On Friday, July 3 is the OCA “How to use your telescope” session.  Due to COVID-19, we will not hold this class at the Heritage museum in Santa Ana.   Therefore, OCA will host a virtual class using the program Zoom.  The class will consist of several telescope live demos and then open up to anyone to talk about their telescope issues.   This can be either a verbal question or a live showing of the telescope and the problems or questions about it.

I am requesting OCA volunteers who would like to assist by hosting a live 10-15 min talking session from their home about “How to use a telescope” for one of the following scope types;

1) Dobsonian, no encoders

2) Motorized Newtonian or refractor (not go-to)

3) Go-to Alt-AZ

4) Go-to Equatorial

If you would like to volunteer, please contact David Pearson at p.davidw@yahoo.com or by cell phone (714) 293-5684.

Additional info for those interested:

I would recommend for the live session a discussion of the following topics;

• Introduce yourself, your scope type and then describe all of the scope components. Show the components if not setup and then assemble the scope with commentary, or if already setup, describe how the components were assembled, and in which order.  If setting up the scope, beware of time it takes to assemble.  Also provide the approximate weight of the components and/or total weight assembled
• Then describe the necessary steps to start viewing, (i.e., mount/tripod initial setup alignment/direction if required, balancing the scope, finderscope/main scope alignment, star align if necessary, which eyepieces to use and why, any power accessories, how to move the scope, and how to find objects with the scope)
• Objects you would recommend for beginners to observe if using your scope type.

Note that the folks watching/listening may be beginners and may have very little knowledge about telescopes or maybe no knowledge at all.

David Pearson