Posts Made By: Edd Weninger

Contact George Whitney at A-P.

He has a spreadsheet that calculates a bunch of variables. He will email it to you.

Edd Weninger

Paul Maxson said:

I am just pondering some ideas so humor me. If I put an AP1200 mount on, say, the 24" portable pier, how high up would the centre of the cradle be?

I'm batting around some ideas that I may not be able to act on for a few years, but I love planning and pondering.

Thanks for your patience.
Paul Maxson

Here's the Big Mak on its A-P 1200 mount. It made the trip to PHX without any issues. Customs did not even open the crate.

It brought with it an unusual sky for Arizona, high altitude humidity which manifests itself with jet contrails that grow into high cirrus clouds.

Not totally de-bugged yet. I've determined collimation will take two people. One to look through the scope and one to make the adjustments. The scope is large, so I look at the difraction pattern, step up on a small ladder and make a tweak, climb down and look and I find I made it in the wrong direction.

Also have some small orthogonality issues with the mount. The FOV is small with the 4,000mm focal length, so it needs to be right. I made the holes in the mount plate somewhat large, so we would not have a problem when bolting up the scope. Now I just need to find the right size hammer to tap it into place ;-)

Will have more to say when fully commissioned.

Cheers,

Markus Ludes said:

After some delay the next optical set for a high quality 400 mm Maksutov Cassegrain has arrived, tube is almost completed and get assembled soon with some little extra work. The Master Matthias Wirth is again doing all mechanical work.

This 16" Maksutov going to western USA

best wishes
Markus

Pictures show rear polished surface of 400 mm Mak primary

I don't normally post here, but this is ???????? Don't know what to call it.

And, because they think not enough people signed up, they are extending the deadline. Can't give away the money fast enough....

It seems that the Obama campaign is purposely creating a cloud over legal off-shore bank accounts. Talk about anything but the important stuff. Keeps the media busy. And it works. Most people do not understand how off-shore banking works.

I'm not rich, and I am a patriotic American. However, when I retired in 2008 I had savings in several U.S. banks, tax paid. When the interest returns on my tax paid funds fell to virtually zero, I did what most prudent people would do. I looked for opportunities to get a better return. After all, these returns are needed to fund my retirement.

Barclays in the U.K. provided the best combination of security and higher interest rates, so funds went there.

The U.S. has a requirement that monies coming out of the U.S. to a foreign bank from a U.S. citizen be reported to the IRS. The interest earned is also reported.

The tax advantage is that taxes on the interest earned are tax deferred. Tax is payable on the interest when the funds are brought back to the U.S.

If you read the original reporting in the Washington Post, you will note that Romney's 'mystery' account is just about this. They did use the word 'defered', but only once. The rest of the long article was written to put more cloud over Romney's finances. The article also did note that everything was 'legal' (in fine print).

Clear skies,

Jim Johnson said:

http://news.yahoo.com/axelrod-tweet-burst-hits-romney-bermuda-tax-shelter-194710878--abc-news-politics.html

I don't mind that the president-to-be is rich - after all that's the American Dream but I think having off-shore bank accounts and tax shelters might be a little un-American. I'm sure he is complying with state and federal laws but...

Jim J

My Traveler is modified as you are thinking about. I have various length threaded extension tubes to accomodate different set-ups.

Joe Herzing said:

Hello, I have been observing with a recently acquired 178 F9 it is really awesome what that size refractor can do. I am wondering about the feasability/advisability/difficulty of having the tube cut down for binoviewing at native power. Currently eyepieces come to focus about 3/4" of an inch out. It seems taking a few inches off with help with binoviewing and portability of the scope.
thanks
joe

Actually, as you well know, GM did go through a bankruptcy procedure.

Friends of mine who depended on GM dividend income as part of their retirement income have wallpaper now instead of an income.

And, you do recall the labor unions were given a share of the company that they never owned before the proceedings. All this was negotiated and pushed through by President Obama's Auto Industry Czar.

If the bankruptcy had been managed by normal judicial means, the company would still exist and genuine share holders might have retained their stock, although at a diluted price when new stock was issued to new investors, U.S. Government loans or otherwise.

You should understand what usual bankruptcy procedures are. As a businessman, Romney's comments are spot on, let a neutral court decide the outcome. GM would still be operating. How many times have airlines gone bankrupt, without government involvement, and still operate?

President Obama's approach was purely political.

Please educate yourself.

Rod Kaufman said:

From the DNC convention:
Romney: "Let GM go bankrupt!"
Obama: "Not on my watch!"

Google Riccardi-Honders. Seems applicable to ATM construction.

Astro-Physics makes one 12" f/3.8

Dave Erickson said:

Does anyone have a reference for fast astrograph designs? Faster than F/3 for a 16803 CCD at between 40� and 60� focal length… I am considering making a larger astrograph…

Either you or the buyer could/should hire an import/export shipping brokerage company. I imported a custom scope from APM Markus Ludes January of this year. They handled everything, from checking the quality of the crating, picking it up at APM, trucking it to Frankfurt, doing all the paperwork correctly (I had to sign a few but my signatures only needed to be .pdf files I scanned and emailed). They also provided tracking datails down to telling me what specific flights it was on. And delivered it to the front door of my observatory at an appointed time.

You might want to suggest this to your buyer. It will cost him a few bucks, but he could have confidence that things will proceed nornally.

BTW, you might want to check with A-P on what type of lens cell you have. The lens on the A-P 155 EDF can be removed and replaced with losing collimation. Packing the lens seperately is safer IMO.

Good luck!

joseph badal said:

Recently I placed an ad for a AP180 . Quickly received an "I'll buy it" from an Amarter from S.Korea. I was reluctant to accept, but he offered additional consideration to help compenste for the extra hassles. Buyer would pay all customs and shipping expenses.
Turns out there were a few new (to me) hurdles:

1) have to obtain EIN from IRS
2) Verify buyer is not on one of four "do not ship to lists"
3) Shipment has to have "Shipper's Export Declaration" number from the "U.S Dept. of Commerce". The SED form HAS to be done online and requires training and passing a 35 multiple choice test. I took this test "cold" got 3 questions correct-FAILED.

Needless to say, doing all this for a one time sale would require more than a little additional consideration!Last year on an international sale did not have these as issues.

Question: Is the above possibly correct? Is there another way? Buyer seems legit.
Joe

Neat! Sometimes when someone thinks "What if we did this...? it works. Sometimes, not so much.

Hefty looking mount. Details somewhere?

Edd Weninger
Overgaard AZ