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Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

March 4, 2005 03:14 PM Forum: Politics

Re: Toward a more realistic view of our situation

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Ray,

That is a valid point. If ANY major holder of US bonds decides to dump it, a LOT of other countries would follow suit. That would make for chaos!

Cheers,

Maurice

March 4, 2005 03:18 PM Forum: Politics

Greenspan on private S.S. accounts

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi BRett,

LOL!!!

Thanks for posting that. It is now on my office door!!! grin grin

Cheers,

Maurice

March 4, 2005 08:30 PM Forum: Insects - Flowers and Other Small Stuff - Photos

Oz flowers

Posted By Maurice Clark
Here is a second flower. This is Banksia coccina. A small tree up to 5m. Flowers are deep red to orange, and held upright in cones. They open from the bottom upwards, with the final ones opening more than a month after the bottom of the cone. Each cone produces only 4 - 6 seeds, which are kept inside the cone, which becomes very hard and woody. The cone only opens after a hot bushfire. Cones from a wide range of Banksias are commonly used in floral decorations and woodworking.

Banksia coccina grows naturally around the south west of WA, mainly in laterite soils that receive good winter rainfall.

Cheers,

Maurice

March 10, 2005 09:29 PM Forum: Politics

Voyager mission may be axed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi all,

Just to add to the list of projects planned to be axed.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1000

These, along with Voyager accounts for about $10m per year. This is peanuts for something like NASA. So why are they so scrapped for cash that they need to axe working spacecraft? We know that Reagan tried to axe Voyager before Voyager II reached Uranus, so why am I not surprised at this happening now?

It really seems like NASA is trying to get out of the science business! >sad >sad >sad

At this rate, we will have to start learning Chinese, Russian, Japanese, or even Indian, if we want to read the results of space exploration!

Where do these guys get their drugs!!???

To a happy camper!!!

Maurice

March 14, 2005 12:12 AM Forum: Politics

Voyager mission may be axed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted By Maurice Clark
Yet another very successful mission operating far above expectations is under threat. This time the 2 Mars rovers!!!!

Does NASA intend to destroy EVERY successful science mission!!!!!!

I wish I could use the language I would like to here so I could say exactly what I really think about bean-counters and bureaucrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >sad >sad >sad >sad >sad >sad >sad

http://www.space.com/news/mars_overhaul_050311.html

An action item coming up shortly is the extension of the long-lived Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover mission. A proposal is soon to land on McCuistion’s desk to extend rover operations for another six months. But it’s clear that money is tight.

Fuming,

Maurice

March 16, 2005 01:59 PM Forum: Politics

Do you think Secretary of State Rice should run fo

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Darrell,

The election from hell....... Condi vs Hillary! shocked

Cheers,

Maurice

April 3, 2005 10:55 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

OT Halley's Comet

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Bernie,

I have quite a few on my web page. You can find them here: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/~mclark/hal.htm

Cheers,

Maurice

April 17, 2005 10:20 PM Forum: Religion

Constantine

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Darrell,

You could be right, after all, he was one of the first politicians to use the christian church for political gain. (unless you count Nero! wink ) Also, he was the first person to make it illegal to work on Sunday, something countless politicians have followed in the centuries since, aided by numerous popular church leaders eager to further their own power.

I do wonder though. How well does he stand as a science fiction writer when compared to Charlie from the 1800's! 8)

Cheers,

Maurice

April 20, 2005 01:04 PM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

Astrophotography by Walmart!

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Mark,

Tim's photos show the biggest problem I have found with these films, very poor H-aloha sensitivity. If you are going to shoot clusters or galaxies they are fine, however if you are interested in nebulae, then I would suggest Fuji Super HQ 200. That is the one I use when I am doing prints and it works very well on everything.

Regards,

Maurice

May 2, 2005 01:39 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

M83 ????

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Inge,

My first thought when I read your post was "What great spirals in Canes Venatici and Ursa Major?". grin

M83 is a very easy binocular object from Oz. In an 8" - 10" it appears as an almost circular "fuzz", surrounding a very bright central core. In a 12", some spiral structure becomes evident. It appears a little brighter than M51, but the spiral structure is not so evident. For mine, the best southern galaxies for seeing spiral structure are NGC 1365 in Fornax and NGC 1566 in Dorado. There are many others as well though.

It has been quite a while since I observed NGC 4038/39, but from memory it appeared as 2 moderately faint sumdges in contact.

I have seen the dust lane in NGC 5128 with 80mm binoculars. This was from a location where the galaxy was visible to the naked eye.

Regards,

Maurice

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