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From: jlg@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Cometary Telescopes
Message-ID: <19337@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 21:06:00 EST
Article-I.D.: lanl.19337
Posted: Fri Jan 11 21:06:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 02:56:29 EST
Sender: newsreader@lanl.ARPA
Distribution: net
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 30

Sorry - I tried to send this by mail, but the mailer sent it back.


I have something to add about the telescope selection criterions given in
your summary.  If you are mainly planning to use it to sight cometary
objects, you should consider looking for the lowest f-number telescope you
can find.  Comet tails are VERY faint objects and are spread out over large
areas.  To photograph them well, you need lots of light gathering
capability at low magnification.

The telescope at the Joint Observatory for Cometary Research in New Mexico
(joint project between NASA and New Mexico State University) is a 15 inch
Schmidt camera with a focal length of (I think) 18 inches - that's f-1.2!
When there were no comets we used to photograph quasars for other research.
An exposure of less than 15 minutes was sufficient to see most quasars, as
compared to several hours to several consecutive nights on other, more
conventional scopes.  In addition, comet Kahoutek (which was such a bust
for most amateur observers) was VERY visible in the Schmidt camera.  We
had photographs of 20 degrees of tail visible on most nights.  (Now you
can see the need for low magnification, most amateur telescopes have a
field of view at their lowest magnification of only one or two degrees.
The Schmidt camera had a field of view of 8 by 10 degrees - so even with
it we had to do two seperate exposures to get the whole visable tail.)

For amateur cometary viewing, a rich field reflector scope is probably
your best bet.

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KEEP WATCHING!
						James Giles