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Posts Made By: jess tauber

April 21, 2009 09:27 PM Forum: Telescope Making

A curiosity, or can we do something with this?

Posted By jess tauber
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421120911.htm

Eyepieces?

Jess Tauber

May 6, 2009 05:54 PM Forum: Meteorites & Meteors

Maybe start looking in the Negev?

Posted By jess tauber
I found this in the newsfeeds:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090505/sc_livescience/oldestsurfaceonearthdiscovered

1.8 million years- must have cumulated a lot of meteoritic materal in such a time frame- just have to sort them out from the local rocks.

Jess Tauber

May 8, 2009 05:57 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Not Geico

Posted By jess tauber
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507164407.htm

Maybe someday we'll figure out if we can use this.

Jess Tauber

May 12, 2009 03:05 AM Forum: After Dark

Re: star like object seen breaking up

Posted By jess tauber
That was planet Vulcan breaking up, a publicity stunt for the new Star Trek movie. Unfortunately the inhabitants weren't amused (not that they would have been in any case....) grin

Jess Tauber

May 12, 2009 06:12 PM Forum: Telescope Making

mineral mirror substrates?

Posted By jess tauber
I've posted before about the possibility of utilizing green impact melts for glass as substrate for mirror making. More recently I got interested in meteorites themselves.

Pallasites often have incorporated olivines. These greenish magnesium/iron silicates according to Wikipedia have a conchoidal fracture pattern, like glasses.

Down side includes brittleness, and reaction to acids and CO2 in the atmosphere (which might make recoating a big problem later).

But my questions are a) whether one could actually fuse and homogenize enough meteoritic blobs (which can be obtained rather cheaply, unlike the green glass) and get a blank of good enough quality to make a mirror from, b) grind and polish this to good effect, and then c) protect it from degradation by coating on all sides?

Jess Tauber

May 15, 2009 11:20 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Big aluminization job?

Posted By jess tauber
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090515084157.htm

Can I get one of these?

Jess Tauber

May 19, 2009 10:28 PM Forum: Global Warming - REAL or NOT

Do something vs. Do nothing- take a look

Posted By jess tauber
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519134843.htm

Jess Tauber

June 10, 2009 04:26 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Large aperture, long focus dob without the tube?

Posted By jess tauber
Has anyone on the list ever made or heard of a larger aperture (20 inches or so), long focus (F8 up) with dob base, but no tube per se, just a rod or something to keep alignment with the tall ladder? The focuser and secondary would actually attach to the ladder, so no weight on the rod.

Jess Tauber

June 16, 2009 08:23 AM Forum: ASTRONOMY

all stars celestial globe?

Posted By jess tauber
A couple of years ago on evilba* I saw an auction for a brand of celestial globe, damaged so reasonably priced (otherwise an arm and a leg), a limited edition of some sort. It was all black (not one of those stone things) and had all the stars in their proper places, perhaps based on wide field photographs then used to make gores to put over a sphere. There were no constellations, no legends or names of stars or meridian, longitude lines, etc. Just night sky all around.

Does anyone here know who made these. Darned things were beautiful- I just wish I had one. This was NOT a projector, BTW. Thanks.

Jess Tauber

June 23, 2009 08:40 AM Forum: Politics

Iran- what if it's all a pretext??

Posted By jess tauber
I'm starting to wonder whether the West is being played. What if the entire election snafu was manufactured to root out dissidents on the one hand and set the stage for confrontation with us on the other. Are the major parties all snickering with glee at our stupidity?

Jess Tauber

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