Lucia's telescope is a 4.5" 4501 Meade Newtonian reflector. She love's it.

Omega Centauri

Globular star clusters are curious objects and are easily within reach of amateur-sized telescopes. They contain tens to hundreds of thousands of stars and range five to fifty kiloparsecs distant. Spherical in shape, hence their name, they seem to be special members of our galaxy. They have been observed around distant galaxies of different structure than the Milky Way's spiral nature, so they are not unique to our galaxy, or our type of galaxy. In this view, taken in the Spring of 1988 with a piggy-backed Nikkor Reflex (catadioptric) 500mm telephoto, North is to the right. Taken from a dark-sky site between Tucson, AZ., and Kitt Peak National Observatory. While this photo was taken with color film, I experimented while scanning an 8x10 print. Using the scanner, I converted the same image to Black and White, as well as enlarged the central region two times, and three times. Recently, I've been researching Globular Clusters and have updated my knowledge of these beasts.

Library

Atlas of Deep-Sky Splendors, fourth edition, Hans Vehrenberg, Sky Publishing, 1983.

I find this book useful. Though the textual content is somewhat dated, it is still useful today. The consistent scale photographic plates show all of the Messier objects, as well as a few other prominent and sometimes unreachable southern objects for northern observers, which makes this atlas very useful to the Messier observer. Also, the scale is consistent for what observers with smaller instruments will see—very helpful for finding these objects the first time.

The Night Sky Observer's Guide, two volumes, Kepple & Sanner, Willman-Bell, 1998.

Split into two volumes, Autumn & Winter, and Spring & Summer, detailed information on the Deep-Sky is available going well beyond the Messier catalog, with drawings from various sizes of telescopes. A wealth of observing information.

Observer's Handbook, published annually, The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Compact in size, and loaded with about the best emphemeral data any observer will need to keep pace with a constantly changing sky.

Uranometria 2000.0, two volumes, Tirion, Rappaport, & Lovi, Willman-Bell, 1987.

Best compromise in finely detailed star charts, and format for use with observing. The limiting magnitude of the atlas matches my 9x60mm finderscope which can be useful in picking objects out in the sky. Second edition soon to be available. The Deep Sky Field Guide contains the reference data, chart-by-chart breakdown by object type, errata/addenda, and overall supplements the Atlases nicely.

The 20-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, Peter L. Manly, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Even if you don't own an SCT, this is a valuable and practical observing guide covering a wide variety of interests. Somewhat dated, still very useful. I had checked this book out of the library, and decided to buy my own copy even before I finished reading it.

Millennium Star Atlas, three volumes, Sinnott & Perryman, Sky Publishing Corporation/European Space Agency, 1997.

If you can afford this atlas, you won't regret it. Just a few examples of what you get for the money: correctly oriented for position angle of galaxy plots, huge scale, more deep sky objects, limiting magnitude of 11 to 11.5!

• Honorary Messier Club certificate #404 for observing all 110 Messier catalog objects,
• certificate #246 for observing the Herschel 400 list,
• certificate #12 of the Asteroid Club,
• and have completed the drawings required for the Sunspotter's Club—I just need to complete and submit the paperwork.

	N 39° 39' W 103° 56' 1B 1A 3A 3B 2B 2A
	Pictured from left to right: Meade 8" LXD500, Starmaster 7" Dobsonian, Meade 10" LX200, Meade 12" LX200, Celestron 11" Ultima, Meade 10" LX200, Orion 6" Argonaut. Oh, you want to know the people ... Michael Brown, Alan Baxter, Fred Wilkins, Brad Gilman, Bill Eareckson, and John Flemming. Date: July 29, 2000.

My observation interests are:

• comets,
• deep sky (primarily, open or globular clusters, and nebulae),
• double/multiple stars,
• lunar & solar eclipses,
• solar system (asteroids, and planets & their moons),
• meteor showers,
• solar,
• wide-field/star clouds (Stellar Associations, Milky Way).