Posts Made By: Alan Strauss

Good evening-

I am curious as to how much heat is typically generated by a Vixen DD-1 controller? I recently acquired one and also purchased an AC adapter from Radio Shack...when powered on, the back of the hand controller seems to get rather hot. Not warm, but hot. I also tried using it with the 8-D cel battery pack and it still heats up quite a bit. Everything functions fine, but I am worried that so much heat can not be good for the electronics. Opinions? (I am clueless about electronics :S )

Thanks-

Probably something I missed, but I sent support through paypal a few days ago to be a green level supporter. How can I tell if it was received? I looked at the list of supporters and my name does not show, but I realize there could be a lag there.

Either way, thanks Astromart!
Alan

I was just reading the previous thread about observing reports and thought I would post something. I went out to Portal, AZ Friday night for the new moon, took along my 9.25 SCT and had a great night there. I have been working on observing the Caldwell objects for some time, and Caldwell 51 has been very difficult. Despite several tries I have never seen this object, until Friday! Caldwell 51, which is IC 1613 is a dwarf irregular galaxy in Cetus. It is an extremely difficult visual object and is only visible as a subtle brightening. Despite being listed as Magnitude 9.2, this ranks among the most difficult of visual observations I have made. In fact, once I had the correct star field, it took several minutes and slowly panning around to detect the brightening. All this from skies with a limiting magnitude of 7+ (Portal is one of the darkest locations in the US)!

I observed several galaxies in Fornax, as well as NGC 1049, a small globular cluster in the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy...I also made a couple sketches. If you would like to read my whole report, including a Saturday visit to Rancho Hidalgo near Animas, NM to see Clyde Tombaughs personal 16 inch telescope, check out my astronomy blog: lostpleiadobservatory.blogspot.com

The blog is something I have just started so I welcome your comments.

Alan

Good morning-

I am having trouble with the Search Classifieds- over the past couple days no matter what terms I search with I get an error like this:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e31'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Query timeout expired

D:\WEBSITES\ASTROMART\CLASSIFIEDS\../common/lib_utils.asp, line 449

Is this something local (Windows did update the other day, and I am using Chrome which updates without telling me) or is it an issue with Astromart right now?

Any advice is appreciated,
Thanks,
Alan

I just purchased a Golf Guard case(made by doskocil)from the Sports Authority...It is a hard sided case for traveling with a golf bag, includes wheels and locking latches...it is huge...fits my Vixen 102 (which is about 42 inches long) as well as plenty of foam and whatever else I want to throw in. It is not the sexiest case ever, but it does the trick for $69.99 on sale. I think it is about 79.99 regularly.

Alan

Bill-

I have a small roll-off, but do not have any photos that would be useful to you. I do have a suggestion though...

Our local club, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, has twice coordinated an observatory presentation and tour. The way it works is that 4-6 local members with observatories each prepare a 10 minute presentation and slide show. At a regular monthly meeting, these folks present on thier observatories and answer questions.

Then, on the weekend, we have an observatory tour where members caravan around town for the day and visit each of the observatories that were presented the night before. This year we had about 20 folks on the tour.

It is a great event and it provided me with ideas and contacts that made my observatory a reality. If you can get your local club to coordiante something like this it will be great fun.

Hope that helps,
Alan

John-

I live in Tucson and have a roll off observatory in my backyard...until this past March I would routinely leave a refractor and entry level GEM mount in there without any climate control...now I have installed a window AC unit as I purchased a better mount and was a little worried about the electronics...

One word of caution, WIND! I have seen more than one scope, with a cover, get picked up and tossed by a monsoon-like gust of wind. Happened at the all-AZ Messier marathon 2 years ago to a C11 on a CGE...counterweights and all. A simple dust devil. Anchor your set-up....

Clear skies-
Alan

Tom-

Went to Maui last January and took an 80mm refractor. I had some fun, but nothing to write home about. Maui has light pollution as bad as my home in Tucson, AZ. As mentioned, the view from the volcano is much better...but depending on where you are staying it can be a long drive.

Either way, enjoy the whales!

Itz-

My observation was not so much that the spot was smaller, but rather that the red spot hollow was quite large...to me, the space between the cloud belt and the spot seems to have increased since earlier in the appartion. Funny how we notice the same thing and perceive it in different ways.

I wonder if there is a website to get information on this and see if the spot itself is actually smaller?

Alan

Douglas-

That is a phenomenal report- very well written and a pleasure to read. Not only was it informative, but it put into words some of the aesthetic experiences that I can relate to as a visual observer...thanks for posting that! (And, by the way, a very nice review of the Istar diagonal in the reviews section as well!)

Alan