shared a timeline

During my citizen science double stars talk, I noted that David L shared in the chat that he had a Celestron Micro Guide. And he also shared the instructions provided by baader planetarium if others were looking to learn how to use it. I made a note to follow up with him.

David signed up for the Stellarium level 2 course so we chatted a bit about it on Monday night. He was interested.

I promised to send me info.

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I noted key dates and some notable discoveries.

• 23 May 2009 - I received Celestron Micro Guide (CMG) from the late Geoff Gaherty
• 22 Jun 2009 - measured double with CMG (using Celestron method)
• 9 Aug 2009 - practiced measuring (with Teague method)
• 19 Feb 2010 - refined measuring notes (with Teague method)
• 10 Feb 2012 - made new workflow checklist for double star measurement

I noted that in early 2009, I read two seminal articles in Sky & Telescope magazine.

• Feb 1999, page 116. Observing Double Stars for Fun and Science by Ronald C. Tanguay. He showed his method, using a CMG with an external protractor. I never really understood why he used the external one vs the internal except that maybe it offered a bit more resolution.
• Jul 2000, page 112. Double-Star Measurement Made Easy by Thomas Teague.  He precisely showed using the CMG without external accoutrements, using it in the prescribed way by Celestron (Baader), and then his "better way." I immediately took interest in this refined method and practiced it thoroughly.

I shared that I started actively measuring and made spreadsheets to run on mobile devices to help rapidly collect data and begin on-the-fly reduction.

That brought me up to the current state of things.

I told David that on 17 Sep 2021, I was astonished to learn that Meade NEVER revised their instructions for their Astrometric eyepiece, despite gross errors!

Shared a couple more links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb5phhUYXrY

My YouTube video on measuring double stars with a demo (in Stellarium no less!) of using a CMG/Baader reticule. Official title: RASC-TC Missing Data - Measuring Double Stars. Stored on the RASC Toronto Centre channel. Final edit uploaded on 10 Sept 2018.

https://rascto.ca/content/missing-data-double-stars

A companion article to the video with the maths. In fact, I revised this article a couple of years later to make it universal. People can measure with a Meade or Celestron/Baader with 50 or 60 divisions and get the correct results!

I suggested that if David was interested in measuring doubles with his CMG, I would encourage you to do so. It's fun, fairly easy, and I have highly-refined processed and calculations to yield correct and accurate results.

And if it is something he wanted to encourage youth members to do, it can make for some fun projects with results worthy of publication for the Washington Double Star database.

Relayed I'm a big advocate of "run what you brung" so I like the idea that some RASC members might be able to easily get in the double measurement game by dusting off an old astrometric eyepiece.

David thanked me for my timeline of discovery. 

He's also noted that's going to talk to his centre peeps about the possibility of me delivering a general talk...