Posts Made By: Brett Wylie

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20060209/cm_ucac/calvinandhobbesandmuhammad;_ylt=AnJo4zHPbYCgj68SxPLtuF2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

Will Muslims read this and agree with some points, or will they dismiss it out of hand?

This was sent to me recently by a friend. Location - @ North pole, our Moon at closest approach. I have no other information about this image.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5327621&no_na_tran=1

I enjoyed this little write up and cooperatively thought I'd share it with my astromart members. TC

I'm curious:

Pick 1...

a) Reagan - drizzle down economic model - the "wealthy" drive an economy (primary factor)-i.e. give the well off tax cuts and incentives for investment etc. etc.
b) Obama (?) - restoring the purchasing power of the middle/lower classes will drive (help restore) the economy...get health insurance billing off their backs, reverse decades old trends in taxation policy...etc..


On edit: I would enjoy reading your thoughts on what seems to have caused a turn in the countries (peoples perceptions) direction regarding tax policy... i.e. for e.g.: the middle/poor class perception on what/or if reinvestment has or is taking place by the "investment classes"...or do they see "outsourcing", "extravagant living", "overseas investment" as evidence of corruption vs. say, Reagans (if I have it right) stated vision of responsible businesspeople "funding" American investment and jobs for ordinary working citizens..etc. etc.

On a read of the previous posts..it seems to me there is an idealogical split along this "divide"...

I realize there is a "c"...both a healthy investment class and a disrectionary income middle/lower class are important...but between a)and b), what do you think is the most important?

A previous poster stated that Obama is penalizing the very class of people (Capitalists) who will lead the economic recovery..or something to that effect. Have the ordinary citizens lost faith that the "Capitalists" will continue to invest in America..or do they see the dollars (jobs) going overseas as evidence of a failure of Reagan economics...and then we have Clintons support of NAFTA..

LOL on that link...even funnier...your saying that 61% of the voting population are partisan, extremist, liberals?
http://www.gallup.com/Home.aspx
This is more entertaining than Jay Leno... 8)

The DOW collapse could be just the signs of the new world order we pretty much deserve, as we've blown most of our resources on trying to be the worlds' police officer...and of course not a mention on your part about the billions wasted in defense department contract overruns, the total waste of taxpayers monies purely from mismanagement from the right...the country was put on a path of arrogance towards the whole rest of the world by your pundits, at the same time as we were already sliding into being a third world economy...helped tremendously by the fact that while patrolling the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, our own borders proved to be as porous as a kitchen stainer (40% of the prison inmates in CA are illegal aliens, think about the cost of incarceration on that score, if your wondering why CA is bankrupt)...the DOW drop has little to do with Obama IMO and everything to do with the fact America and Americans have been living the high life on borrowed money...We stopped being the worlds industrial might long long ago (except for military weaponry) and now are faced with the simple fact that a service economy will only get you so far down the road.
Welcome to the new world economy..your party didn't cause it all, but it certainly didn't do the job it should have done, it failed miserably to manage the country effectively, and that is why it was booted the last election.

The Three Trillion Dollar War - the true cost of the Iraq/Afghan conflict

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Trillion-Dollar-War-Conflict/dp/0393334171/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Any objective experiences out there with this system, quality, accuracy? Especially anyone with thoughts concerning imaging with this unit?

When your done doing your best with Jupiter, try a slightly defocused bright star like Rigel. A friend collimated his SC using a Xmas tree ornament!

With the f10 and available reducer correctors, you have the following reduced focal lengths available with small variations..and of course you can easily double your focal length with both scopes by using an appropriate apo barlow.
f10, f6.3, f3.3, f5 (optec)
With the f6.3 scope you have f6.3, f3.9(limited visual), f1.9(photgraphic/ccd only)The f6.3 is optimized for the UW 40 mm lens..which allows one to cover a great swath of sky..
The larger central obstruction of the f6.3 is a non issue photographically(there are astrocameras..i.e.schmidt/slevogt with 50% obstructions)...and probably not an issue visually to a mere mortal. Probably a 3% drop in contrast at most with the f6.3 vs. f10.
The f6.3 has more field curvature, the f10 a flatter field. Some of this field curvature can be corrected for by utilization of the above reducer/correctors.
Because of it's wider field of view and faster exposure speeds then the f10, the f6.3 scope is better suited for deep space objects..large nebula, open clusters..the f10 better suited for planetary viewing.
The f6.3 is probably a better bet if you ever plan on imaging with ccd cameras, it is easier to find and place an object in the field of view and easier to find and keep a guide star located on the very small guiding chips (SBIG) with the f6.3 scope.
Other option, with Celestron is the Hyperstar system, (which is a more usable vesion of the Faststar lens assembly) which allows one to image with Celestrons Faststar compatible SC telescopes at f1.9 also.
Neither system can be used visually at f1.9.
A properly & perfectly collimated f6.3 Meade can be an excellent all around performer. I've used a Celestron 14 @f11 right alongside a Meade f6.3. They compliment each other very well. There are plenty of objects that won't fit into the field of view of an f10 scope without scanning.
The real solution is to have 5-6 telescopes..heh heh.
If your planning on doing ccd work, get the f6.3 model.