Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

Im going to the Aus eclipse in 2028.  It passes directly over the observatory of my astro-pal, Alan Wade.  It's out near Coolah in NSW and he has a 32-inch scope!!!  I'll be 77 by then and it may be my last big astro trip.....

Dave

Hi Dave,

You should have some nice dark skies in Coolah. Its not far from Siding Spring. If you head to the centreline a little north of Dubbo you would get about 4 minutes of totality.

My plan at this stage is to drive up to the Kimberly region of WA. About 3200km each way so a good 3 day drive but it would be fun exploring the outback. And totality is a little over 5 minutes.

Just a warning, it is already getting plenty of publicity, so book your flight early before the airlines catch on!

Cheers

Maurice

Another of the Apollo-era astronauts has died. Tom Stafford died of liver cancer yesterday.

Out of 31 Apollo astronauts only 8 are still alive and only 4 who actually walked one the Moon.

One wonders if any will still be alive to see another Moon landing.

Maurice

Hi Rod,

No need to be grumpy with Dave. He does have a fair point. Personally, I think the Onion has the best take on it all.

https://www.theonion.com/what-trump-meant-by-there-would-be-a-bloodbath-if-he-1851346115

To get back on topic, Dave, i hope you do manage to get to Oz for the 28 eclipse. Views through your mate's 32 in of objects like 47 tuc, eta carina, 30 doradus, NGC 1365, the helix nebula, and so many more will knock your socks off!

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi James,

I couldn't agree with you more! These days i just ignore any of richie's posts that, as you say, " vile and gratuitously insulting posts".

Occasionally he does make a valid point, but it is so often buried under so much invective and abuse that he destroys any effect it might have.

Cheers,

Maurice

Jim, Jim, Jim...

When will you learn. Pope richie the least, patron saint of the holy lands of dodgeball and denial, is utterly infallible and always perfect in is blatherings. And unless it can be shown otherwise from the sacred texts of faux and bretbart, all must accept the words of pope richie the least, as if spoken by the orange god himself.

Get with the program!

Maurice

During Easter both Biden and trump posted messages to celebrate it. Here they are:-

"My wife and I send our warmest wishes to Christians around the world celebrating Easter Sunday. Easter reminds us of the power of hope and the promise of Christ's Resurrection. As we gather with loved ones, we remember Jesus' sacrifice. We pray for one another and cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities. And with wars and conflict taking a toll on innocent lives around the world, we renew our commitment to work for peace, security, and dignity for all people. "

"HAPPY EASTER TO ALL ... INCLUDING THOSE MANY PEOPLE I COMPLETELY & TOTALLY DESPISE BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DESTROY AMERICA."

Gee, I wonder who sent out which message?

Maurice

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

You do realize your posts are passive aggressive, right? You denigrate someone then post your little winky and smiley emojis and think it’s okay. Are you an angry old man or a teenage girl? No one else on this forum does that in every post they make. Do you think we need them to understand your persona? Makes you look silly, but we all knew that.

Hi Jim,

I hope you had a great time on your cruise.

Regarding pope richie, it is not just that he makes himself look silly. So many of his posts really show how foolish and ignorant he is. Most times he does not post an original thought. Just parrots what others post. And cannot express himself without vulgarity and personal abuse. What is worse, he is clearly proud of his ignorance. Very sad really. But I suppose we should expect that from someone who has so little education and who is unable to hold down a job in his (supposed) chosen career and is reduced to just making sawdust.

I see he is still fascinated by homosexuality. The way he likes to accuse others all the time makes it appear that he is of that kind. Maybe he should try reading Moses, especially Leviticus. I see also that he is still so ignorant that he believes racism is based only on skin colour.  What a loser.

Good luck with the eclipse everyone.

Maurice

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

By the way, does it tell you something about your chosen career when literally anyone on this forum would be completely capable of performing your job, teaching astronomy to kids?  

The weirdness that you are now getting into, I find fascinating.  Then again I do find the mind of average lunatics like yourself out there to be fascinating as well, i.e. what makes the average leftist freak like yourself tick.

Are you not interested in telling us more of your life story where you stated that you were discriminated against through your employer?

Are you suing said employer?

Were you transitioning into a female or did the supposed discrimation towards a white boy like yourself involve something unrelated?  

By the way, since your mind is a bit feeble these days, I'll just let you know that I have a University Degree in Biomedical Engineering.  

Not that I really care about that because I never needed it for what I've always done for a living which is designing and manufacturing.  

Once again the pathetic little loser richie, shows his utter ignorance. Since he claims that anyone on this forum could teach my classes and since he claims to have considerable education, I  invite him to come and teach either my Quantum physics classes, or Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology classes.

He is also ignorant of my voting record in that I have never voted liberal in my life, apart from once when I was 21.

Always wanted to make sawdust? Then why did you claim that you used your supposed degree in work for 10 years? More lies? And if that was what you always wanted to do, why do the degree? Why waste the money and the years of study? Assuming that you really did do it and not purchase the diploma through the mail.

Discrimination, yes plenty of it because I am not american. And because I keep holy, God's sacred Sabbath day. Sue the employers? Couldn't be bothered. They are not worth it. Too much hassle. I have seen the response from admin when I complained.

Hi James,

I had fantastic views of the eclipse. I went to southern Illinois and set up on the levee of the Mississippi River. Had thin cirrus drifting past during the partial stages, mostly a result of aircraft contrails, but the sky was completely clear for totality. Like you, I could see Venus and Jupiter well before totality. I did look for comet Pons/Brooks during totality using 20x80 binoculars but without success.

I did expect the corona to be more extended with longer streamers, as this is more common around sunspot maximum and was surprised at how uniform the corona was. Perhaps it was because there were no major complex sunspots.

I was amazed at how brilliant the big prominence was! It was easily visible to the naked eye and was fantastic in the binoculars.

A couple of other things that stood out for me:- How rapidly the light level changed in the last few minutes before totality. I did not notice this in previous total eclipses. How the colour of the light changed. The closer to totality, the more yellow the light became. Something else I had not noticed before.

Finally, just how quickly the time passed. I had about 4m 9s of totality but it felt like 4s!!! I was caught out by 3rd contact. Note to self... Make a recording counting down the time remaining for future eclipses!

To sum up... A fantastic experience. Even better than the 2017 eclipse. This was my 4th successful total eclipse and the best yet. (the one in 1999 was spoiled by clouds. :-() Here are a few of my images. They were taken with my 5" f/5 refractor.

Slightly longer exposure.