Posts Made By: Bruce Mills

Ah, yes! I was reminded of a site that I came across once that displayed a picture from Google Earth showing an Avro Lancaster WW11 bomber in the air somewhere over the UK here. What a catch ! I think there's only one left that's able to fly.
Anyway, there appears to be a minor sport in plane spotting on Google Earth.
I hope the links I've pasted in are 'active' for you.
http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlcat24/Aircraft-in-flight.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/09/google_lancaster/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/19/google_earth_prestwick/

Bruce

John, The '66' means 6" aperture x 6 focal length. Therefore : 6 x 6 = 36inches.

Bruce

This promises to be a mighty long thread.
I break rocks mostly and build houses out of stone.

Bruce

Reading this thread a week ago reminded me of a visit to the Grubb-Parsons works in Newcastle ( UK ) in the late seventies and a group of us being shown around by the late David Sinden to see the wonders that were then being made there, amongst which was the 150" IR thin mirror for Hawaii, the Isaac Newton mirror, another 100" for somewhere I've forgotten and the newly cemented 48" achromatic Schmidt corrector plate for Siding Springs in Oz, ( ...a world first I seem to recall ) and this one presented here ; a 50" Maksutov Corrector plate. ( it says on the caption to the slide of the picture I took at the time )
When I came across this slide again for the first time in thirty some years ( ..was it? ) a few weeks ago, I was at first sceptical that any Mak. had ever been made that large but on scanning it into the computer a few weeks ago, and looking at it again now, I see that it must be about right as the brickwork to the rear looks to be right for that scale. An English brick being 9"x3" on the face.
I came across this picture again today and thought some of you might be interested. It's not good I know: hand held available light and not very fast colour film of the time.
I now wonder where it went to ?

Bruce

Wasn't there a little review of in S&T a year or three back ? I seem to recollect they gave it the thumbs up .

Bruce

Keep this old thread going a little while longer whilst I submit my nominee : [COLOR="Red"]Jack Vance[/COLOR] .
Does he qualify ? As I bought all the Vance books I have from the 'Science Fiction' section of the bookshops I've entered over the years I'd suppose he does .
I've got a cupboard full of SF from youth . Nearly everything that Asimov , Clarke and Heinlein wrote with a smattering of others here and there . I enjoyed them then but , strangely , I don't now . Occasionally I'll pick one up and have a go with one or the other , but give up after a chapter or so and wonder what's changed in me that I can't engage with the magic that once held me in thrall an age ago .
The exception to that is Jack Vance . His early work : 'The Dying Earth' and onwards is , for me , the best sort of story telling . I won't quote titles as there's so much of it , but his later stuff ( ...off the top of my head this ) - not as compelling as his more pithy '50's and 60's stuff .
Yes , when I'm not reading the papers about the big hole this society seems to be falling into , Jack Vance can pull me out of it and take me elsewhere in an instant .

Hi Mike , Near to where I live is a company that rolls rings . I had the 'C' rings of my 20" UL Dob. rolled there . The drawback is that it's a bit far away for you , but there must surely be similar near to hand in your part of the world .
Here's the link anyway : http://www.whitecrossring.co.uk/services.php?service=2

Good luck .

Send for George.

Here's me butting in again despite my resolve not to interfere in your affairs. And as if you fellows don't have enough to exercise yourselves with. I always wonder at myself for buying a newspaper, and indeed, on increasingly rare occasions, dropping into here for a look-see at what's up in the US. An odd compulsion.

But, here's the thing, as with fuel/gas prices (it cost me nearly eighty quid to top up today and I wasn't running on empty. £1.49ltr; am still hurting!)), here in the UK, I feel you may be relatively unscathed when it comes to the muslim question, which ought not to be an issue. Yet, here, it is, and when I read this article : http://goo.gl/AHTvn today in the print copy of this paper, I thought of you lads, and this thread. It's often said here in Britain that to see the future one only has to look at the US, but in this one respect I feel, we may have you beat. I'm not boasting btw.

I wouldn't know where to place this article in the lexicon of alarmist literature - as I don't eat and drink politics, but I managed to raise an eyebrow at this one.

Anyway, back to my cave now for me and indulge myself in some more happy ignorance of world affairs.

Oh! OT, before I go, it was heartening to discover today that Obama gasped his first in the balmy airs of Hawaii. It's official! And don't forget the joys of watching Will and Kate tie the knot tomorrow. 8)