Mtg & Talk: VIRTUAL ONLY

UPDATE: Tonight's meeting will be VIRTUAL ONLY, as Macomb Community College is closed due to inclement weather.

We do a bit of club business early on, then have a major presentation usually put together by one of our members.

Feature
Eyepieces: What We Need to Know
by Gordon Hansen
Typically, both newbies and experienced astronomers in search of their first or next telescope spend a lot of time considering a host of decisions. The decisions can be daunting. Only when it’s home and assembled do we think about what we’re going to insert into the hole in the focuser! Once we gain experience with our hobby two maladies quickly make themselves known: aperture fever (bigger is always better) and why does the person next to me have a suitcase filled with eyepieces and I only have two?
This talk explores the characteristics of an eyepiece to understand how they work and interact with the rest of the optical train and understand the various eyepiece specs and why they are important.
About the Speaker
Gordon has a BS in Metallurgical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration, with Thirty-six years in Product Engineering at Ford.
As a paperboy in Brooklyn NY (1960) he won a cardboard tube Newtonian on a wobbly mount. He looked at the moon and tried a couple of stars, with less than stellar results. Gordon got reacquainted and hooked on astronomy ~2000 when his niece insisted he take a telescope gathering dust in her bedroom. A bunch of telescopes, a case with eyepieces, astro cameras and a backyard dome observatory later is history.
Gordon joined the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club in 2000 and served multiple terms as President, Vice President, and Treasurer over the years and continues to participate with the club’s board. He became interested in astrophotography about twenty years ago. Gordon participated in the Ford Club’s Astrophotography special interest group which transitioned into the Plymouth Astrophotography Club. He currently coordinates this group’s in-person and on-line monthly meetings.
If you would like to present a short talk (5-15 minutes) or a long talk (40-60 minutes) at a future meeting, please email Jonathan Kade at firstvp@warrenastro.org.

The views expressed in presentations are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent, and should not be attributed to, the Warren Astronomical Society.