Posts Made By: jess tauber

In the book 'Unusual Telescopes' there are descriptions of mirrors made from glass or plastic membranes held in figure by pressure differentials (in the examples negative pressure applied behind the mirrored membrane). The figures are not quite parabolic though (though I don't remember the explanation if one was supplied).

Can one take a membrane and place it in a heated liquid environment, where the liquid on one side of the membrane has a slightly different density than liquid on the other, so that the membrane dimples to a paraboloid, the heat annealing the membrane so that no stresses remain?

Unlike normal pressing, because one is using liquids there might be no distortion from separation once everything is done. Also, one might be able to make quite large membranes (difficult if one uses a press).

Has anyone done anything like this?

Jess Tauber

Have any of you heard the news about NASA quietly removing protection of Earth from its mission statement, as recently reported in the New York Times and elsewhere?

Jess Tauber

I remember from the old ATM book series that a number of folks build mountings that allowed the viewer to keep his eye at the same position, though they had complicated means of redirecting the light to that position.

Has anyone ever experimented with making a similarly motivated dob mounting where the the focuser is at the focus of a large semicircle whose partial circumference is at a radius which is the distance from the focuser to the tube base? One would obviously need a pole-mounted counterweight system or something similar to balance all this out.

Jess Tauber

When watching traditional film movies, the mind is able to ignore the fact that we are being presented with individual frames so long as the speed of sequence is high enough.

Will the same effect pertain to astronomical viewing (particularly of dim objects)? I ask this because I have a number of possible application concepts for optical systems that alternate where the light is being thrown- for instance binoviewers, multiviewer units, etc.

Assuming that for visual use this effect does hold for astronomical work, will there be any diminution of apparent image brightness, if, say, the retina is illuminated only half the time, even if the light itself is at full intensity at each application?

If such diminution of apparent brightness is minimal, or absent, will a fast mechanism be able to deflect light for use by multiple viewers without the need for beam splitters?

Another possible application is perhaps false stereoscopic effect- though many of you might wonder why anyone would want such a thing- for use on deep sky views. Thoughts?

Jess Tauber

Poor Mel Gibson. He's gonna cry me a river of forced contrition. Speaking as an ex-war-mongerer myself I can say with (his possible) conviction that he needs to distance himself from dear old Dad as fast as humanly possible.

Hey, I got an idea for his next movie. He can do one on Holocaust doubters- call it 'Denial'. There was a trial recently in Austria for one of the most vocal. So subject matter is already out there.

He might star in it as the often drunk son of a bigot with a problem with sexism and anti-Semitism who despite such unbecoming qualities manages to take Hollywood by storm and becomes a successful moviemaker after a series of blockbuster films in which he acts, who finally takes charge of his life and starts to turn it around.

Of course that's just fiction- in the real world things aren't always so easy.

Jess Tauber

So I thought I was going nuts- it seemed this summer that the number of nights of good seeing was truly limited compared to last summer. I had nothing else to compare it to except my experiences as a teenager since I took up astronomy again less than two years ago.

Along comes this report: 'Summer nights heating up, scientists say'-http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hot_summer_nights

Seems that I wasn't nuts after all (or at least not for this particular reason).

Well at least tonite isn't TOO bad- the Moon and Jupiter are going under, and I'll spend a little time seeing what I can- though it hasn't been easy.

Jess Tauber

Astromart classified 444572 has given me an idea, but I don't know if its original. Have any of you ever heard of observing chairs being built to accommodate more than one person at a time? Two max. for a plank, depending on one's ability to rotate the orientation of the ep (or if you have one of those old fashioned teaching ep's with a beam splitter, simultaneously)?

What about a rotating 'love seat' arrangement, with your feet doing the walking?

Jess Tauber

Just in case you missed it while enjoying your fried rice, this should stir your noodles-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060803/ts_csm/corgans

Remember Falun Gong? Seems they're doing their part to help China become the economic powerhouse they're evolving into. Or is that parts (a la Purdue)? If true disgusting, horrible, and the US will be unwilling to do anything about it (heck, at least it means stem cells from embryos right here in the good ol' land o' freedom). Retroactive abortion anyone?

Jess Tauber

If true one should cry bloody murder:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060803/ts_csm/corgans

What the heck is that country evolving into??!! Remember this tale next time you look into your great new mainland optics.

Jess Tauber

Taking a look at Revelations as a possible Yahgan translation project, I noted towards the end that it looks as if for the faithful there will be no night anymore (not too great if you're still into astronomy- I guess you really can't take it with you!)- likewise the lake of fire for the other folks isn't likely to be great for viewing.

So WHAT exactly is supposed to happen to the rest of the cosmos after Earth is all done- does it go out of business? The writers at the time had no idea of the scale of things- as far as they were concerned the visible stars might as well have been Truman's stage lamps. How come the folks getting all this great wisdom from beyond seem to have missed all this- what, God mum about cosmology? And how come, since glass and primitive lenses existed, didn't any of the elite figure out how to make a telescope- a kid's accidental discovery. One would think that something so momentous would be the privelege of the prophets....

Jess Tauber