July 20, 2007
For the July 20 club meeting, John Kirchhoff, of Rider’s Hobby Shops in Livonia, gave his annual “Goodies Show.” This is the time that John shows us telescopes, eyepieces and other astronomical products. This year the meeting was held at Sherzer Observatory (on the campus of Eastern Michigan University).
Among the items shown were Sky & Telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger W. Sinnott and Sky and Telescope’s Sky Wheel.
Riders Hobby Shops has a new line of equipment made by William Optics.
There were a variety of eyepieces including an Orion Q70 26mm, several William Optics models (200mm, 7.5-22.5mm zoom, 16mm, 40mm and 6mm), a Telvue 8mm, and a Televue 24mm.
John had a Celestron Sky Scout (this is a device that you point in a particular direction and it tells you what object is in that direction), a Coronado PST, a Vixen Portamount, William Optics 10×50 ED Binoculars, a William Optics 90mm f/7 and a Binoviewer 66mm f/5.9.
He also had a William Optics Zenithstar 66 SD. There is an article about the Zenithstar, see “New Equipment Review—William Optics Zenithstar 66 SD” by Clayton W. Kessler, April, 2007.
In addition, there was an Orion EZ Finder Deluxe, an EZ Touch Tripod, a Skypod Alt-Az mount, a TeleGizmos Solar Scope Cover and an Astrozap Dew Heater for a 4 inch Telescope
After the meeting, there was pop and pizza.
The club then when up to the roof. However the club had been more interested in eating than observing. The sun had set before we got to the roof, so it was not possible to test out the PST. The photo above was taken from the roof and shows the observatory dome.
