Posts Made By: Thomas Holst

That was a pretty interesting presentation. My only problem is that every time the idea of risk management comes up, I'm reminded of my days as a city employee and the city decided to hire a 'Risk Manager". He turned out to be the most accident prone, unlucky SOB I've ever met; kind of an Al Bundy type. He was always missing work for some reason, and when he did come to work it was usually on crutches with box of Kleenex in one hand. He was famous for losing city owned equipment and crashing his city owned car. His biggest claim to fame was an excessively long questionnaire everyone had to fill out every time a minor work related accident took place. We lost so much productive time filling these out that we had to hurry to catch up, making the rest of us more accident prone.

Back to GW... I believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We humans have a long history of getting things wrong (flat Earth, Earth centered universe, etc.). When we try to fix things, we usually screw things up even more (missionaries "fixing" Hawaii, rebuilding New Orleans below sea level, etc.). Even if we did cause GW, I doubt we can fix it, much less without screwing something else up.

For some more good reading on WWII fighter pilots, try Reach for the Sky, a biography on Sir Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill or Samurai, a biography on Saburo Sakai by Martin Caidin and Fred Saito. Both of these books are great examples of truth being stranger than fiction. You won't be disappointed.

Rod,

I spent several years as a factory service rep for Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc., originally starting in the Technical Analysis and Warranty departments in Torrance, CA. Knowing both the company and the cars pretty well, I would say that you have nothing to worry about. Most of the engineering decisions as to recommended engine oil viscosity are based on emissions and fuel economy considerations as well as summer/winter climate conditions. I'd just go along with whatever instructions Toyota provided to the dealer. Unless you drive the car 100 MPH all day long, all summer long in Death Valley, the 5W-20 oil wouldn't have hurt the engine. Just make sure you use a brand name oil that says it "meets or exceeds all manufacturer's warranty requirements" on the label.

A much more important concern on your part would be to make sure you have regular oil/filter changes and regularly check all fluid levels. I could write a book on the nightmares people have brought upon themselves from lack of or improper maintenance.

Lee Spain said:
I've got everything but a shotgun and I'm not super keen on getting one of those anyway. I'm thinking serious shotgunning would lead me to the chiropractor on a regular basis.

You should try trap shooting (at a real trap range) with target loads and a decent recoil pad. It's not painful and it's so much fun it's addicting.

What guns do you think every collector must have?

That depends on your definition of a "collector". For me, guns are for shooting and I have no use for a wall decoration. I do, however, enjoy visiting the Elmer Keith museum at the Cabela's store in Boise, where I can see up close every gun ever owned by the grand old man.

http://www.cabelas.com/retail-2/--cabelas--en--content--community--aboutus--retail--retail_stores--boise--storeareaboise.html.shtml
Click on: Elmer Keith Museum - Take a Virtual Tour

John Agnew said:

Do you believe in such signs, and why?

Nope. I'm a fan of Occam's Razor; S**t Happens.

Kelly,

This is a rather generic suggestion but if you are planning to do some or a lot of astrophotography, I'd be more concerned about rigidity, stability and tracking than I would about which mount has a more advanced Go-To system. I know little about either the CGE or the CGEM, but if I were serious about imaging, I'd forgo the Go-To and look at the Losmandy G11, for about $100 more than the CGEM.

John,

My religious education also ended more than 40 years ago when I finally realized that organized religion and religious beliefs were just superstition and fairy tales, with no basis in reality. To me, salvation is also a superstition and therefore a non issue. My decisions on "doing good works" are based purely on my personal sense of right and wrong, not the threat of going to Hell or being rewarded in Heaven.

It seems to me that most anyone should be able to figure out the difference between right and wrong on their own, but history has proven that not to be the case. I suspect that religion was invented by man, to control men who could not figure things out on their own. My parents and grandparents, though not religious, taught me this sense of right and wrong through their actions and I admired their ability to get along with most everyone and the respect given them by others.

I don't pretend to be perfect and I've made my share of poor decisions over the years, but I've slowly learned by the consequences of those decisions and how they made me feel. I've never felt the desire to go into a building once a week and grovel on my knees for forgiveness of my mistakes to an inanimate object. Rather, I've learned that a better solution is to make good directly to the person I've wronged.

Over the years, I've enjoyed the benefit of a number of complete strangers who have gone out of their way to help me out when I needed it, usually not with money but with deeds. I never questioned their motives and I really don't care, but I remember very clearly how their concern made me feel. I've found that going out of my way to help someone when the opportunity presents itself, is not difficult and gives everyone a newfound respect for each other. It's just the right thing to do and requires no future reward or exemption from punishment.

Really nice shot, Alex. I forwarded it to my daughter (away at college and also an amateur astronomer) as she has a Canon DSLR and lens similar to yours. Could you tell me what you mean by "modified" as it relates to your camera?

White Castles.... aren't those the plain bite size little mini-burgers with little or nothing on them?

You need to come out West and try a Murder Burger (near U. C. Davis in California).

Gregory,

If you haven't already, I'd strongly suggest you join a local amateur astronomy club. This will give you all kinds of resources to learn from. My club, for example, has a number of loaner scopes for new members to check out and use for a month at a time. This way they can get some experience with operating an equatorial mount or a Dob, without having to buy one. Club star parties also afford the opportunity to see what other members are using, learn how they operate, learn some of their problems, idiosyncrasies and limitations, see what the views are like and begin to get an idea of what appeals to you. Club members also sometimes buy/sell/trade equipment among themselves.

Between my daughter and I, we own an 8" Dob, a Celestron C8 on a GoTo equatorial mount, three TeleVue refractors, a Losmandy GM8 mount with Digital Setting Circles, a TeleVue Gibraltar mount and a heavy duty Bogen camera tripod with a TeleVue Telepod (Alt-Az) Head. What gets the most use? The Bogen tripod with Telepod head, with a TeleVue TV76 Apochromatic Refractor and a Telrad finder. Why? Because it's compact, very quick to set up and take down (an advantage in cold weather), it's dirt simple to operate and it works very well.

You've already addressed your feelings on GoTo. In my experience it has its place but I've had to spend a lot of time helping beginners set them up, polar align them, then star align them, then lead them through the controls, just to get them up and operating, simply because they didn't spend some time with a simple mount just learning the astronomy basics. (You can't polar align a mount if you don't know how to find Polaris.) Many of them are overwhelmed, get frustrated and lose interest. Also, GoTo telescope mounts are not "plug-and-play" as the advertising would lead you to believe. Most all of them are fraught with mechanical or electronic glitches which can be time consuming to work through.

You mentioned you have some binoculars. Have you got a stable tripod and adjustable head to mount them on? A mount to hold binoculars steady is a very good investment.

Good luck.