Posts Made By: Greg Shaffer

Where are all the posts bragging about what great things Biden is doing? 

LOL.....Leave it to a Canadian to have to provide the list......of course 3/4 or more of it are setbacks instead of good things.

Lets take one of those points.....$30 a barrel transport costs as compared to $10 a barrel for the pipeline....

Not to mention the pollution factor as seen below.....and of course the transport profit goes to Warren Buffet and his railroad interests primarily....You know, that guy who was one of if not the largest contributor for Biden......

I understand that Jolting Joe is going to make sure coal miners and oil drillers get good union dues paying jobs! I can hear Loretta Lynn singing now, "I was born a solar paneling daughter, right here in Butcher Hollow." Aw, pick it Slim!!

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

For the record, I'm one tree-hugging liberal who thinks pipelines are the least evil of the transportation-of-oil methodologies.

As much as there will be a gradual weaning from oil there will still be oil travelling from field to refinery in both our countries.  The weaning in a practical sense is going to take decades....

In the meantime we don't need any more of this horror....Lac Megantic

Dave

Of course pipelines are the cheapest and safest method.....but then that isnt what pays Warren Buffet back for his "contributions" lol

Originally Posted by James Smallwood

Thanks Greg!  That makes sense as I never thought about it that way.

Do you know why I can't leave ratings anymore to members I am buying or selling from?

Sorry I dont.....I have not bought or sold anything in a few months myself but I know it was working last time I used them.

Originally Posted by Justin Daniel

I see others are having this issue too but I do not have the option to leave feedback for an item I sold to the buyer. Anyone have any solutions?

2 ways I know to get to unused ratings.....

Look under "my account" and in the ratings section for "unused ratings", the other would be to pull up the ad itself and there should be a flag that says something like "rate this transaction" or the like. I would guess if the ad was removed it may also remove the ability to leave a rating as well.

You are likely to be frustrated with jumping in to imaging with a C14 and trying to do long focus planetary work out of the gate. The forums here at AM are not very active as well. This is the best place to buy and sell but you might consider joining the Cloudy Nights site for input/info on imaging advice.

That said the C14 is a great choice for planetary imaging but doing long focus imaging requires knowledge and experience....Not what you want to hear but you might be better served by starting out with some deep sky stuff at shorter focal lengths with say a small refractor while you learn.

Originally Posted by Barry Young

Hi Greg:


I appreciate your answer very much. What I want to hear is what people who know more than I do think of what I am thinking. 

When people like me ask a question, it is to learn, not to validate decisions we have already made. If I had already decided there would be no point in asking what others think. 

Thank you very much for your reply. 

Barry

LOL.....so the implication is that I dont know more than you about imaging and the process involved? Really? I guess all those years I spent learning, building my own scopes and astro imaging count for nothing. 

You asked for thoughts on jumping straight to imaging with a long focus instrument such as a C14, I tried to point you down a less frustrating path.....Best of luck to you though.

Now assuming you didnt intend to convey the meaning I got from your response I will offer you one more bit of advice. Accurate tracking is essential to good imaging and the need for accuracy goes up exponentially as you increase the focal length used (such as for planetary imaging). I wouldnt consider attempting to build a mount and attain the accuracy required if you have not done so before.

Originally Posted by Joseph Gervase

Greg,
Barry is absolutely right.  It's best to go short on focal length in the beginning.  You will just end up frustrated if you go in the direction that you described.  I did it with a C9.25.  It's gone now for the same reasons and now I own and work with a 70mm high quality  triplet refractor and a 102mm triplet refractor. Using a DSLR but will jump into a CCD when I master the DSLR environment.  I do have an C8 Edge but use that primarily for visual.  But when I attempt to use it for imaging, the issue of tracking and precise alignment come into play.  It's always good to have fun though and you can try things out and see what success you have.  Good luck with it.
Joe G

Joseph....I think perhaps you meant to say "Barry, Greg is absolutely right" since we share the same opinion regarding beginning imaging.

Barry, I caught that you said you very much appreciated my reply....it was the rest of it that was a bit ambiguous lol

No worries mate..... One other bit of advice. When choosing a mount and following the philosophy of "lets do this once" that you indicated in your 1st post, you should consider the largest load you might be putting on it (for instance the C14 and the required accessories for imaging) then consider a mount with the "rated" ability to work with DOUBLE that load. You definitely want to stay at 75% or less of the rated capacity. The closer you get to using a mounts full capacity, the more images you will have to cull before beginning the image stacking process. Mounts like that dont come cheap but if you have the wherewithall to do so, it will serve you well for many years regardless of where your interests take you. 

On the mount itself, the "lets do this once" philosophy works, no so much when it comes to the scope though.....

Ohhh and before I forget, welcome to Astromart!