Sky & Telescope - August 2023 - 6

FROM OUR READERS
Julian Samuel drew this sketch of the Andromeda
Galaxy (M31).
Banich's sketches on pages 22 and
23 are elegant and vast. Does he sketch
on black paper?
Thank you very much for such
inspirational writing.
Julian Samuel
Toronto, Canada
Howard Banich replies: Wow, I
like the abstract quality to your
Andromeda Galaxy piece. Well done!
I had a Denkmeier Optical Deepsky Binoviewer
for many years, but I rarely used
it and finally sold it a few months ago. I
used 24-mm Panoptic and 10-mm Radian
eyepieces, which worked well with my old
28-inch f/4 scope.
"
Binoviewers and
Dark Skies
Howard Banich's " The Great Edge-On
Galaxy of Spring " (S&T: May 2023,
p. 20) is beautifully written. I always
read his articles with a star atlas.
I started amateur astronomy three
years ago. I live under a Bortle 9 sky
in Toronto, Canada, but we do sometimes
get clear nights. I use a 254-mm
(10-inch) reflector telescope, but I also
observe with an Orion Premium Linear
BinoViewer with 20-mm Plössls, 18.2mm
DeLites, and 9-mm eyepieces. I
find these work well.
I read somewhere that Banich also
uses a binoviewer. Would he be kind
enough to let me know what sort of
binoviewer he has and what eyepieces
he prefers?
And thank you, I always appreciate positive
feedback on my articles and sketches.
I use white paper and 0.7-mm HB lead in a
mechanical pencil to sketch, then scan the
image into GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation
Program). There, I invert the sketch into
a positive image with a black background
and grayscale sketch. I haven't tried black
paper yet, but I'm sure I will at some point
just to see what it's like!
Congratulations on a superb article in
the May issue of S&T! It's great to see
some extreme challenges in the magazine
(the distant companion galaxies).
Banich's sketches (in this article and
in previous ones) are as realistic as any
I've seen in print.
Where is the Oregon campground at
which he was able to extract consistent
Sky Quality Meter (SQM) readings
of 22.00+? I've been trying to coax a
number of my fellow end-of-active-service
troops to go on a trip to Massacre
Rim Dark Sky Sanctuary (Nevada) later
this year, but they're balking at the
rustic remoteness of the place. I might
be willing to meet them halfway on
a compromise if I can convince them
that 22.00 skies are something too
good to pass up. 
Andy Edelen
Eugene, Oregon
Howard Banich replies: I really
appreciate that you liked the article
and sketches enough to let me know. As
for the campground I've been going to,
it's Chickahominy Recreation Site, which
is about 30 miles (51 km) west of Burns,
Oregon, right off U.S. Highway 20.
It's not a perfect site. Headlights from the
highway can be bothersome, and there's
a small light dome in the east from Burns.
Plus, I've been there enough times to know
that 22.00+ SQM nights are in the minority
- I usually see readings in the 21.70
range. Nothing to sneeze at, but a long way
from 22.00+. It's all about the transparency,
of course. When it's really good, the light
dome from Burns disappears. All this makes
Chickahominy much like many sites in central
and eastern Oregon.
"
It has the advantage of being easy to
drive to, though. Google Maps indicates a
4-hour-and-6-minute drive from Eugene,
Oregon. Chickahominy does have excellent
cell service, though. For example, I was able
to join a Zoom meeting from there once.
It's a mixed bag, but if you hit on the
right nights, you'll never forget the skies.
Martian Inspiration
Though Lowell described his book
William Sheehan's Focal Point essay
" Seeking Canals on Mars " (S&T: May
2023, p. 84) caught me at an opportune
time. Just a week before reading
it, I acquired a reprint of Percival
Lowell's book Mars and Its Canals and
was reliving the memory of reading
the book as a kid in the late '50s. That
book fed interests that inspired my later
career in engineering and science, and
astronomy remained a lifelong hobby.
6
AUGUST 2023 * SKY & TELESCOPE
on Martian canals as " popular science, "
there was no mistaking that
his 24-inch refractor was a serious
instrument being put to astronomical
use. New data overtook his theories,
but what impressed me then was his
dedication to his research and his skill
at communicating it.
Today, Lowell certainly deserves
some degree of credit for inspiring the
mobile laboratories now roaming the
surface of Mars measuring its minute
physical properties. And for the little
helicopter sending back pictures of
where the canals were thought to be.
Jeff G. Bohn
Malvern, Pennsylvania
An Army of Exoplanets
An impressive roster of ever more
advanced space telescopes are revealing
multitudes of exoplanets, as described in
Knicole Colón's " Exoplanets Everywhere "
Sky & Telescope - August 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - August 2023
