Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

>>But of course, we know what happens when you take an ice-cream scoop to a persons brain. They lose their mind. Because mind is a corporeal thing - not incorporeal.<<

The mind is to me a more subtle thing than the brain, as the mind is closer to the concept of 'consciousness'. If you mess up someone's 'mind' in terms of their gray matter, you are messing up their information store. But they may still be capable of consciousness, i.e. of processing information (well, maybe not if you actually used the ice-cream scoop, that would be a little tough to recover from, but you get my drift).

The 'mind', in terms of 'consciousness', is not a thing you can grab and hold like a brain is -- although the brain contains all the necessary hardware and software for the consciousness to be properly manifest. But the manifestation of consciousness is most certainly not a 'thing' like a brain or a rock or an aardvark, but a 'process', an 'event' of sorts -- either the conversion of light and energy into useable information (perceiving), or the reprocessing of previously stored information (thinking and dreaming). Much like 'fire' is the event by which wood is transformed into ashes and smoke, though fire is a bit more directly tangible (ouch)

One of the nicest portable telescopes on an equatorial mount is a 4.5-inch newt, if you can find one with excellent optics -- a tall order with all the junky ones out there now. But they can occasionally be found.

An old Orion Spaceprobe 4.5 with exceptional optics gave me very pleasing planetary images and kept me out in the backyard for hours on end with Jupiter and Saturn, ultimately rekindling my interest in astronomy enough to build a serious planetary dob.

You could also do something like, take a standard 6" f/8 dob like an XT6 and replace the optics with a premium planetary mirror (Mark Harry or the like), the result would be a very fine scope that would spank any 4-4.5" competitor on planets and still be *much* cheaper than a 4" apo.

1

Rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip. Cheap, fast, easy.

Disclaimer: my most expensive eyepiece is $50 so I'm a little less fussy than some might be on this front. But I have so far not done any detectable damage that I can see and I've used this method for years.

Difference in contrast between 26% and 21% is not sufficiently large to warrant triggering the other problems, and the difference probably isn't even large enough to make a noticeable improvement in contrast -- and no you don't want a FIF below 0.5" because that could get annoying, particularly at low power.

At 26% it sounds like the vignetting is so slight that it won't be detectable, especially as a visual instrument. My vote is for the 2.6" secondary.

It is a true statement, but *especially* true if you're using low magnification in relatively bright conditions (such as daylight, as you were doing, or looking right at the Moon). The reason is that in bright conditions at low power, the pupil diameter of your eye will often be much smaller than the exit pupil of light coming from the telescope. At some point the shadow of the central obstruction down the center of the light path starts to dominate the column of light that's actually getting past the constricted iris on your eyeball. You see 'the shadow'.

With respect, the idea of the Nephilim as angels is pretty hard to swallow. Leaving Heaven to have fleshly relations on earth? The very desire for fleshly relations is driven by hormones, by essentially body-born physical attributes, the essential drive to procreate. To suggest that disembodied spirits would desire sexual relations of any kind just doesn't make sense, imho.

To me, it is fairly obvious that the Nephilim are a superfluous borrowing from the 'heroes' traditions of Greek mythologies.

By contrast, the Bible is also filled with the very inverse of the Fall -- a story of ascension or salvation which is repeated over & over. A story of baptism, leaving one's corrupt self behind, enduring trials of faith or deprivation of earthly things, and arriving at the other side a new person, saved.

There is the Deluge -- The Flood serves as the baptismal rite of passage, the building and boarding of the Ark leaves the corrupt world (self, old life, earthly 'things') behind. A trial is endured (40 days of rain) followed by relief/enlightenment (renewed sunshine) and reaching the other side, in the 'promised land' (new purified world, the rainbow, etc.).

This mythical allegory is repeated in the story of Moses. The Red Sea serves as the baptismal rite leaving behind the old, corrupted life (bondage in Egypt), enduring a trial (40 years of wandering in the wilderness), finally arriving at the 'promised land' (salvation/ascension).

The story is again echoed in the story of Jesus --baptism by John, trial by 40 days' fasting in the wilderness (abstinence of earthly things again, in stark contrast to the 'Fall' stories generally precipitated by preoccupation of earthly things), arriving at the 'other side', the ministry by an enlightned Jesus, the theme is *AGAIN* repeated in the washing of Pilate's hands (baptism) 40 lashes by the whip (trial -- actually 39 but close enough), crucifixion & resurrection (salvation/ascension).

The Bible is a wholly remarkable book, a literary hall of mirrors that casts internal reflections back and forth in different stories, showing many of them to be the same story.

Earth is a springboard. It brings us to maturity so that we may one day leave the nest. As our springboard, it will bend and creak under our weight until we are firmly established 'outside'.

Intelligent life is inherently disruptive to a planet. Large amounts of energy are re-routed and diverted on the surface of the planet, waste products are generated which cause damage elsewhere. Increased technological activity comes at a cost of increased chaos and disorder elsewhere in the biosphere, particularly combined with overpopulation.

The best we can hope for is to minimize the impact to the extent that it is possible. To forsake the most destructive fuels, to utilize renewable resources where possible (though even this will have other, unexpected impacts) to maximize the chances of civilization continuing until we can stretch beyond this little blue world.

If we fail, entropic feedbacks will eventually overcome the biosphere's capacity to adapt, the ensuing damage can inhibit the advance of our species as well, resources problems trigger wars and possibly usher in a new dark age. Of course, the collapse in civilization and population would, ultimately, restore the lost balance.

2 things:

If you go just up to 1.2" you will gain a lot of "wiggle room" in your design and sacrifice virtually nothing in contrast. At these diagonal sizes, half of your diffraction will be coming from the spider anyway. Also: find out if the Destiny's secondary holder itself, or its profile, is bigger than 1" if so then you wouldn't gain anything at all anyway.