Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

Wow, that is nice!

It is never easy to start a new business. I have done it a few times and it can be a lot of work and frustration with moments of enlightenment and joy.
Astronomy is a tough nut to crack as far as a business is concerned. Only so many people to buy your products and market share is usually a small portion.
I started to make accessories for scopes a while back and so far I have had a good time. One or two problems, but nothing that I could not take care of so far. But, there is not a lot of profit in this so it has to be fun or at least rewarding in some way. If it is no either of these and is not profitable, then frustration will dominate and failure is inevitable. :S
Though I do understand these issues, I still can not condone lack of quality or customer satisfaction. Even if you have to bend over backwards for your customer to make things right, you just have to do it. Mistakes are always going to happen, it is how you deal with them that makes the difference.

Hi, the power supply arrived today and is a much better unit than I expected. The best deal for $21 and $10 shipping.
Well built and protected as well as having nice rubber feet and cigarette lighter built in to the front. Plus it has + & - posts as well to use for other things.

The latest thread seemed to imply that there was just too much profit being made on higher end optics and scopes, especially DOBs.
Now I have to ask the question. If you were going to make a DOB and spend a large amount of hours making it, a bit of money advertising it and then money spent supporting it, what would you consider to be a fair profit?
If it cost you $3,000 to make a scope and took 40 hours to build it, would $4,000 be too much? That would be $25 an hour minus the cost of running the business, including utilities and rent as well as advertising and phone bills. 40 hours is what most consider a work week, so $1,000 a week less expenses is too much? Don't foget the employees that like to eat!
How about a mirror maker? If he sells a 10" mirror for $1000 and it cost $100-180 for the blank, then has to re anneal, it which takes an electric kiln and about 2 weeks time, the machine work and hand work on the polishing and figuring. !2 hours to 24 hours on the machine and then however long it takes to finish the figure by hand. Now add to that $100 for coating with standard coatings and then shipping both to the coater and to the customer.
The machines don't come free, the electricity is not cheap and there are all the other bills or employees to pay. Plus the optician deserves to feed his family and have a nice place to live just like any other person, right?
I have talked with many people that built their own telescope and the cost was still not cheap if a good set of mirrors, a nice focuser and the other hardware are used. Then there is quite a lot of labor, hours and hours of it. Consider how much you would have made if you were working instead of building!
All in all, is it really that expensive for a great scope of set of optics? :S

Well, after all the talk about lights, LEDs and computer screens, I decided to build a folding enclosure for my Laptop. Now I have a red sheet of 1/8" Acrylic that I made for a screen cover and it works very well. But, I also like to use the laptop for Starry Night Pro and it's great sky map. Then of course there is Photography and it's demands for the laptop.
So, I wanted something more than the Cardboard Box that I have seen used often. The idea was dew resistance, portability and ease of use. I had some 1/8" material that I got dumpster diving. I did some drawings and came up with a folding unit with four pieces and cloth hinges. It folds down to less than 1/2" thick and 15"x`8". It is flat black on the inside and gray on the outside for visibility.
If anyone is interested, I will post pictures.

Just remember one thing. If you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns. An outlaw does not care if it is legal to own a gun, automatic or otherwise, because he is an outlaw. They do not respect your property or life, they just take what they want and that includes life and property.
There are only so many police officers in any town, I guarantee there are more outlaws in our towns than there are police. Gang members alone out number them.
So, when you call the police as some one is breaking into your home or invading your school, just think how many will die in the 15-20 minutes it takes for them to arrive. :S
The right to bear arms was not placed there for no reason, it was so that you can protect your life and property against those that do not respect your rights.

Well, have had a few chances to use the 12mm T-4 Nagler with the TV 2" barrel adapter. I find this to be a very good addition to a fine EP. Much nicer as a 2" EP and very nice to have it be closer to the other T-4 EPs as far as parfocal is concerned. Also great to be able to use the 2" filters directly without using the 1.25" addapter.

Nice pair! Purrrrrrrrr

Well, we all have em and we all love em but how do you take care of em?
How many here keep their EPs in the case with caps? How many without caps?
Do you think that cases with individual holes for each are needed or can you just keep them loose in the box?
How about cleaning? Is it good to keep them completely clean all the time or like a mirror is a little dirt acceptable?
It is said that the EP is one of the biggest sources of scatter if it is not clean. 8O
How do you clean your EPs if you like to keep them clean?
When you are using them at night, do you only keep one out at a time or do you use an EP rack or table to hold a few?
How about security for them, how do you keep track of them at night?
The EP collection can be one of the most expensive parts of your inventory, so I am curious as to how you all take care of them and how you feel about them.

The first poppy of the year! I have grown these poppies for 30 years after receiving some seeds from a man that grew them for 30 years. So these are really hybrid I guess!