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Posts Made By: Joplin Motisher-Chittenden

August 3, 2007 11:43 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Mosquito protection

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I notice this website mentioned quite a bit with regard to mosquito protective clothing, deffinitely worth checking out:

http://www.bugshirt.com/

Joplin

August 15, 2007 11:54 PM Forum: Meade

4000 series wide angles

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The only 2 other sizes I'm aware of are the 32 and 40mm which are both 2" eyepieces.

Joplin

August 18, 2007 01:39 PM Forum: N.A.S.A.

Space Station Size?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
If the the ISS is directly overhead I came up with a width of around 45 arc seconds or a little larger than the diameter of Jupiter in the sky. Depending on how the station is oriented the solar panels are quite impressive and each could apear as long as 48 arc seconds. I've been able to track it manually with my 10" dob at up to 115x magnification and it is quite a site. I practice on low flying aircraft pretty often 8)

Joplin

August 22, 2007 03:56 PM Forum: Birding Optics and Photos

What Bird Is This?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Some google searching revealed that it is a Kalij Pheasant (an introduced species)

http://www.ejphoto.com/kalij_pheasant_page.htm

http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin/hawaii?Animals.kalij

Joplin

November 14, 2007 10:53 PM Forum: Telescope Making

How did I live without this ? (Bandsaw)

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I have the same bandsaw from Sears, it works great and like you mentioned is a versatile tool. One thing I did do was piece together an adapter from PVC so I could hook the dust collector port up to my shopvac. I use it for aluminum as well. I may try the beeswax idea to help keep the blade cool.

Joplin

November 22, 2007 03:08 PM Forum: Celestron

1990s Pricing on Firstscope 80EQ

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
March 1994 isssue of S&T has an Adorama ad that lists the Firstscope 80 w/45 erect prism for $489.95. Price the same in April 1994. July 1989 same scope was $459.95 from Adorama. Seems like sometime in 95' or 96' the model names change and the prices just say "Call".

Joplin

November 29, 2007 02:47 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Whats the worst scope you had?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Meade 97D spotting scope. I once checked to see why the primary mirror seemed to be out of alignment. I discovered that it was held in place by a big disk of goey double stick tape ! I was able to see the results of the Shoemaker - Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter with it though. Of course my Dynascope RV-6 showed way more detail when I used it later that Summer. I think I actually paid less for the RV-6 !

Joplin

December 11, 2007 01:07 AM Forum: After Dark

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Nabbed a few images of it and put together a quick and dirty composite. Ten second exposures w/ Canon 20D w/ 200mm lens. Times (upper left to lower right) are 00:16:19, 00:17:10, 00:17:57, 00:18:41 (UT).
The bright star nearby is Caph in Cassiopeia.

Joplin

December 11, 2007 02:24 AM Forum: After Dark

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
From Space.com:

December 10: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 to orbit the classified NROL-24 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

I'm guessing what we saw was a fuel dump from this rocket.

Joplin

December 14, 2007 07:01 PM Forum: After Dark

Geminid asteroid storm?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I was watching the infrared satellite images like a hawk to see if the weather would clear. A bit before midnight I saw that it was going to clear so I grabbed my sleeping bag and drove a dark site about 45 min. away. The weather cleared right on time and it was super clear at the site (M33 visible naked eye). I counted 320 meteors from 12:15 am to 4:15 am. From 1:30 to 2:30 I saw 120 of them. Most were fairly faint, probably about 25 of them were brighter than Mars and about 6 or 7 left smoke trails that were visible for a short time. Definitely one of the better showers I've seen since the last good Leonids storm.

Joplin

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