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Old timer at Kitt Peak showed me why my star photos were always blurry
I was struggling with focus on my telescope for months and this retired astronomer walked over and said 'your mirror is still warm from the car trunk' - spent the next 20 minutes explaining thermal equilibrium. Has anyone else had a random stranger save your whole night of shooting?
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aaronroberts16d ago
The thermal equilibrium thing is real. I drove three hours to a dark site one time and spent the first two hours wondering why everything looked soft. A guy camping nearby asked if I'd let the scope cool down. I hadn't even thought about it. He said the mirror needs at least 45 minutes per inch of aperture to match the air temp. Now I set up before sunset and let the tube sit there with the dust cap off while I eat dinner. Makes a bigger difference than any expensive eyepiece ever could.
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jana50916d ago
Honestly people act like a little tube current is ruining their life but most of the time you can still get a perfectly good view if you just wait an hour or so. It's not like the mirror is actively melting.
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dakota_miller9316d ago
Tube cool down is way more critical than people give it credit for. It's free performance, why wouldn't you do it?
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