Posts Made By: Joseph Babendreier

Floyd Blue said:

Do you prefer price, performance, eye relief, weight and size, 1.25" or 2" or just what?

I'm still a novice in this art. I'm very happy with the set I have. They all work well. I especially like using the 13mm Nagler, which I bought from somebody here at Amart. I had to save up for about 18 months, but it was worth it.

So I guess price is my ultimate criteria... looking for a good deal on a used EP that others have recommended.

Cleers,
Joe

Alex McConahay said:

About a year ago, a fellow amateur astronomer and telescope maker signed on to Astromart for the first time. I was immediately struck with his enthusiasm for the hobby and interest in spreading his love for astronomy to others. I decided I wanted to meet this guy—named Joe.
Sometimes we forget...

Just thought you might like to see what can come out of these Astromart postings.
Alex

Many thanks to everyone at Astromart for the encouragement you've offered over the past year. And SPECIAL thanks to Alex.

I couldn't believe it when he actually did show up here at the school in Kenya to say hello and look at the scope.

You know how things are with some of us. I'm already dreaming of more aperture and I haven't even logged all the Messier objects yet! So, it was nice having an expert drop by and offer a wonderful mix of praise and advice.

Anyway, thanks to all.

And my apologies for the weather. Two weeks in one of the darkest parts of the world and the guy never got to see any stars.

That just means you'll have to come back, Alex.

Cleers,
Joe

Darrell Hensley said:
It's really hard on all of us, but my dad is taking it so bad. He doesn't want to be here any longer. The sound of sobbing is so sad. Anyone that will please say a prayer for my dad, the man that taught me how to be a man so long ago.

Thank you everyone, you have alway's been so good to me that I know I can count on your prayer's.

God Bless,
Darrell

Darrell,

I know it's been a while since you posted this. But I just saw it. I'm a Catholic priest. I'll pray especially for your dad tomorrow when I celebrate Mass.

I've been an Amart member for about a year now.

Sincerely,
Fr Joe Babendreier

This may not seem related, but I believe it is -- namely, yesterday's news about comet Lovejoy. Amart news quote:

>>Dec. 16, 2011: This morning, an armada of spacecraft witnessed something that many experts thought impossible. Comet Lovejoy flew through the hot atmosphere of the sun and emerged intact.
>>"It's absolutely astounding," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "I did not think the comet's icy core was big enough to survive plunging through the several million degree solar corona for close to an hour, but Comet Lovejoy is still with us."<<

Clears,
Joe

I liked the sketch. Thanks.

Can you really see a dust lane running thru the center of the galaxy?

Clears,
Joe

Ivan Ong said:

It can go both ways...

About 8 years ago I was observing by myself on the blue ridge parkway and a car drives up. Out pops someone and he sets up a tiny scope. He lights a cigarette and walks up and pulls out his ultra bright flashlight and starts shining it on my scope, cigarette smoke wafting all over. Totally pissed me off. I told curtly him to 1. turn off the darn light and 2. take that cigarette somewhere, which he sheepishly complied. Guess what? he turned into my closest astronomy buddy and we ended up spending a good many nights under the stars observing, imaging and just plain talking. I remember him calling me up one night 4 years ago saying he had terminal cancer and he wished I could take him up there one more time to set up his scope so he could observe one more time. The next day he was gone. Darn, I still miss him every time I go up there! It can go both ways...

Wow, what a story. Thanks for that one!

Clears,
Joe

I appreciate the idea. But I have found that boys (I work in a boys school) are more interested in the equipment than the sky itself.

I start my lesson during the daylight hours showing them the two different kinds of scopes (refractor / reflector) and then move from there.

Once the boys see something like a global cluster, they more interested. They have the idea that they can see something the naked eye can't see and that tends to fascinate more than anything they can see with the naked eye.

Two different approaches... Sky first, scope first.

Clears,
Joe

Ron Streetenberger said:

If you are a true "lunatic" You will go nuts with this site. The "aristarchus Spectacular" image is a mind blower.

http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse

I'm not a lunatic, much less a true one, but I did love looking thru the pix in the website. I find it fascinating -- all the different features. So much to explain that seems beyond explanation.

Clears,
Joe

I saw that mirror on ebay and said to myself, "Too bad it's spherical!" Good catch!!!

Clears,
Joe

I joined Astromart because I read about it in Astronomy Hacks. At the time, I didn't even own a telescope but was building one.

Because of the $12 fee, I would not have joined if I had known of the existence of other forums at the time.

Now I also belong to Astronomy Forum (for free!) and I like it a lot since there is a group of about 100 people (all relatively new to amateur astronomy) in a program to view / image / sketch the Messier series.

I keep coming back to AMart since there are posts on this forum that I would never see in the other forum. For example, answers to questions I have asked are much better from Amart members than answers I have received in the other forum.

Besides that, people on Amart have a better sense of humor.

Then, there is the one area where Amart excels -- the classifieds. The Astronomy Forum posts about one ad per week (total for all categories combined) and even that ad is usually pretty lame.

Anyway, to sum up, I did notice when I first joined, that the forums for religion and politics were much more active than any of the others and I found this rather curious. Not that I objected. I just found it curious.

When Amart started a forum on Astrology I knew the end of the world was closer than I had originally anticipated.

Clears,
Joe