Posts Made By: Brian McFarland

Originally Posted by James Brown

Of course.  But standing alone that statement is so obvious that Russ would never have posted it.  

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

The international scope of the offenses demonstrates the breadth and depth of the problem.
Another Bishop in Los Angeles the other day:
https://abc7.com/religion/pope-accepts-resignation-of-la-bishop-accused-of-misconduct/4928178/
The pope says it's the work of the devil. I'll take that metaphorically. I see the pope will or has gotten a letter from 35000 Catholic women and that was about a single case:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/we-deserve-answers-now-5000-catholic-women-pen-letter-to-pope-35574
I don't know how members of the church reconcile this stuff when it's as pervasive as it is...

Originally Posted by James Brown

Sweet.  I'm going to be posting pics of my completed observatory any day now... That is if I ever get it completed!  My observing and astrophotography gear is currently piled in the bedroom, waiting to move into its new home.  My wife will be thrilled to have the floor space back!

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Well, that's it, folks. We have officially reached a peak lack of self-awareness. No one can be less self-aware than what this demonstrates.

Originally Posted by James Brown

First light at my observatory this weekend!  My lovely wife and I built this over the summer and fall of 2019.  I've been fighting the weather to get things like the electrical, flooring, paint and mounting done this winter.  This is a pretty typical roll off roof - 12' x 12' with a bench and desk, so the telescope area is 10' x 10'.  One thing is different, I built short side walls - to preserve the view.  Neighbor lights are not an issue.  So, to drop the telescope to storage height, I built an electronic lift with 3 lifting columns from Progressive Automatons.  A lot like a big Pier Tech, but about 12% of the cost!  The lift seems to work really well.  It was pretty cold Saturday night and it worked fine.  All three columns are controlled by one Hall-effect driver and power supply.  The view was very stable at the eyepiece, and it is great to be able to set eyepiece height up and down to suit the object.  When I get my ccd gear installed, I'll use the lift at the lowest setting.  That will be the real test, but I don't anticipate problems since it was stable for visual observing.

I'll post something in observatories here and also they'll love the lift at CN - but you guys heard about it first!

Jim

   

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi Brian:

I'm not sure that it would maintain precise polar alignment, as in precise enough for imaging.  That would be asking a lot!  I plan on setting an imaging alignment later, at a set height and hopefully it will be stable if I always image at that pier height.  The controller lets you set height pre-sets.

For visual, I used the AP polar alignment scope once and then looked at several objects - some at the zenith (M35) with the lift way up and some objects down low (Venus) with the lift low too.  Everything was in the field of view with go-to, so it seems to hold alignment well enough for go-to visual.  I forgot to check to see how much the alignment changed at different heights, using the alignment scope.  I'll do that next time.

Jim

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

The number of cases has been doubling every two days in the US for a few weeks. If that continues, we will go from 1500 cases today, to 1,000,000 by or just after the end of this month! It is simple math. We need to arrest the progression of the illness and realize it is not an over-reaction. Frankly, your response surprises me given the simple math of the problem.

1000,2000,4000,8000, 16000, 32000...every 2 days! Exponential growth is a bitch.