Posts Made By: Doug Culbertson

After losing our beloved Chow-mix Sally, who had been with us for 12 years, we didn't think that we would be ready for another dog anytime soon. Well, last weekend we happened upon an adoption booth put on by Big Dog Rescue of Tallahassee and fell in love with Kobe, a 2 year old Shiba Inu that had been found wandering around with a shock collar on his neck. Owners never materialized, and so he will be coming to live with us this Tuesday. Here's a photo his foster parent sent to us today.

Doug
Midway, FL

Aka "The Witch Head Nebula", and located near Rigel in Orion. I have seen many images of this object, but is it possible to see it visually?

Over the years, I have tried to see this nebula in a variety of telescopes, ranging from a 5" apo to an 18" dob, both with and without an OIII filter, but have never been able to confirm seeing it. I actually consider myself a pretty good observer, but this one just seems to elude me.

Doug
Midway, FL

Well, last summer we adopted our two year old Shiba Inu,Kobe,from the local rescue organization. He was so much fun that we decided that we simply had to have a second Shiba. If you know anything about Shibas, you will know that's a crazy thought. In spite of that, we adopted Aja a couple of months ago, and they are now settled in nicely.

Anyway, here's Kobe and Aja. Kobe is the red, Aja is the cream.

Doug
Midway, FL

8)

Is anyone else getting really tired of debunking this tired email?

Hard to believe that two oppositions later, this thing is still making the rounds. The thing is, those friends and coworkers that come to tell me about this are really excited to "inform" me about the event, and they always walk away disappointed at hearing the truth. BTW, where did the whole thing about "two full moons" come from anyway? Mars was bright in '03, but not that bright! :S

Doug
Midway, FL

Anyone put together a hifi system on a budget? I am talking at least near audiophile systems for $5k or less for a complete system. I put together the following system for just under $3k, and it was quite an upgrade from my old Kenwood HT receiver and Bose 501 loudspeakers:

Outlaw RR2150 receiver
Cambridge Audio 640c v.2 CDP
Music Hall MMF-5 turntable
NHT Classic Three loudspeakers
Kimber Timbre interconnects
Mapleshade Golden Helix speaker cables

This system is in a smallish room, so I didn't need a whole lot of stereo. So far I am very happy with the system, and the only upgrade I am considering is to replace the Goldring MC cartridge with a MM cartridge, possibly a Benz Micro ACE. Even as is, Diana Krall sounds like she's actually singing in my listening room.

I would be very interested in hearing what other budget systems are out there? Remember to keep it under $5k for the complete system! I don't need to start jonesing over some of the systems you hardcore audiophiles have.

Doug
Midway, FL

Hey, what a great idea for a forum. Does RVing count? I haven't done "real" camping in years, but still enjoy the outdoors. Here's a shot of my 27' travel trailer at St. George Island State Park in Florida. It's one of our favorites in Florida's fantastic state park system.

Doug
Midway, FL

Speaking of concert videos, I just picked up the above mentioned DVD, and highly recommend it as well. I could listen to her singing "Cry me a River" over and over and... 8)

Doug
Midway, FL

Looks like the venerable Orion Starblast just got a big brother! At 6" f/5, and selling for $249, this should do very well. I wish that it had a 2" focuser, but oh well...

http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=reflectors/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=09964

Since I don't know the answer to Larry's question, I want to start another thread.

In the past I have owned two Denk standards and a couple of TVs, all of which performed admirably in the dobs I was using them in. I finally got out of binoviewing because I had wayyyyy too much money tied up in high end eyepiece pairs and the binoviewers themselves when I considered the amount of time I got out to observe, and the fact that I actually seemed to prefer deep sky in monovision.

Fast forward to now...I am about to take possession of my first real SCT; a NS 11GPS, which has me thinking about binoviewers again. In thinking about all of the current choices, I remembered an old bino that Celestron used to offer that was only useable on SCTs. I believe that it was actually made by Baader Planetarium. Does anyone remember that bino? Anyone ever get a chance to use one? Since they come up for sale every once in a great while at pretty good prices, I was wondering if it was worthwhile, or if I would be better off with one of the current models, be it one of the many Chinese models, or a higher end version.

BTW, Larry, I liked my Denks and TV binos very much back when I was using them, but I have never used one of the Chinese versions, so I can't offer a comparison.

Doug
Midway, FL

I used to belong to an astronomy club, and about half of the "serious observers" were anything but. There were a couple that would stand next to my telescope for half the night running their mouths nonstop as I was trying to hunt down Arp galaxies, or faint planetary nebulae. I no longer belong to the club, and observe alone 100% of the time these days.

Doug
Midway, FL