Posts Made By: James Adams

I've actually used the pork chops my ex used to make for dinner as a suitable replacement for hockey pucks; they were a bit too unyeilding for use as anti-vibration pads, though...

J.Adams

My son and I went out to a bluff over the Pacific Ocean, about 150' altitude tonight. I set up a 5" f 8 achromat as the sun was setting. It was hazy, with low clouds in the distance.

The location was south of San Francisco about twenty miles. By the way, it was a beautiful sunset!

As the sun set through the clouds we were able to observe it unfiltered through a 17 mm. Nagler without a diagonal. It was a first for me, and we clearly saw two sunspots! The sun showed a very thin green rim, which may have been an artifact of the achromat viewing a yellow-orange object, but as it finally disappeared from view, the green pooled toward the top, just for an instant.

Soon afterward, Venus became visible, but was featureless, appearing nearly full. Never did see Altair, due to high thin clouds to the north.

We may try it from a higher elevation tomorrow, maybe 2500' altitude, with an unobstructed view over the ocean.

Gotta bag this comet! Comet deprivation SUCKS!

"Aliens"...candidates for third place: Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds [the 1950's version], The Shape of Things to Come...I'm forgetting some classics. Blade Runner, though, at the top, but NOT the Director's cut.

James Adams

Michael,

It shouldn't make any difference whether you us an apo or an achromat with your H-alpha filter, since the bandwidth is so tight, except for the fact that apos *may* be less susceptible to things like astigmatism.
I use a 4" f 15 Vixen spec achro with a 60 mm. Coronado filter and BF 15; I use the same Coronado combo with a B.O. 5" f 8, and both work very, very well.

That said, I've also looked through well paired apo/Coronado combos which were very impressive! I've heard, ah, differing opinions as to whether the Coronado dedicated scopes were an improvement over one's own scope.

IIRC, Daystar scopes used long f.l. singlets with spectacular results!

James Adams

Somehow it doesn't seem to me to be a big deal to get great performance from a medium sized triplet long focal length refractor. A well made achromat 130 f 12 should also give excellent performance at a fraction of the price. How much worse could a doublet Apo be than a triplet at f 12? If we were talking about f 7, I could see that there would be advantages to a well made triplet apo over a doublet apo, and especially over an achromat.

It's the law of diminishing returns, isn't it?

James Adams

Hillary Clinton would lose the election for her party despite her nomination; she will be nominated because she has the money behind her and because she's a consummate politician.

The latter fact will doom her. Her position on Iraq hasn't been very far from Dubya's, nor has she exactly shouted from the rooftops how badly the current administration has screwed up the War on Terrorism, domestic security, domestic issues, domestic finances, and International relations. Her credo is "don't rock the boat."

I asked my local County Supervisor, who faces term limit discumbency at the next election what his ambitions were, post-election; he told me that he would return to public non-profit work because at the state level and above, there was no governing possible, that it all became a game of politics and getting reelected.

It's become a game, a business, a circus, politics have. Money drives it and controls it, and we only get to vote for the candidate our Party picks for us from among the most venal, superficially attractive, and least vulnerable to media and dirty tricks from the Other Party.

BTW, regarding the "liberal media" misnomer, how many poor folks own media outlets? Even PBS depends on funding controlled by folks I wouldn't let in my kids'classroom.

When do we get to choose a President who's not wealthy and connected umbillically to wealth, who's unliked by the media, and who wants with all his heart to do the best thing for all the people in the USA?

Not holding my breath,

James Adams

Those focal lengths in eyepieces are useful especially on long f.l. refractors and slow reflectors, IMO.

James Adams

My contact on Jupiter, Ferdinand Feghoot III, says the Jovians are preparing a reply.

J. Adams

An Orion "SpaceProbe" Newt, not the ST version. Couldn't get pinpoint stars, planets were mush.

Turns out they put spherical figured mirrors in them! And Orion Customer Service tried to tell me it was diffraction limited!

James Adams

Clearly, in order to get rectangular pictures.

James Adams