George Jones

But weight isn't a tidal effect.

Welcome to SGL. I grew up a couple of hours from Toronto. Because of COVID, I didn't make it to Toronto this summer.

Welcome to a great forum. I do strictly visual, usually in the centre of Prince George BC. I last visited Calgary in summer 2019 when my family and another family camped near Banff.

I recommend some type of 10x50s. These are good general purpose bins (astronomy and daytime uses). I have 10x50s and 15x70s.

I have a NexStar 8SE, and for some time I have been considering getting a CPC 1100. I would dearly love to have a CPC 1100, (I would also keep my NexStar), but I am somewhat worried about the weight of the OTA/mount. My specs: I will be 60 next month; I am 5' 5'' tall; I weigh 130 pounds; I am in good physical condition, and I don't mind lugging somewhat heavy stuff. Thoughts? Thanks.

These are the original boxes for my NexStar 8SE, which I got in the fall of 2009. Two years later, I used these boxes when I made a big move from one side of Canada to the other, 4100 kilometres (2500 miles) as the crow flies. Four years after that, I used them again when I made a small move from our flat to our current house, 3.4 kilometres (2.1 miles).

I teach physics (labs and lectures) and astronomy (lectures), and I mentor (post)grad students who make money teaching physics labs. I love all of this, so I pretty much have my dream job.

I meant something more fundamental. Suppose Mike lives in the northern hemisphere between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator (as I did for two years). Where does Mike see the Sun on a date that is near June 20th, and at a time that is near local noon?

Be careful. As a general statement, your first sentence is FALSE.

As expected the (tremendously!) helpful folks here at SGL have posted a slew of reasons.

It was clear all day yesterday, and the forecast was for mainly clear all night, so, at 11:00 pm, I set up scope for a visual session with Jupiter and Saturn before bed. By the time I was ready to align the scope, the sky was mainly cloudy, and Jupiter was not visible. i came inside to read, while periodically sticking my head outside to check on the situation. Things did not improve, so at 12:15, I decided to take down and put away the scope. When I finished, I came in through my back deck door, noticed my 10x50s sitting by the door, and thought "I should take these into back garden and see if there is a break in the clouds to the north." There was! I easily spotted Capella, looked left, and immediately saw NEOWISE with my naked eyes from a city of 80000. This was first sighting of NEOWISE, as I've had clouds, clouds, clouds. Put my bins up, and was floored by the sight! I went back inside to get collect my 15x70s and my wife, who was still up in her home office. NEOWISE was spectacular in my 15x70s. My wife saw the comet with her eyes, and with the 10x50s, but she had no interest in trying the 15x70s, If it is clear tonight, I will get my 13-year-old daughter up to have a look. Awesome!!!

I love comets, but I have had days and days and days of early morning clouds, so I am none the Wiser as to what NEOWISE actually looks like. Also, I had hoped to see a shadow transit of Ganymede last night. It was mainly clear an hour before it started, but then the clouds rolled in.

If you have time on your hands, you could wait for 120 million years. Then, the baseline, the diameter of the Sun's obit about the centre of our galaxy (about 60000 light-years), could be used for parallax measurements of distances to far away galaxies. I have been lazy, and I have not calculated if effects of the expansion of the universe would be noticeable with this method.

I like theoretical physics, but I completely agree with In another thread, I wrote

Any attempt at total understanding of this will necessarily be incomplete.