all these misconceptions and misinformations stop, then maybe the cable networks will *consider* carrying NASA TV. If NASA TV existed 30-35 years ago, it probably would have received some of the highest ratings on TV. Now, most people wouldn't care. ------------------------------ Jonathan T. Wojack tlj18@juno.com 39d45'N 75d33'W ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 08 2000 - 11:08:37 PST