Editor: Kris Cerone

GoTo A Starry Night:
Local Astrophysicist Talks Telescopes at Joint OASIS/SBAS Event

By Steve Bartlett

Noted author, astrophysicist, and space engineer Mike Weasner discussed tips and techniques for the newest generation of GOTO telescopes at the El Camino College planetarium on April 4. Weasner entertained a joint audience of OASIS and South Bay Astronomical Society (SBAS) members from throughout the Los Angeles region with stories of fun and frustration with the new technology.

Mike Weasner demostrating telescope operations. Photo courtesy Steve Bartlett.

GOTO telescopes are computer-driven instruments that allow the user to enter a location in the sky or a specific astronomical object into a handheld keypad and the telescope will zoom in on that spot. At least, that's the theory, assuming that the telescope has been set up properly, aligned with True North, leveled, had the time set correctly, and had its correct coordinates on the Earth's surface entered. If these things haven't been done, the computer can't tell the telescope where to point. Weasner provided the audience with numerous useful suggestions on how to do each of these critical steps quickly and easily.

"Don't get hung up on perfect alignment," he remarked. "Keep it simple and fun and don't get frustrated."

He pointed out that the user can often get by with a coarse initial alignment by pointing the telescope at the rough area of True North, then commanding the computer to point toward a well-known astronomical object, and, if the object is off-center, entering corrections into the computer to center the object in the telescope's crosshairs. He addressed the different GOTO telescopes on the market, their various modes of operation, the various types of telescope mounts (e.g., Altitude/Azimuth, fork, German equatorial, strike), and the effects of computer software updates to telescope operation.

Weasner's book, Using the Meade ETX, is a popular text on the Meade Corporation's line of GOTO telescopes. His website includes hundreds of pages of tips, photographs, examples, and stories of amateur astronomy in the Los Angeles basin. He served as an A7 fighter pilot in the Air Force, as well as a project engineer on the Space Shuttle. He currently works at an aerospace company in the South Bay area.

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