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Posts Made By: Thomas Dey

October 18, 2016 02:22 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Goto vs. Pushto

Posted By Thomas Dey
For a reasonably small scope, push-to is fast and convenient. If climbing a ladder or sharing with (inexperienced) friends, tracking is convenient. The max sky drift is a degree in four minutes... which is fast at high mag. e.g. it you are savoring a planet at 300x with a 65 deg apparent field of view eyepiece, it would cruise cler across the field in less than a minute. That said, I have indeed shared a giant Dob at high mag with friends, no problem... But they are experienced. Tom

October 19, 2016 11:32 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Goto vs. Pushto

Posted By Thomas Dey
There is one other way to achieve this. Two Co-aligned scopes where one person aims it and the other is observing too. That is IDEAL for star parties because (if they are otherwise identical) you describe the object and the other enjoys the tour. Think of it as taking flying lessons where pilot and student both have the same view and controls! I've always wanted to do that but it's on the list of never get to. Would look like Dob binos but both eyepieces are outboard and traditional. Just don't poke the student's eye out... This of course would be the topic of another thread. Has anyone out there ever tried this? Tom

October 20, 2016 02:52 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Cocoon Nebula

Posted By Thomas Dey
Oooh love it! I especially like images of challenging but familiar visual objects. The "little" galaxies in the background also very cool. Seems that in a deep, busy field... the oblique spirals with core are easiest to pick out from the stars. The B&W I also like. Tom

October 23, 2016 02:45 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn

Posted By Thomas Dey
Nice image; not overly-sharpened! I like the brightness, contrast and color (as seen on my monitor). Color is always the most subjective aspect of displayed images, even changes with surrounding environment disjoint from the display itself; you seem to have availed the available gamut nicely. Tom

October 30, 2016 12:44 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Project Orion

Posted By Thomas Dey
Yeah, I was aware of that; they did intriguing small-scale experiments that demonstrated the principle quite nicely: The vehicle (in the limit) is accelerated by a series of impulses, rather than continuous burn. If the impulses are literally nuclear, efficiency can be good. Protecting the crew from getting hammered is theoretically possible... but damned challenging. Reminds me of some ramjet contrails that are beaded/staccato.

November 1, 2016 01:29 AM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

System freezes after uploading pictures

Posted By Thomas Dey
If an image gets too close to 500K it may not load. But your problem sounds different...

November 2, 2016 05:01 PM Forum: After Dark

Excellent Article On Light Pollution

Posted By Thomas Dey
Concise, accurate article with good images. I wish Low Pressure Sodium was highlighted though.

November 5, 2016 01:17 AM Forum: A Day in the Life of the Administrator

Email notifications stopped working

Posted By Thomas Dey
YIPPEE!! Seems to be working now; some previous traffic may have been lost.

November 9, 2016 01:05 AM Forum: After Dark

Lunar Photography: No Telescope Required

Posted By Thomas Dey
Those are very nice! I can see you sharpened them. Do you know what is the true focal length and F#?

November 9, 2016 07:39 AM Forum: Politics

Let the healing begin?

Posted By Thomas Dey
I agree and think he will do just that. But can one preemptively pardon someone who is not even indicted? All Trump would need to do is tell the Justice to stand down...so the whole thing would just go away?

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