Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Dec 31, 2011, 10:28 pm
Although we didn’t have many clear nights this December I did manage to get in a little observing time. All of Decembers observations were made with the new Orion astroView 90mm refractor which replaces the Meade DS 90 that was the observatory staple for the past 7 years. We’ll miss the old DS 9...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Dec 28, 2011, 10:03 pm
Brilliant Venus and a crescent Moon lined up in conjunction on the evening of December 26, 2011. This scene was presented to me as I walked out of the grocery store Monday evening on the 26th. As I placed my packages in to my car I remembered that I had left my camera in the trunk from the day befor...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Oct 29, 2011, 11:40 pm
I saw an opportunity a few nights ago when there was a break in the cloud cover to get in a little observing. Since I had just finished repairing a Meade ETX 60AT I thought this was a good time to see how well it performed. I quickly setup the telescope and gave myself 20 minutes to allow my eyes t...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Oct 8, 2011, 6:30 pm
Recently I participated in a public outreach event called the Philadelphia Science Festival Community Astronomy Night. The event was organized by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia where about 8 or 9 telescopes were setup around the city in celebration of Space Week. The event, held on the night...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Sep 6, 2011, 10:00 pm
During the past dark window I had the opportunity to image C/2009 P1 Garradd using my DSLR attached to my AR152 refractor. All these years in astronomy and I never took the time to look at a comet. I know, shame on me. How could I have spent all these years observing and not look at a comet. Especia...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Sep 2, 2011, 6:11 pm
I mentioned on the 90 MilliMeter Facebook page that a few changes were coming to the 90 MilliMeter Observatory and now, a few of those changes are beginning to take place. The first thing you’ll notice is the new look for the website. We thought we would clean it up a bit and make it easier to rea...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Aug 1, 2011, 11:27 pm
There hasn’t been too much of clear skies around here as of late. The last time I was out to do any observing was back in early July. The hobby of astronomy can be a little frustrating with respect to the weather at times. Hot, humid, hazy skies, sometimes the sky is clear all day and you start to...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jun 16, 2011, 7:44 pm
I joined a little online astronomy club about a year ago called StarParty and now it has grown to over 300 members. Most not active but, oh well. There are a few of us that converse with each other fairly often and share our observing experiences and our weather gripes and other things astronomy rel...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jun 15, 2011, 6:32 pm
Well, I guess I can’t go. Thank you to the many readers who asked me to stay and keep blogging about astronomy. I didn’t know I had that much impact. And so, with that, I will keep on keeping on, as they say.   It’s time to go. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But it hasn’t been real fu...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - May 8, 2011, 11:04 am
Finally, after a few nights of testing and learning how to use new equipment, after photographing from several locations, I can say I’ve upgraded the mount from a Celestron CG-4 to an Orion Atlas EQ-G mount. That’s quite an improvement over the manual operation that was standard over the years h...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Apr 11, 2011, 10:24 pm
On April 5th Chesmont Astronomical Society hosted a a star party for one of our local grade schools. The program included an indoor presentation by our club president which covered a brief history of astronomy, how the sky looked tonight, the types of telescopes the students would be looking through...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Mar 16, 2011, 6:36 pm
Gemini is one of the constellations I always turn my telescope to. There’s a deep sky object for every size telescope to see. Like the open cluster M35. I’m not sure of the exact date but M 35 was observed and cataloged between 1756 and 1746 by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux. Charles Messier catalog...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jan 30, 2011, 3:54 pm
Perseus is still in good position in early February, high in the North-West around 9:00 PM EST for Northern mid-latitude observers. Perseus is still in good position in early February, high in the North-West around 9:00 PM EST for Northern mid-latitude observers. Perseus holds a few open clusters f...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jan 9, 2011, 12:54 pm
January 2 I got out with my latest addition to my telescope collection, a Celestron 60mm refractor I picked up from a flea market vendor for $25 bucks. The scope was in poor shape, dusty, dirty optics, the mount falling apart, all the earmarks of a telescope someone didn’t understand. So I fixed i...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Dec 22, 2010, 6:37 am
This was an event worth missing sleep for. It was cold and windy but I didn’t seem to mind. I took a few photos which I still need to process but I do have one for you to look at in the gallery…http://www.90mm.us/gallery/moon-images/. Tweet this!
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Dec 6, 2010, 10:06 pm
Auriga's deep sky targets in this article November didn’t offer many opportunties for me to get out and observe but, I did get out early in the month to have a closer look at some well known Messier’s and NGC objects. This observing run centered around RA 5h 10′ and 5h 40′  and DEC +31° a...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 3, 2010, 4:27 pm
I searched for IC 2149, a planetary Nebula in Auriga a couple of nights ago with my 6″ refractor. I thought that it should appear stellar with perhaps an odd color which would tip me off as to what I was looking at. Much to my suprise I was unable to find it. I tried powers as high as 88x but stil...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Oct 16, 2010, 8:33 am
I got out to observe for a short run a few nights ago. I zeroed in on M34, an open cluster in Perseus, with my 150mm refractor. At 30x M34 is a loose cluster with about 30 stars, at 38x a few additional faint stars are revealed. I always thought M34 looked like someones collection of double stars sp...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Sep 2, 2010, 9:52 pm
A little while back I sent my 6″ refractor out for re-alignment and since it came back the skies have been cloudy here in Southeastern PA. Finally at the end of August we get some clear skies right around the time of full moon. So I wait a few days and at last I get a chance to do a little deep sk...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Aug 2, 2010, 7:01 pm

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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Aug 1, 2010, 6:15 pm
By mid August The Summer Triangle will be well overhead for those of us at mid Northern latitudes (+40°) and perhaps our last opportunity this year to observe some of the more familiar deep sky targets and seek out a few of the more challenging targets for small telescopes. If you’re not familia...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jul 30, 2010, 10:59 pm
Perseid meteor shower Have you ever watched a meteor shower? The Perseids is one of the best to observe. This shower can produce up to 60 meteors an hour at it’s peak which should occur on the night of August 12/13 this year. This year we’re in for a moonless night so viewing will be b...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jul 22, 2010, 10:41 pm

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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jul 14, 2010, 8:36 pm

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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jul 10, 2010, 6:09 pm

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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Apr 8, 2010, 8:45 am

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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Mar 14, 2010, 5:14 pm
Ursa Major holds a few deep sky objects for observers with small telescopes that are visible even under moderately light polluted skies. Bode’s Nebulae, better known as M81 and M82, are two such objects and both are readily visible in a low power eyepiece. Messier 81 was first discovered by Johann...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Mar 14, 2010, 5:14 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jan 28, 2010, 6:01 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jan 28, 2010, 6:01 pm
The Chester County Astronomical Society is bringing “Uncle Rod” Mollise into town March 9th to speak, and we wanted to get the word out to anybody in the area who might be interested in hearing him speak on the Past, Present, and Future of the SCT. He hosts Uncle Rod’s Astro Blog a...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jan 17, 2010, 3:45 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Jan 17, 2010, 3:45 pm
ScienceDaily (2010-01-17) — Researchers of the University of Granada have conducted the most complete analysis of the chemical composition and evolutionary state of a spectral type R carbon star. The presence of carbon is essential for the possible development of life in the universe, and ther...
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 22, 2009, 3:30 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 21, 2009, 4:09 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 12, 2009, 12:39 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 11, 2009, 10:27 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 6, 2009, 7:34 am
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Nov 5, 2009, 8:07 am
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Oct 7, 2009, 6:41 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Sep 30, 2009, 8:08 am
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Sep 29, 2009, 10:39 pm
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Dan A. posted an article on Astronomical Observing with Small Telescopes - Sep 20, 2009, 9:50 pm
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