Posts Made By: Rod Mollise

dominique mongrain said:

GOOD DAY TO ALL
Last neight I received a message from my AutoStar II MOTOR FAILLURE,MOTOR STALLED? I HAVE A BIG PROBLEME .I put my lx200 to off and go for a restart but a receive the same message.Some one have some explications for this probleme.
Thank
Dominique Mongrain
QC CANADA

Walter Hamler said:

I bought one of these a year or so ago and it works surprisingly well. However, it IS 60mm, so I am wondering how hard it would be to replace the ota with a Celestron 80mm f/5 ota that I have. The mount should be able to handle it no problem. Anyone ever taken one of these small Meade units apart?
Or am I just crazy? :-)

Walt

Paul Wysocki said:

I want to put out to the forum a simple query...if you had a chance to buy a piece of dark sky property for the purpose of observing (approx. 3 acres in the "blue" on the bortle scale and cheaper than a EM200/Mewlon 250 setup) or don't buy it and observe on some open Federal Land property just several more miles away in the dark grey/black on the bortle scale what would you do? Save the money and observe in the very black conditions or "call it your own" and observe in the blue where the differences visually speaking are slight? Oh you can get a cell phone call out in the blue sector put perhaps spotty or non-exsistent in the grey/black region.... Thanks Paul.

Klaus Brasch said:

Hello:

I recently got an Orion Star Shoot Autoguider for imaging with a TeleVue 101 combined with an 80 mm refractor as guide scope, both mounted on a Losmandy G-11. For the most part this set up works very well. Occasionally, however, while calibrating on a guide star, the PDH guide software will run for about a minute and then warn: Calibration Failed - star did not move enough.

Does anyone know what this means since nothing on the mount has changed other than targeting another object? Thanks.

Klaus

Jon Isaacs said:

Hi: There is an Icom R-75 available locally in the $300-$350 range... I am thinking of it as a nice radio for DX-ing and general shortwave listening. Any thoughts, any things to look out for?

Thanks

Jon

Andreas Saldivar said:

I was reading the synopsis for this upcoming sci-fi film and it sound a lot to me like the plot for The Naked Sun. It might be worth seeing.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810022523/details

Andreas

Robert Watters said:

Hi guys,
What is everyone using to run your laptop, SBIG camera, and mount at your remote sites?

Equipment:
ST8E camera
Dell Latitude D610 laptop
Losmandy G11 mount (non go-to)

I'm trying to figure out whether to purchase a 400w power inverter to run my laptop and ST8 off AC from the same 12V marine battery that runs the G11 or get dedicated DC cables for them (expensive!!). What combination will get the best battery life? I think my battery is rated at 95ah. The laptop AC adapter says 1.5a @ 110v and the AC adapter for the camera says 43w @ 115v, not sure what the mount needs. Some online power calculators seem to indicate only 3-4 hours of operation time, which seems awfully low.

Thanks,
Robert

Jeff Blazey said:

Barry makes good lenses. 11" F12, old Cave Observatory mount modified with a 10" Mathis drive system and Cave pier. Built the tube assembly my self....all 110 pounds of it.

This scope is magnificant, giving me the best views of Jupiter, M13, M27, M92...I've EVER had. Plays nice with my Chromacor too.

Jeff

larry thaxton said:

A friend in Japan sent along an enticing bit of information:

"Nikon revealed some prototype eyepieces for astronomical telescopes. However, Nikon doesn't decide yet if they will sell the eyepieces."

Maybe time to start a write in campaign?!!

kip reynolds said:

Got extremly bright for one second then gone. Ohio