Posts Made By: Bill Byrd

[COLOR="Purple"]The new TV ad for the Sequoia shows a family (towing a nice Air stream trailer) going to a start party. There are a couple of shots that show telescopes. The thing that ruins it all is the abundance of white light everywhere. Still, kinda interesting that Toyota used a star party as the destination in the commercial.
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Oh great!! (with sarcasm) Another good forum to keep up with. Guess I'll give up eating so I can stay on Astromart all day without interuptions. 8O

Anyway...four words as far as camping:
Big Bend National Park!

Great scenery. Mountains. Desert. Wildlife.
DARK SKIES!!!!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Anyone have experience with HO mirrors? Their web site doesn't say what focal ratios they are offered in. I'd love an 18" f/4 cellular mirror but I'm not sure they can be made that "fast". I have an 18.75" f/5.22 cellular mirror but the long focal length greatly diminishes the observing experience for me (ladder).

The HO price for an 18" cellular is pretty good but I wonder what you get for the price.

Sooo...anyone have any experience with HO cellular mirrors?
Thanks!
Bill [/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Just curious, does anyone here have a LiteBox scope? Anyone here used one if you don't own one?

How are they?
Thanks!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Hi All!
Setting up a new DSC unit. Encoders are US Digital S2-2048. No gearing.

Do I set steps to 2048 or 8192 (4 X 2048)?
Thanks!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]In 1.6" thickness and in 2" thickness?
Just curious,
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Cleaning the garage today and found a brochure from Looking Up Optics postmarked May of 1986, back when mail was about the only way to get info from manufacturers.

LUO were going to offer a line of single strut telescopes that I though looked sooooo cool. They were marketing the smaller sizes as backpacking scopes and since I was doing some backpacking at that time, I mailed them an inquiry. I don't think they ever made it into production...at least I never heard of a single one being sold. The base had a motor drive of some kind so they were to be a driven equatorial scope. Lots of the parts were to be interchangable so you could upgrade or customize easily. They were offering mirrors to 1/100th wave correction (for a big extra charge) as measured by helium neon interferometer!

Here's a scan of the scope pictured on the front of the brochure.

For an extra $5 back then, I could have gotten a detailed info packet with a set of instructions. I wish I had done that but $5 back in 1986 was a bit much for me to spend on that.
Bill [/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]This guy or girl was sleeping on a plant leaf on the back porch. Just hanging there lined up with the cental line of the leaf...eyes closed. Probably hangs out there because that plant gets regular waterings and the rest of the back yard is suffering from our S Texas drought.
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Hover fly?
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Last year a vine popped up in some bushes we have. It had interesting flowers. I got one look at a single flower before my wife trimmed the bushes, along with the vine.

This year, it's come back and I've been "cultivating" it by watering it once in a while.

Here's a pic of the soon to be flowers. Hopefully I'll document them day by day since the flower happens for only one day before it seeds.
Bill[/COLOR]