Posts Made By: Rod Mollise

Andreas Saldivar said:

Another beautiful launch of the shuttle.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=100244431

It's a sad day though. Never thought I would see the end of the US manned space flight program. I know that may be an exaggeration but I think it will be at least 15 years before we see another.

Andreas

Timothy McDougall said:

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html

Summary:"When objective NASA satellite data, reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, show a "huge discrepancy" between alarmist climate models and real-world facts, climate scientists, the media and our elected officials would be wise to take notice. Whether or not they do so will tell us a great deal about how honest the purveyors of global warming alarmism truly are."

Ted Smith said:

What webcam for astrophotography do you recommend that is compatible with Windows 7 32-bit OS that would have good control of exposure, gamma, etc? ('scuse me if I am revealing my ignorance....)

Mark Costello III said:

I'd like to throw this out for those of y'all who spend a fair amount of time observing with telescopes 6" or smaller. Last night, I spent maybe an hour, hour and a half in Ophiuchus, divided about equally between Globulars M10 and M12. Observing both with a 5" refractor, at times it seemed that there was a thin spray of stars that could be seen across the face of each, particularly at 206X. Also, at both 103X and 206X, it seemed that I could see a spray of stars around them. The background material on these clusters indicate that they are a bit loose for globulars. So I wasn't too surprised to see some individual stars in and near them. But I thought I'd ask: Has anyone gotten this type of partial resolution (or better) with a telescope of similar size?

Thanks very much.

Russell Sipe said:

I am putting together a new system from the ground up. I am looking at both the new SBI Auto-guider/Planet Camera and the Starlight Express Lodestar. I am hoping to get some opinions on these two products.

Also, I know the advantage of a mono ccd for going deep in the sky, but what wouild be the advantage of a mono camera over a color camera for auto-guiding and planetary work? SBIG offers color or mono at the same price.

Thanks in advance for any comments

robin woolsey said:

I've got a quick question about the tripods for the CGEM and CG-5 goto mounts. Are they the same tripod and would the CGEM head work on a CG-5 tripod? I know Celestron beefed up the tripod from 2" to 2.75" for the DX but the tripods for the CG-5 and CGEM look the same.
Thanx robin

Bob Polcyn said:

Hi all -- Are we anywhere near a time when alt/az mounts will have steppers fine enough for astrophotography? The big mountain top observatories have had them for years. IOptron sells units that GOTO and track but not well enough for astrophotography (I haven't had a chance to play with one myself).
I can guess at least part of the answer -- cost -- but are there other factors which make such a mount impractical?

Bob Polcyn