Posts Made By: Jim Miller

No one has any advice or ideas?

You could also check out Ebay. There are a couple
of professional sellers there, including Burgess,
Moonfish, Owl Services, and Smart Astronomy.

I can't speak to the QC of any of these compared to
Stellarvue or WO, but the packages included with
some of them are pretty impressive. (But personally,
I just gotta say those WOs sure look the best,
aesthetically speaking)

I believe Burgess is having a 10% off sale there
until 12/18. I didn't read the whole auction, but
it said something about 10% off in the description.

Go to Ebay, and search "Binov*" and "Bino* view*"


EDIT: I looked at the Burgess, and it's 10% off with
an ebay coupon - but the coupon can be used to pay
for ANY ebay purchase so long as the purchaser
accepts, and you pay with, paypal. So, theoretically
this could be used for any of the bvs listed.

The ebay coupon code is C11-GIFTGUIDE, good until 12/18.

Hi, I do not know anything about the grease
situation, but I do know many tink that a
brass compression ring equals self-centering -
it doesn't. You're still pushing the barrel of
the eyepiece from one direction to the other
with a setscrew. The ring simply ensures you
won't mar the barrel with the setscrew.

Don't be a tease! You've gotta give us more than
that. I realize that you may not be able to discuss
the actual design parameters, but maybe you could
give us your impressions of it's probable
performance, assuming good quality control. (IE
will it be CA free and contrasty)

I find this very distressing. Not that I had any
immediate plans to, but now I will never do
business with, or purchase anything from, Burgess
optical.

I can forgive the vaporware issue - they just jump
the gun before they've got the actual product ready.
No harm done to anyone. However, when it comes to
selling a flawed product with promised fixes,
then simply dropping the promises - well, that's
just unethical business practice. I could never
trust anyone who treats customers that way.

Shame on Bill Burgess!

I can give a perhaps differing point of view. Not from a liberal
point of view, but from a true conservative one.

I say true conservative because the current administration and
majority party in Congress are about as conservative as Michael
Moore. I tend to call them pseudo-cons, because they don't stand
for anything conservative except cutting taxes.

A true conservative strongly believes in cutting taxes for two main
reasons - a belief that the money you earn is your money, and
to keep government under control. In order to acheive the latter, tax
cuts need to be coupled with spending cuts. GW has not met a spending
bill he didn't love. Not a single spending bill vetoed in six years.
Deficit spending and exponentially expanding debt are his legacy.

It goes without saying that the belief in small, unobtrusive government
precludes the creation of new beauracracies, yet that is exactly what
we have in the Dept. of Homeland Security. Government has only grown
under Republican rule. They haven't eliminated a single one.

The goal of smaller government is to keep it from becoming tyrannical
against it's own citizenry. Therefore, no genuine conservative
could support a Chief Executive who claims broad powers to circumvent
the law regarding spying on American citizens. If FISA is cumbersome,
rewrite it to streamline it. I have no doubt that lives can be saved
by monitoring suspected Al Quieda communications, but a true conservative
believes noone is above the law. Don't stop the surveillance,
but operate within the law.

Finally, as to the war, real conservatives believe that the US has no
more right to mold other countries to it's preference through force than
other countries have to mold us. Our military is to be used to protect
our country from clear, present threats - invasion, attack. Not to ensure
a potential enemy cannot be a threat in the future. Afghanistan was
the right move - the country was harboring the man who orchestrated
the attacks on the towers. Iraq was purely politically motivated.
(Note however that we have no problem with pushing other countries toward
democracy and individual freedom by economic/diplomatic means - throwing
our weight around)

I find it ironic that those who generally yell about the "libs" all
the time support a President and Congress who have increased spending
at much higher levels than the Democrats of the 80s (even before the
wars), grown the size of government, and increased government's power
and ability to interfere in citizens lives. And an administration that
has, frankly, shown a tendency for prevarication.

Stop it. We all know that everything wrong in the world
is Bill Clinton's fault.

Heh.

Donald Durbin said:

To All,

I have removed the thread that concerned my apology to Tom Hole. I apologize to the forum for starting an off topic thread. I seem to be apologizing a lot lately. Must be a phase I am going through.

I also know there are still some wounds that time will not heal. Maybe we could start a Veterans thread in the Off Topic forum and try to work through any lingering pain there.

Thanks
Don Durbin
Binoviewer Forum Moderator

This thread is off-topic! Please remove it! 8)

I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, I want
Anacortes to profit from Astromart. On the other
hand, it will just make used equipment in some
(or many) cases more expensive for the end user
when it is resold with markup.

I guess I would feel better about it if Astromart
didn't solicit donations if they're going to profit
by reselling used equipment from their ads.

But, in the end, it's your ball, Herb. You make
the rules, I'll live by them.