Posts Made By: Mark Jordan

Does kind of bring up memories of the history films of PM Chamberlain waving his useless piece of paper from the Munich Agreement, declaring it meant peace for "our time"! Appeasements and a show of weakness never accomplished anything related to long term peace in such situations, usually accompishes just the opposite... Always has, always will, The Romans and the Goths comes to mind reaching back through history, but there are ample more examples even before and after that point.

As has been said time and time again, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!" Again, and again, and again. Nations rise on the bold actions, sacrifices, and hard work of their founders and following generations until generations come along that become complacent. They become lazy, a whole lot less independant, not so bold, all to willing to hand over their personal freedoms, and hand the hard work off to others to do for them. All in the pursuit of an easier more "peaceful" life with less personal responsibility and accountability which of course is alway proven out to be a ruse, because you can't have great nations without a whole lot of hard work, courage, personal responsibility, and accountability. When a nation begins to loose those values as a people, it reverbarates all the way from the bottom, through the core, and to the top.

So does this mean China is going to declare the moon an "Air Defense Zone" Soon??!!!! :S

YouTube............ Not a real reliable source of technical information on such things as this. Dead give a way whom or what ever entity posted this video is pushing the Russian jets is in the the musical que. Roll the movie music from the Star Trek movie... "Freedom Fighters" from Two Steps From Hell as the SU27 begins it's show. The SU27 has been around a few years and has been know for it's own widow making flight characteristics.

As for te F35...Yea, it's never gona live up to the expectations it was sold on. Lots of performance & system reliability problems, but then that should come as no surprise given all of the nations inputting to the program. Too many cooks in the kitchen, & trying to design a one size fits all tactical aircraft. One size never fits all and usually excels at nothing, that one size does it all, medium well! It can't dance as well with the more single mission designs, but can do missions beyond those single mission designs are just not all that good at. I think the still standing champion at doing everything it was designed to do, and doing all very well even excellently in some categories is the "rusty old" latest versions of the F15.

Regarding the F22... It actually does everything it was designed to excellently and has been proven to be able to out perform any and all other fighter/interceptors near it's class, there's really nothing else in it's class yet. Of course it's design came out of the old school method of designing an aircraft for military use. It was the last of the really competitive design aircraft, the "contract" for the fighter the USAF was looking for was awarded to the company with the best design, not a "designed by everyone for everything" single entry. The F22 however has a serious flaw, it too has proven to be a widow maker due to hypoxia when flying at altitude. I don't know if the problem was ever fully resolved, but it had something to do with the oxygen supply system & how the oxygen was delivered to the pilot in flight. Performance wise the F22 is the fighter to beat, but pretty useless if the pilot oxygen supply system is unreliable at high altitude. Also, exactly because the F22 Aircraft is so far out front on performance and having no real equal even expected for yet a few more years, it has basically kind of outclassed it's self to justify having a bunch of them at it's price tag. Especially given that still currently proven superiority enhanced F15s can still pretty much rule the sky in numbers as far less cost per unit.

So, yea the F35 has demonstrated a lackluster performance based on what they originally wanted from the units, but it is still capable of doing all of the jobs everyone wanted it to. The F22 is far from useless, but it is too good for it's own good for performance & delivery of features and benefits the USAF wanted out of it.... Budget is what has halted it's production until there is an enemy the F15 can't still handle for much less. In short the F22 was/is way too far ahead of it's time currently. I hope they have figured out the oxygen system reliability problems as well, that is really the only performance strike against it... but then killing pilots is a pretty big strike!

Mark J.

Sorry for the double up posting but........ Yea, the best manuverability out here, along with great stealth capabilities!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csj8_GOy1os

The F22 is actually capable of pulling turns, climbs and such manouvers at G forces great enough to kill the human pilot, still stay together, and keep flying! Uh yea, this "feature" is basically regulated and contained by the onboard fly by wire system... At least they knew of that potential widow maker!

Mark J.

Thanks all,

Some good points, but the secondary & focuser while not set back a whole lot more than a regular Synta 10" Newt are set back 7.5" from the front of the tube. The regular set back for Orion has been closer to 4 inches, so no you cannot see the opening of the front when looking straight down the focuser. Don't have too many complaints on the contrast I get from the OTA, just as was said feel the "baffles" are pretty much a useless cosmetic widget not doing much at all but adding 5 lbs. to the tube weight. The end extension thing has crossed my mind a time or two, not really too concerned about the weight as it is sitting on a G11. I just like to get rid of things that might just be useless weight. Thought about replacing the baffles with a Protostar Tube Liner, it's cheap enough & a lot less hassle than going the flocking paper route. The pursuit of some free aluminum flashing such as the box building supply places sell is not a challenge. Being a FT career FF/EMT-P I can put the word out I'm looking for some & likely have more than I would ever need. About 1 out of every 5 FF I know or work with does contracting, several do roofing so the flashing wouldn't be tough to find.... It's a thought.

Right now I will have plenty of time to work on the tube if I want to as of the February the mirror is going to be bound for Steve Swazye. When I had it out I found a defect in the aluminum coating, it appears to be breaking down under the protective coatings. It's a very small spot about 2mm x 1mm in a tear drop shape, but under a 4x magnifying glass it looks like tiny flecky edges around the spot, but the protective coating appears unbroken. Not a good sign, possibly some kind of contaminate when it was coated. It's not a real problem right now doesn't really effect the images due to flat frames, nor does it seem to effect anything visually... Just a small defect, my concern being it may continue to grow. Orion was "understanding", but not much they are or can do about it as the OTA was purchased in December of 2012 new by the original owner, who sold it to me May of 2013 due to it being too heavy for his setup.

In Orion's defense, the OTA is "second hand" and out of the 1 year warranty period. Orion did respond to my hard copy letter sent to express my disappointment in a 2 YO primary mirror showing reflective coating deterioration. Just let them know it was happening & I was completely honest about the purchase history on the OTA. They did give me a call and expressed their regrets, wanted me to continue to monitor the defect & see if it continued to grow, but basically didn't know if they could do anything for me about it. I just told them fair enough, but I was likely going to go ahead and get it taken care of as I would not sell it with an uncertainty on the primary, likely just get it recoated & keep using it for a while. Thought I might as well have it refigured if possible before the recoating, Steve said he could get to it end of February!

Mark Jordan

http://www.thestardeckobservatory.com

Hi Paul,

I have had the experience of owning one of his mirrors, but not a full DK setup. I had an eight inch F5 primary purchased new from Royce in a refurb job, it's quality was outstanding. Visually I could get outstanding clarity @ F20 with even a medium quality Orion 12mm eyepiece on the bright planets & the moon. Deep sky was visually sharp with good clarity, and resolving power. Photographically it was equally as impressive, the mirror was coupled with a 2.14" Protostar Pyrex secondary. I was very pleased with it, but came across a 10" got bit by the aperture bug as it was priced to move.

Mark Jordan

www.thestardeckobservatory.com

I think maybe it was aliens that dropped them off while they were passing through! Sasquatch make terrible pets or specimens, ever try to keep just one fed??!!!!! They never seem to learn to go on the paper either... Yup them thar squatches musta been dropped there by aliens... dad gum invasive species!! :S >

Yes, and it is only going to get worse I fear. Have you gotten a load of the "digital bill boards"? Imagine a regular sized bill board out along the highways & byways only lit up like a giant big screen HD TV... light spilling out in all directions!

Hi Charles,

I have done tune ups & re-grease jobs on several of the Chinese Vixen Clone mounts over the years, just a tip for future reference on the parts to be de-greased allowing them to soak in simple odorless mineral spirits for a bit, even over night make the removal of all of the nastiest grease & crud simple and easy. I used a couple of those large sized plastic coffee cans with a lid, great for dropping in the parts & letting them soak over night, pretty much come out of the bucket clean, minimal brushing or scrubbing. Let everything just set out to dry after a final rinse with clean mineral spirits! Just about any kind of container big enough to hold the parts you can cover while soaking will do though.

Hi John,

What's your budget range in your EQ search? Just a thought, the mounts you are looking at are in the 40 - 45 lbs. MAX payload range. Just how much load do you currently have you are planning on giving a ride on the mounts in question, future equipment possibilities?? Looking for use as a grab and go or a more home body type of usage? Are you looking for used or new? Loads of little often over looked considerations to be thought about when looking to step up to a 'new' mount to get the best bang for your buck. Best time to mull through all of those considerations and various mounts is when you are looking at a new mount not after you've purchased and find it falls a little short with little room to grow you astronomy pursuits upon!

mark