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~LastVigilante:iconLastVigilante:

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  • Deviant since Sep 21, 2004, 10:13 AM
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Naperville Astronomical Association

Journal Entry: Wed May 21, 2008, 3:05 PM
After a month of trying to attend public events held by the local astronomy club, the Naperville Astronomical Association, only to have them clouded or rained out, last night I finally got to do some "serious" stargazing with them. The weather gave it a good shot to shut us down, but after a slow moving rain cloud passed over at 8:30 we finally got clear skies!

And boy howdy, they've got quite the setup at their observatories. In their dome observatory they've got a nice 10" Newt that is a bit of a Frankenstien. For instance, the counterweights are made of old brake drums from a truck! I got my first view of a double-star through that scope.

The crown jewel is their other observatory, which is a custom built 12.5" Newt, which, alone isn't much worth writing home about, except they've converted it solely for video viewing. The signal is piped to multiple TVs in both observatories, so many people can view at once. When they fired that thing up I couldn't believe my eyes. They were pulling up galaxies left-and-right that filled the whole TV screen. M51 (Whirlpool galaxy) looked like it was right out of the books, dust detail and all. This system cuts through the worst of the light pollution that plagues the area.

When my jaw wasn't dropped to the floor, I was able to talk to some guys who really know their stuff about my current itch to buy my own "real" telescope. One of the members actually grinds mirrors himself, he created the 12.5" for the observatory and supposedly is working on a 24".

Through talking with some of the guys, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I'm going to buy Orion's 8" XT Classic Dobsonian. I originally was looking at EQ mounted scopes, Newts and Mak-Cass, and I still havent 100% made up my mind, but a Dob is starting to seem like the sensible choice for backyard viewing in my situation. If I ever want to do more serious observing, I can just look forward to another event with the astronomy club! And hey, just this morning I went online to find that Orion dropped the price of their 8" Dob down $70, so what more of a sign do I need?!

  • Mood: Wow!
  • Listening to: Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip

Devious Information

  • Current Age: 25
  • Current Residence: Aurora, Illinois
  • Interests: Hot Rods, Classic Cars, NASA, Astronomy
  • MP3 player of choice: Jailbroken iPod Touch
  • Shell of choice: My pet box turtle's, she's a mealworm killa'.
  • Favourite game: Tomb Raider, Driver, Max Payne, Call of Duty
  • Favourite gaming platform: Playstation 2, Playstation, PC, Nintendo, Atari 2600
  • Favourite cartoon character: Harvey Birdman
  • Personal Quote: Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!
  • Tools of the Trade: 1-Shot, Mack brush, steady hands

deviantART Notice

Devious Comments

~drexel1015:icondrexel1015: Apr 16, 2008, 12:00:33 AM
i have a 58 nomad for sale! hit me up if you're intrested
~rankinstudio:iconrankinstudio: Apr 12, 2008, 3:38:24 PM
Thank you :)

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If it had no beginning, it has no end.
~Hepcat-Pinstriping:iconHepcat-Pinstriping: Mar 9, 2008, 10:17:05 AM
Thanks for watchin' Daddy-O.
~allesondrar:iconallesondrar: Feb 16, 2008, 2:41:21 PM
That's so cool! You went to the Dominican?! Thats sweeet!
Sorry about the rough waters, when we went it was clear as day (as you could see). hope you had fun anyway =D

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*quicksimon:iconquicksimon: Dec 1, 2007, 3:13:19 PM
yeah man, Iceland is really stunning!! I hope santa brings it to you ;)

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We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes" - Richard Dawkins
~LastVigilante:iconLastVigilante: Nov 29, 2007, 4:56:57 PM
They were in Chicago here a month or so ago, I didn't but my sisters went to see them. I went a year ago with my sisters and they put on an awesome show.

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~LastVigilante:iconLastVigilante: Nov 29, 2007, 4:55:36 PM
Ah geeze, I'm just now seeing your comments, I hate how DA doesn't notify me of new profile comments...

No, I don't have the DVD yet (Christmas list item!) but I have heard the "new" CD, quite awesome. The DVD trailer does make me want to live in Iceland for the rest of my life though. :)

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*quicksimon:iconquicksimon: Nov 23, 2007, 4:50:40 PM
hey man, forgot to say, gonna watch Interpol next week !! :D

--
We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes" - Richard Dawkins
*quicksimon:iconquicksimon: Nov 23, 2007, 4:42:20 PM
How ya doing m8? Have you got the new sigur ros dvd? It's AWESOME :D

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We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes" - Richard Dawkins
~koffeekeg:iconkoffeekeg: Oct 2, 2007, 4:57:59 PM
Still making cars look like sex I see! And no, I don't live in Canada. As much as I hate this country, I have to live in it to bitch about it. :)
~The-Original-Striper:iconThe-Original-Striper: Sep 24, 2007, 2:17:33 PM
Goodguys show in joliet was pretty good on saturday. Lots of cars and stuff.
I went to rockn rodz last year...and wasnt too impressed, so i didnt bother going this year. but hunnert is pretty cool

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The one, The only.
~LastVigilante:iconLastVigilante: Sep 24, 2007, 2:07:12 PM
I didn't even know about Hunnert, but now I really want to go! Consider it penciled in to my schedule!

I was thinking about going to Joliet this past weekend to check out the GoodGuys show at the Chicagoland Speedway, but went to a show in Cantigny instead.

The last show I went to before that was pretty kickass was the Rock N Rodz on 66 down in Bloomington.

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~The-Original-Striper:iconThe-Original-Striper: Sep 18, 2007, 2:08:15 PM
the good car shows.... Tuesdays in Addison - Fuddruckers.
wednesdays in Elmhurst.
Friday Downers Grove Classic Car Show & up by meiyers in rolling meadows...then saturday at down town lombard.
lol.
You going to Hunnert oct. 13th????

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The one, The only.
~ubermustang:iconubermustang: Sep 5, 2007, 8:35:27 PM Mood: Love
Thanks for the add...much appreciated
~ubermustang:iconubermustang: Sep 4, 2007, 7:07:01 PM Mood: Love
Nice gallery.Great mix of subjects
~Mingus74:iconMingus74: Sep 4, 2007, 1:45:19 PM
thanks for add.... and remember "keep the rubber side down"

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•eat money•
~Go-Baby-Go:iconGo-Baby-Go: Aug 26, 2007, 9:39:16 AM
thanx for The add Bro! :clap: =D

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=AntiBling:iconAntiBling: Jul 25, 2007, 1:13:52 PM
Thanks for the add.

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~426maxwedgie:icon426maxwedgie: May 29, 2007, 7:28:08 PM
Today Is DEVfriend Day.
Send This To All Your DEVFriends, And Me If I Am 1.
If You Get 7 Back You Are Loved!

1-3 you're a bad DEVfriend
4-6 you're an ok DEVfriend
7-9 you're a good DEVfriend
10-& Up you're a great DEVfriend

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~flying-polock:iconflying-polock: Mar 31, 2007, 9:07:06 AM
Thanks so much for the nice comment!
You've got some great photographs in your gallery!

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~jokerman61:iconjokerman61: Mar 29, 2007, 4:12:12 PM
thanx for the fav on "STREET WIZARDS" :D

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"in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand"
=kkart:iconkkart: Jan 30, 2007, 4:59:39 PM
Just a swingin' on by to say thank you for the recent :+fav: I appreciate the support! :cowboy:

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~ROB0TH0USE:iconROB0TH0USE: Jan 29, 2007, 7:14:44 PM
Thank you for the watch, sir!
`CapnSkusting:iconCapnSkusting: Jan 1, 2007, 10:00:04 AM
Happy New Year!
:ahoy:
Anybody seen my brain? Lost it somewhere between last night and this morning....

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