Posts Made By: Charles Stevenson

Mel Maki said:

Can Clinton change? Peggy Noonan writes "Clinton sounds like a landlady yelling up the stairs that your kids left their bikes in the hall again."
Tough to listen to any politician but she really grates on my nerves.

Thomas Dey said:

I finally got all the parts to build my final biggest telescope: A 36-inch f/3.75 Dob (to replace my ~too-small~ 29-inch). The 36 will just fit my geodesic dome up this dark rural hill from the house. Found a buyer for the 29 and threw in a brand new enclosed deluxe 12x5x5 trailer almost free! Good for him and good for me. Thanx, Kevin! So I am committed to the 36, excited and a bit trepid. I got the excellent journal Amateur Astronomy back issues on DVD and have been reading back from the present to educate myself on the history of Dobs. Tom Clark composed an excellent article 10 years ago (issue 51) wherein he describes the +/- of scopes small to gigantic. He concludes that [scopes around half gigantic (such as half of 36) are generally most staisfying for a variety of reasons that we DS folks are familiar with.] And I gota admit my most satisfying By Far was the trusty 17.5 that I built using a (good!) Coulter mirror and oil drums. It resided in a 12-foot dome behind the house and was pure pleasure exploring the cosmos. Also cheap, easy, reliable = +++. My 29 was expensive and required more TLC to perform. The exceptional nights were indeed wonderful. Now comes the 36! Tom's consul regarding his 36a, 36b and 42 is: [exceptional on rare exceptional nights --- but smaller scopes far more often perform to capability.] And my experience with the 29 bears that out. When it's good, it's GREAT ... but the seeing cooperates far less often. So now I will build the 36, install it in the dome --- and hope for the best. I'm targeting 1st light by Aug 1st - might take longer. All excited and wondering what I have gotten mysely into. I'm actually very happy that I decided to do it. Worst that can happen is I won't like it all that much --- and that would be OK. Tom Dey

Floyd Blue said:

Well finally and image! 8) Taken this last week at LAAS in Lockwood Valley, Ca.

The conditions were not the greatest but it was doable, so I send 4 nights on this object, 22 1/2 hours total.

I have been wanting to do this one, but somehow just never got to it. Hope you like it.

Keith Lawson said:

Hi All,

I usually save my projects for the fall and winter but once I got my hands on a set of optics, my ATM itch became too much to bear and it had to be scratched Adding an import 3 axis CNC router to the mix and this retired research machinist couldn’t hold himself back.

Scopejunkie

Floyd Blue said:

This is the first of my images for this New Moon. I am working with the new ATIK One 6.0 camera, with Sony 694 chip. Learning how it performs and what the best exposure times and filters to use.
This image is at .93" image scale and just manages to capture the trunk.
Hope you like it.

(Higher res image here) http://www.astrophotogallery.org/floyd-s-pics/p13833-elephant-s-trunk-lrgb.html