Posts Made By: Hugh Bartlett

Well, thank goodness for increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, then! Plants love it, and it should offset some of the cold weather effects on crops.

Here's one with a 1/4-20 hole: http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_ds13.htm

I saw this 16" f/4 on a recent thread, and it is my Dream Scope!

http://www.jpastrocraft.com/index.htm

Clearly, what the models predict is not happening.

Before someone says "wait, I see some warmer spots in the lower diagram at 8km," I'd like to point out that that is also the elevation one encounters natural inversion layers, where warm air overlays colder surface air masses near large bodies of water, such as what happens frequently along the California coast.

Doug,

I read that too, but the statement that recent rises in CO2 are the result of ocean warming (and therefore not the cause of it) does not make sense to me. The rise in CO2 is too steady and straight-line to be being caused by something as variable as ocean temperatures.

Nothing in the article seems at all newsworthy. It is well known that the shrinking of glaciers has been going on for 300 years. So for most of that time, it certainly wasn't due to human activities. There's been a very strong warming, in fact, ever since the end of the Little Ice Age. The article may imply human causation, but all it talks about is a warming of non-specific nature.

And the sea level has been gradually rising for centuries also. These are changes to which we as a species can adapt. We have always had to move our settlements in accordance with climate change, because it has always been happening.

Moreover, there are a lot of positive things that come from global warming, which, of course, never make the news. The most productive biotic environments in the history of life on the planet were in periods of much warmer temperatures and much higher levels of CO2.

Hi David,

That's a good budget. You will be able to find a quality telescope in that price range. My first recommendation is to look through other people's telescopes at a public star party. Since you are in Savannah, try:

http://home.g-net.net/~oaa/

Ask the owners what they like or dislike about their scope, and you will learn a lot. You will also see the advantages of the various designs.

Now for some random advice: Meade makes some state-of-the-art telescopes, and a lot of crap. To avoid the latter, don't buy from a department store. Instead, I would recommend starting your search by looking at the telescopes offered by Orion Telescopes and Binoculars

http://www.telescope.com

If you have some basic knowledge of the sky (i.e., know where Orion and the Big Dipper are), have some patience, and want to learn your way around the sky, I'd put your money into the optics rather than the computer locating devices, but that is just me. A nice compromise is a push-to Dobsonian reflector (specifically, Orion's SkyQuest Dobsonians with an "IntelliScope" Computerized Object-Locating Device).

Aperture rules, so go with as big a one as you can manage transporting to your observing site. An 8"-10" Dob would enable you to see a lot of detail in those faint fuzzies we chase after, as well as allow you to see details on the planets.

Buying used here on Astromart will save you some big bucks, but is too risky for a beginner buying their first telescope. However, you will soon want a lot of extras (eyepieces, charts, better finder scope, etc.) and you can get great deals on that stuff in excellent condition here. Ninety to ninety-five percent of Astromarters take excellent care oftheir equipment, and are honest, intelligent and really nice people to deal with.

Several scientists have serious doubts about this new Hockey Stick graph:

http://www.climatedepot.com/a/2769/Not-Again-Media-Now-Promoting-Arctic-Hockey-Stick--Scientists-Rebuke-Latest-Study

Regarding #2, I have used felt pads to add a little friction to a lazy-susan azimuth turntable, and also seen it used in place of teflon "buttons" as a bearing surface for altitude hubs holding a small OTA.

The trick with stiction is to get a bearing surface with some random irregularities in it. That is why Ebony Star formica works so well against teflon on Dob bases.

Another misleading headline.

The majority of the Antarctic is growing, not shrinking.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25348657-401,00.html