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Stars Galore
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Hi I'm Joe Cahak and this is my wife Beth
We live in Ramona in the San Diego County foothills. The skies are dark and clear most of the time. I have a wide open back yard with a nearly full view of the ecliptic. I have great skies for meteor watching. I had a terrific view of the Leonids 2001 & 2002. Wife Beth and I went to the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference again this year and had a good time. There were some interesting telescopes and sizes. We had a booth at it this year to sell and promote AstroCalculator. We actually made some money. Next year we will have the just finished OptiCalculator and maybe the new RF Calculator.
Email me: SunshineDesign@cox.net Riverside Telescope Makers Conference
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I live in the Valley of the Sun - Ramona, Ca
The San Vicente Valley is well shielded from the coastal town lights and we get great views from my back yard. This view overlooks the valley from the ridge of Simon Park. I developed and got accepted the Park use plan and trails. My house is in the lower right. What a view. I hike this a lot and enjoy it Parks Dept. may let me setup star parties on the peak if I get good interest..
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| Telescope | Binocular and Mounts | |
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8" Meade LX10 Schmidt-Cassigrain Telescope
New camera mount for telescope. Now I can track the star field.
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20x80 Binoculars with Tripod Mount
20x80 Binoculars with All View Binocular Mount
Mount built for viewing from standing, sitting and reclined positions. Allows me to see high angles of view which the tripod mount cannot do.
See more on mount design plans for sale
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Camera Canon 10D |
Ecliptic Finder I just made this beauty. Even I was surprised at the overall look and feel for the final instrument. I can add a magnetic compass and spot level to top it off.
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| Telescope Accessories |
FloobyDust |
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Battery Box
Lens Case
Color Filter Box
These are all custom hand built by and for me. Thanks to my daughter Chandra for the color lens.
I finally got the eyepiece
projectors I need.
Focusing Aid
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AstroCompass I found this beauty at a garage sale and got it for $15. Even had a nice hardwood custom case with it!! I just finished resurfacing it recently.
Metal Detector for Meteor hunting More coming soon.... Telescope night lighting with LEDs for hour and declination angle viewing Solar Telescope Web Cam imager
OptiCalculator has been out for about a year now. Currently I am working on an RF/Microwave Calculator to compliment my work on my day job.
I also met one of OptiCalculators main reference books authors. Great guy and I sent him a copy to review and comment on. See promo below. Excellent reference book and great author.
Astrophotography for the Amateur by Michael Covington Cambridge Press ISBN: 0-521-25391-8
I really got the bug to finish the OptiCalculator after I traded in the SAC7 imager I got for a Canon 10D. I just didn't seem to get good results with the SAC7. OPT took it back full price and let me trade for 10D.
I also met with Dennis Mamanna who is a local Amateur Astronomer of some fame. www.skyscapes.com He was a great guy and fun to meet.
Astronomy magazine just ran a promotional on my AstroCalculator product. www.AstroCalculator.com in October 2004 issue. Sky and Telescope ran it in April 2004. We should see them both run a promo for OptiCalculator this winter. I am pleased to see sales are stating to pick up and the feedback has been very positive.
Recent Project a pocket sundial
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Pocket Sundials I made for my brothers
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Microscope
I got this beauty for $20!! A set of lenses, a case hand built by me shown right side, a light source and this baby was in action. This was a professional grade microscope for $20! Wow! How could any aspiring scientist turn that deal down.
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Microscope Box
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| Some of my favorite AstroPhotos downloaded off the web. | ||
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Ayers Rock and Leonids 2002
Leonids from Space |
Andromeda Galaxy
NGC6537 Nebula
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Now here are some of mine.
"Latest Project done" Ecliptic Finder. Original design in Sky and Telescope 1992. I made mine with a better circular calendar with equinox quarter lines , month and 10 day divisions. Top and bottom have matching graphs, i.e. the bottom one is mirrored. I also added the gnome for the day of the year reading. Not shown are the small magnetic compass and spot level I have to add to the adornments for the magnetic north reference and level for better alignment. Note the divisions on graph.
Ecliptic Finder in use. First align axis to Celestial North (Polaris) and then turn axis until minimal shadow and then look to gnome and date on wheel top or bottom. Note that the sun then tracks the disk and will cast a minimal shadow any time of day, as contrasted to the sundial where the angle of the shadow in relation to the gnome tells the user the time of day.
"New" - Subluminal Clouds 12-07-2005 Ramona, CA
Minotaur Rocket Launch Minotaur Rocket Launch Sept 22nd at 7:36pm using a Canon 10D at 800ASA, 55mm with a 24-85mm zoom and 6 sec exposure. These also catch the iridescent effect very well from the backlighting of the setting sun. Space Weather and Universe Today both featured this one from me. What a sight....
Iridescent Moon 02/21/2005 My first showing on SpaceWeather on front page of 2/21 to 2/24 2005. I took this on in a break in the winter rains of Feb. 2005. We are breaking rainfall records for Southern California this year. The clouds broke for about an hour or two and it is day before full moon. As the cloud edges blew across the face of the near full moon, it created this full moon bow that shimmered as the clouds passed by. I had to over expose the moon to get the colors to show thru.
A desert Thunderstorm evening of 08/17/2004
most of overall thunderhead group
south end closeup for the highlight.
Moon 07/30/2004 Canon 10D ASA 200 1/4sec
Rising Moon with Earthshine and Venus 9/14/2004
Rising Cresent Moon, Jupiter and Venus
First comet trial still got trails and focus issues... At was Comet Machholz in mid Janurary 2005.
Another Cresent Moon attempt much sharper this time.
Setting December Moon with Earthshine
Sunset Moon rising with Earthshine over Mt Gower red from the sunset.
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