Yes, I like the Northern Hallo program as well... there seems to be several seemingly identical programs out there. It does seem that the Sterallium app runs alittle smoother when I navigate on my machine.
I did learn about the Red lights and stuff, BTW, Thanks Steve!... and it seemed familiar from all my years in a photo darkroom... and time spent on a certain hippie bus I used travel in :-).
I have yet to take my laptop out for a viewing because of the battery issue etc. but I very much look forward to doing so, especially when I start trying to learn the not so obvious features.
Last night I finally mastered the cheap old Equatorial mount I have borrowed. I did some maintenance on it yesterday and last night it worked well.
I'm starting to be able to move around with purpose and actually find what I'm looking for.
We couldn't help ourselves and spent a long while at hi magnification on the moon and then we went and found the Orion Nebula which I finally got to look at at high magnification now that the EQ mount works acceptably.
I've been wanting to do this for a few years.... and this is our best season for clean air... so I'm very enthused to have finally taken the time to sit still and look up.
Thanks again for all the tips and encouragement.
I am about to pull the trigger for a cheap 10" Dobsonian... but I'm starting to enjoy the EQ mount a bunch... I'm wondering how stable and steady a cheap Dobsonian is compared to the shaky 4" reflector rig I'm using currently. I love to get something stable and I'm not ready to buy an expensive mount.
best regards,
mike
post edited by mike_mccue - 2009/02/02 08:33:03