Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

My 2 favourites are eta carina and 30 doradus. The detail visible in these is stunning in an 18" scope, especially under very dark skies. Makes M42 look featureless in comparison! 8) The LMC is full of faint nebulae that show some interesting structure as well as the Carina-Ara Milky Way.

Maurice

Hi John,

It does not get any better when they "graduate" from high school and attend university.

I have been teaching physics and astronomy at a range of universities in the USA for more than 11 years now and the standard of student is really bad, especially mathematical skills. (or lack thereof!)

And not just their lack of skills and basic knowledge, it is their attitude as reflected in their comments when they are doing poorly. Such as "your course is too hard, an average student cannot get an "A"". or "I don't see why I should fail this course just because I got an "F""! The one that really set me back though was "Why am I failing? I am entitled to an "A" because I have attended most classes." (From someone who had not handed in a single assignment)

From what I have seen, high schools are not allowed to fail students, so they drift through school never having to actually learn anything. It seems to me that it is partly the result of psychologists (don't harm a child's self esteem by failing them) and partly out of fear since school funding seems to be based on the number of students "graduating". It also seems popular to blame teachers when students fail instead of placing the blame where it most commonly lies... with the students and their parents.

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi Alan,

Did you try for Jupiter? I was able to spot it about 20 minutes before sundown using Venus as a guide.

Cheers,

Maurice

AARRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!! After reading just a few lines, my head hurts!!!!!

The BS that some people put on the web.....

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I have decided to attend a couple of days at RTMC and then shoot down to Palomar for a quick visit. Means I wont have any time for sightseeing along the way, but that cannot be helped as I need to be at Lowell by the Wednesday.

Anyone else from here going to RTMC?

Cheers,

Maurice

david goldman said:

I found gas @ $3.71 per gallon here in the midwest the other day....
You go figure.

And here in Lubbock TX it is $3.25 today. (What REALLY worries me is that we think this is cheap!! 8O )

There are some hidden gotcha's in this "gift". These are not fully functional telescopes in space. Rather they are mostly completed scopes here on the ground. If NASA were going to use these, they would need to find a LOT of money from a rapidly shrinking budget to finish them off, add detectors to them and launch them into space.

Yet if NASA does nothing with them, how will that make NASA look?

Cheers,

Maurice

Another picture inside. My 20" is in the back corner while the university's 20" is in the dome in the background.

As quoted by Davo.

Global sea ice area is near a record high for the date

The truth:-

"The 2014 ice volume reached its annual maximum in April with 22,900 km3 which is just slightly below the long term trend and is the second lowest on record; just 400 km3 above the previous April minimum which occurred in 2011."

Source: http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/

US winter temperatures have been plummeting since 2000

The truth:-

"Despite cool winters in 2013 - 2014 and 2009 - 2010, wintertime (December, January, February) temperatures in the contiguous U.S. have increased by about 2°F over the past 100 years".

Source, (with graph) http://classic.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/archive.html?year=2014&month=03

No global warming for almost two decades

The truth:-

"The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was the fourth highest for March on record, at 0.71°C (1.28°F) above the 20th century average of 12.3°C (54.1°F)."

Source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2014/3

Coldest year on record so far in the US

The truth:- See graph below.

Source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/national-temperature-index/time-series?datasets[]=uscrn&datasets[]=climdiv&datasets[]=cmbushcn¶meter=anom-tavg&time_scale=3mo&begyear=1895&endyear=2014&month=3

I could go on, however this should be enough to show the fallacy of Davo's post.

Yes, some parts of the USA have experienced a cool winter, but I guess that Davo does not understand the "global" in global warming!

You are still bearing false witness. One woman DID NOT persuade the Supreme Court. I suggest that you actually go and have a read of the court proceedings. One woman brought the case, but she was joined by numerous other groups, including many Christian organisations, Jewish organisations and others.

Also, as I stated, prayer WAS NOT stopped in schools. Only state mandated prayers. WHICH IS AS IT SHOULD BE! The government has NO RIGHT to order prayers.

I see that you decided to totally ignore my questions on whose prayers should be used should you get your wish and have compulsory prayers in schools. Why was that?

Maurice