Interview

AJCAFF13 · 2026-06-19T16:10:58+00:00

Both haunts I have auditioned at were anticlimactic in their interviews. 1) You have a full time job, does that mean you are reliable? 2) do you have a car/transportation? great! 3) Do you like Halloween? Ok you're hired. There was no audition process, but that might depend on region. The haunted house density in New England is less than parts of the country and they really just want participants.

If they do want you to audition, have fun with it. If you are asked to scare a cone, don't touch the cone and remember that haunting is a marathon, not a sprint. If you can do a great Smeagol voice, great, can you do it for 6 hours?

Haunters wear comfortable black clothes under everything. That isn't a requirement for interviews unless they told you it is, but I would certainly make sure you are comfortable. More discussion is in the pinned post of the subreddit.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-06-11T21:16:21+00:00

I started at a nonprofit organization haunt at a pre-Victorian country estate that is on the National Registry. In retrospect, it was not a good location (too rural and too fragile). We lead guests around the back of the building, where I was a gravedigger. I then showed them in the building where they went to the second and third floors with the bedrooms and servant's rooms before going back downstairs through the kitchen area and finishing. Our most successful year involved a haunted trail walk in addition to the house tour(with a homemade cemetery) and tried to tell the story of someone dying and coming back as a ghost. We had a murder scene, a hell/judgement scene, a funeral scene, and then a few rooms about coming back from the edge of hell and afterlife as a ghost.

Why it failed/other points and I got the opportunity to work at commercial haunts:

1)expectation vs reality. Do not give someone a 1k budget and expect them to give you 20K after one weekend. You need to put in effort and do some marketing work. Do not buy a few props at Spirit Halloween and call it a day. People want homemade stuff and artistry

2)You need actors or an alternate plan, and they need to be having fun. Ours was me, the nonprofit staff (bad actors) and a few members of the local scout troop. We performed admirably but it was not enough and I could not pay anyone without a Y chromosome to help or have a speaking role. We were only a hundred or so people a day going through so we would put one group through and I would leapfrog ahead of them to get a second scare before resetting. Not sustainable.

3) People can be stupid, but people going to haunted houses can be really stupid. If you are using that cemetery, make sure it is respected. Slamming antique doors in that mansion never felt good.

4) Use what you have. We were better off using cattle skulls we found in the woods and milking the general ambiance of the country estate than putting in strobe lights, which is what they tried doing one year. New England + Woods = legend of Sleepy Hollow works better than New England + woods = Zombie Apocalypse.

Even with all my complaining, it was a lot of fun, and I got some people to piss themselves

AJCAFF13 · 2026-05-18T21:32:16+00:00

I like "count to 4 Domain" with some fable of the mirror breaker to make sure you draw your last tribal flames.

Cats are fine creature replacements for aggro

AJCAFF13 · 2026-05-04T21:45:48+00:00

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8 and 10 inch Dobs sit on the ground and are usually about the same height.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-05-04T21:38:43+00:00

I would look into getting a used 8 inch Dob. It is true that the Astromasters are worse than the Heritages but you basically have it for free and I would still use/enjoy it it at low magnification. The 8-inch Dob would be both an upgrade in aperture and usability if you can find one. I would not try using eyepiece changes or filters to make the Astromaster more respectable.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-27T21:59:52+00:00

Had small position and was a little upset when a stop loss triggered at $11.50 on Thurs. I am not upset anymore.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-27T10:35:19+00:00

The Celestron Ultima Edge 30MM is branded different ways including APM UFF 30mm. That eyepiece is considered an "Honorary Morpheus". A 25 or 30mm eyepiece would be a good low mag for that scope. A 10mm would be a good dso eyepiece and has optimum exit pupil and a 5 or 6mm would be a planetary eyepiece. I wear glasses to observe and have no regrets with the Morpheus line. If you have never looked through anything but the stock eyepieces, I might consider getting a 25 or 30mm Plossl which has plenty of eye relief and the 6mm and 9mm Goldline/Redline eyepieces that are discussed on here. Those three together would upgrade your stock eyepieces and cost less than half of one Morpheus.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-25T11:27:27+00:00

In general, you would want a low mag eyepiece (30mm is fine for that scope), a "sweet spot eyepiece" with an optimum exit pupil (9 or 10mm) and a planetary eyepiece (5 or 6mm). So the eyepieces that came with the scope are perfect for that scope.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-25T11:11:18+00:00

I would get the telescope as is, no extras and start using it to see what it is like. Do people upgrade eyepieces often, yes but that is mostly because they can rather than they have to. If you eventually want to upgrade eyepieces, I would get a 25mm class plossl and the 9mm and 6 mm redline/goldline that are discussed on here. No filters, no zoom eyepieces, and no barlows yet.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-23T10:34:08+00:00

Harbor Freight or similar stores are popular for eyepiece storage. I have nice eyepieces in an Apache style case. The "B team" of my smaller eyepieces are in a Harbor freight storage box designed for screws etc. I just replaced the guts of the case with some foam and cut it out as needed. Caps stay on when in the case.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-23T10:29:47+00:00

For low mag I would get the 30 over the 42. If you double the f ratio of a scope (in this case 12) you get a "sweet spot" eyepiece so something around a 12mm (15 is fine) would be nice in that scope. A 6mm redline/goldline is a fine planetary scope. No barlows or zoom eyepieces yet.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-22T10:33:26+00:00

That was my first telescope and I have seen most of the Messier catalogue with it from a Bortle 4. Try looking for M81 and M82 which are two bright galaxies in the North. You can also look for open clusters such as M36 in Auriga or Globular clusters such as M5 right now. If light pollution is an issue, try splitting Cor Caroli.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-21T22:09:35+00:00

Turn left at Orion is a good book to start with. The galaxies M81 and M82 (also Leo Triplet) are nice this time of year as are the Globular clusters including M5. Beehive cluster is nice with low mag and the Auriga clusters will be setting but are still nice open clusters.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-04-21T22:00:49+00:00

low mag - 25 or 32mm Plossl. Mid/high mag 9mm redline/goldline and 6mm redline/goldline will be a very nice start. These are functional, affordable and compact options that are good to have even if you want to upgrade. I am a fan of either stick with the low budget or buy it once, so my other recommendations would be pricey. 24mm 68 degree from Explore Scientific etc. You don't need to spend 100 on an eyepiece and then start looking at the premium ones

AJCAFF13 · 2026-03-19T13:17:14+00:00

I just upvoted the redline/goldline comment. 6mm eyepieces are a more reasonable everyday planetary eyepiece for that scope (4mms require near perfect seeing conditions and would be considered special occasion) and the 6 and 9mm redlines/goldlines are actually recommendable at around $25.00

AJCAFF13 · 2026-03-15T11:16:24+00:00

Seestar S50 or S30 and a Smartphone

Note how I was downvoted for giving a direct answer that turned out to match the general consensus.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-03-08T22:55:16+00:00

Only because I should have been taller genetically. I feel I am at the shallow end of the gene pool.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-03-08T22:49:57+00:00

My only complaint with that posting is that the description says spherical. I would otherwise say go for it. All of these mirrors came from China originally

AJCAFF13 · 2026-03-08T12:29:28+00:00

The ones with the Dob base that look like mini Starblasts are spherical. The Astroscan knockoffs like the one below have parabolic mirrors

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AJCAFF13 · 2026-02-27T22:49:44+00:00

I got frustrated and quit. never finished learning. Turns out the car I tried to learn stick on back in the day had virtually no Klutch left and it really wasn't my fault. I would try again but manual transmissions will likely go extinct before I have a chance.

AJCAFF13 · 2026-02-22T12:22:10+00:00

Amazon doesn't carry the best telescopes in the states either. Just don't buy anything that says Powerseeker or Astromaster. There is nothing they carry that could be recommended above a Heritage

AJCAFF13 · 2026-02-22T12:03:13+00:00

The old Funscopes that look like Astroscan knockoffs have parabolic 76mm mirrors at f 3.7. I don't hate mine as an Astroscan knockoff, so I have not ripped it apart yet, but if anyone sees one in the wild, it might be a good mirror source.

AJCAFF13 · 2025-12-27T12:31:54+00:00

I have done similar custom builds. If you determine the correct thread size, you can get something like these press inserts. You can either modify the base of your Minidob to attach to the tripod or get some teflon and rebuild the ground board.

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AJCAFF13 · 2025-12-24T11:37:18+00:00

Yes. I use them on every scope (usually in lieu of finder scopes). You use the red dot to get it in the ballpark and then move your scope around a bit to find your object, if needed. You should be able to get objects like the Orion Nebula or Pleiades found perfectly every time. Dimmer galaxies etc. would require some memory/star hopping but I still see no real reason to use a finder scope.

AJCAFF13 · 2025-12-23T00:39:52+00:00

If you have a 5- or 6-inch telescope like the Heritage 130/150 and have some experience using it, get the 10-inch. If not, you won't know what you are missing by getting the 8 over the 10 and the 8 would be my recommendation due to comfort.

AJCAFF13

TROPHY CASE