Image of the day

Captured by
Erwin Forbragd

M33 in Triangulum

About Astromart

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: Darrell Fichtl

September 12, 2007 02:35 AM Forum: Politics

Change

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
:C

My God, I've been gone for three years and nothing has changed. Just to keep everybody up to date we've moved from Green Valley, AZ where I spent much to much time at Mt Hopkins on the gamma ray scope, here to Athens, GA.

The weather and home prices are much preferable. Someone asked me if I wanted to help at UGA's telescope. I could only reply that when you've seen Paris anything else pales by comparison. (There scope is pretty small in comparison) Anyway the water content in the atmosphere is disgusting. There are patchy clouds almost all the time and a thick watery haze the rest of the time. I sold my 10" Meade to a guy in Maryland.

Anyway down with the Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians or just about any other organized group running for office. Vote independent. Don't laugh; how can it possibly be any worse.

Well maybe it could. How about Al Franken, or Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, or Rush Limbaugh, or Harry Reid and don't forget Nancy Pelosi or let's put up Chappaquiddick Kennedy again.

May 22, 2004 01:19 PM Forum: Home Observatories

Buying property in the Mountains

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
I've been faced with the same situation and I live in Arizona. A good idea is to get out your Rand McNalley like I did. I drew a 50 mile circle around Phoenix and excluded any area north of Phoenix less than 100 miles (Phoenix lights up like an Xmas tree at night). That gave me a 90 degree quadrent of 100 miles and a 270 degree quadrent at 50 miles. Going directly south puts me 50 mile north of Tucson and that isn't to hot either. In addition there's nothing but desert and dumpy towns in that area. As it turns out there's only one place really that's left in all of Arizona (providing that you don't want to travel 25 miles for milk) and that's Wickenburg. Keep in mind that Arizona has some REALLY old towns that are "dumps" There are a lot of places that you could go in Arizona; that depends on how dark you want your skies and what degree of cold and dumpyness you will tolerate. I'm sure that your wife will have significant input on the dumpyness. Good luck. 8)

May 29, 2004 07:11 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Meade 16" LX200 GPS

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
smile smile smile Thank you all for your excellent input. All I need to find is the house. Was down in Casa Grande today but so far no luck. It's hard leaving the golf course here for a gravel backyard there!

June 6, 2004 03:53 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

New v Used

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
Bob:

When I bought my 10" Meade a couple of years ago I got it used from a shop in Tucson. It was, for all indications, new! Frank, at Stellar Visions, said it had been purchased and the individual had some financial problems and returned it. He seems to carry a wide assortment of used scopes.

I bought my 416XT off Astromart and had it upgraded to a 416XTE. That was for two reasons; the CCD had some spots and the upgrade improved the blue spectrum. Even though it cost me $500 it was still a go buy.

I think it's fairly easy to buy used 6" to 8" equipment because of "apeture fever" upgrades. It becomes a little more difficult as you get to 10" and above as people tend to settle down with what they have.

I'm pretty much limited to 10" because of the lifting weight of the OTA and fork assembly. I figured when I purchased the 10" that a 12" was out of the question. Although I'm 6'4" and a hefty 210 I'm 72 and things have rather "slowed down."

Good luck on your hunting. Keep checking the classifieds here. Sometimes you can come up with a good bargin but you have to be quick.

June 25, 2004 01:18 PM Forum: Home Observatories

dome project

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
8) What a great observatory. If I tried that my homeowners association would have a cow!

We're moving from Sun City West to Green Valley to get away from that supernova Phoenix!

The best that I can get by with is a Robo-Dome. Look forward to seeing the finsh.

Darrell

June 25, 2004 01:35 PM Forum: A Day in the Life of the Administrator

Herb - Possible fraud response to my ad#273314

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
If any of you have seen the movie "The Flim-Flam Man" with George C. Scott this scheme sure smacks of something he might pull.

If you think you're "making out like a bandit" then someone probably is, and not you!

Reminds me of my dumb half brother who once told me that the used car saleman made a $2000 mistake when he sold him the car. SURE HE DID!

June 26, 2004 04:13 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

New Scope

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
8) I was thinking of a 12" also but I had the sense to look at the weight before I bought. If you can mount that scope permanently in your backyard and keep it out of the weather and secure by all means buy it. If not, you had better settle for a 10".

I'll tell you lugging that 65# up on the tripod and then screwing in the baseplate without dropping it is about all I can do. I don't think I could make it with the 12".

June 26, 2004 04:28 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Full-disk image for June 21

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
8) WOW! What a shot.

Enjoy it while you can. I've been retired for 22 years. Believe me when I say the time really flies by!

June 30, 2004 04:29 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

802x on the Moon tonight!

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
Floyd:

I think some of these fine people are doubting your veracity!

Next time just take a picture and astonish us all!

grin

July 3, 2004 03:36 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

New things for sale?

Posted By Darrell Fichtl
There's always those who want to "start" in the hobby and find out one of three things.

1. They don't want to take the time for it. TV is too great! HA, what a joke that is!

2. After they look at the moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn they loose interest.

3. They discover that they want more and trade off what they have to get a bigger and better scope.

Heck, when I started out at age 12 I went in as cheap as possible. I now have a 10" LX200GPS with a 416XTE and intend to expand on that as soon as we move. Piggyback a Nighthawk, equip it with a electronic eyepiece, permanently attach the 416 to the 10" and Robo Dome the whole thing.

Funding Member

Sponsors


View all sponsors

Search