Posts Made By: Gary Weston

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Reposted in ASTROMART SUGGESTIONS FORUM: Its probably more appropriate over there.

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I have to say, I was a bit surprised to see a phone company advertisement in Astromart. I truly felt Astromart sold out. The users were told for so long to only post astro related items, then they were kind enough to create a non-astro item space. Now.. we have to see non-astro spamvertisements within the astro equipment section.

Yes, I do agree Astromart has the right to raise funds to support itself. I myself plan to become a first time supporter soon, however selling phone ads within the astro equipment space is a bit well.. off topic?

Also, I have to say one thing... if Connect America can advertise sub-cent pricing. Can I sell my astro equipment at sub-cent pricing as well? Is our wonderfully modern electronic banking system capable of withdrawing sub-cent amounts from my account?

Ok, anyone need a used lens cleaning tissue for $0.03452 a sheet ? Please.. I only take exact change. Get real people. $0.039 cents a minute sounds as ridiculous as the stupid pricing at gas stations. $1.43&9/10. Ok, please explain to me where the 9/10 of a cent comes from? Is there some new millipenny denomination in my pocket that I don't know about?

Gary

I was wondering if a wedge for a 14" LX200 classic would mate up with a 10" LX200 classic base?

This may be a stupid question.. I don't know but..

If I wanted to have a pier made that will support a 10" LX200 and associated gear for observing as well as CCD imaging.. what are the plusses/minuses of the following metals? Aluminum, Steel, Iron. Steel seems the most common for piers, however others have suggested just going with Aluminum as it is apparently much cheaper and easier to work with. On top of that. It doesn't rust like steel.

Now.. if I tossed together a 6" or 8" diameter aluminum pier, how thick should the metal be?
Thicker than a steel pier? Does it matter?

I'm open for all sorts of suggestions. Cost is a factor for me Gotta keep the wife happy, and the baby fed!

Great rework Dan. I'll have to pull out a map of Mars to make out each individual detail, but without doing so, I can make out some of those features.

Amazing amount of detail there. It looks practically like the Apollo mission video from Lunar orbit. Heck.. I think it has MORE detail than those Apollo shots ;P

I have an 10" LX200 classic.. to get good alignment, you need to use multiple stars, preferably in different parts of the sky. Trying to align on two stars in the SE for example probably wouldn't yield a very accurate alignment. Though it may work.

But.. if you are looking for a newer scope. The newer Meade LX200GPS (I think even the LX90..and other models) have 'AutoAlign' as they call it. Which does not require star alignment. You basically turn it on, the GPS gets your location, aligns you, and you are set to go. I have never used this, or seen it in action personally. So hopefully someone else can elaborate on its accuracy. You may be able to autoalign, then sync on a single alignment star to get better alignment. I'm guessing.

I'm not sure how a GoTo GEM (with GPS) from another maker would fare.

You should probably consider such an autoalign scope for use at your location. If you keep the size of the scope managable, you may even be motivated to pickup your gear and make excursions to more open/darker skies on occasion. Be sure to consider that option. My 10" LX200 is somewhat of a monster to move around. Thus on nights where I would have loved to observe, it sat in storage due to time to setup and move. As a result, I recently finished construction of an observatory... now I can finally get some observing in on a regular basis. Next I figure out a portable scope solution. And something EASY to move and fun to observe with

Unfortunately my experience is rather limited with other makers, so I can't provide much info on your other options. Though I suspect I will upgrade to a GoTo GEM (G11) in the next year or two as I am into photography. Planning to keep the LX200 OTA though.

Hope this helps a little bit.

I'd like to take a long leisurely dip in the 'Lake of Fire' for sure. Though I suspect it must be some sort of highly compressed superheated plasma... as I didn't think fire could exist in a liquid form at 1 atmosphere of pressure. That is if I go 'below ground'. Which assumes Hell is within the Earth itself. Lets just hope we don't have to drill too deep for oil. We may find ourselves drilling a shaft straight to hell! All the more reason to lessen our dependency on fossil fuels!

If I'm lucky, and fly white-winged into the sky/clouds and find myself in Heaven. I'd be constantly worried about the ever growing volume of air traffic. Planes are criss-crossing the globe constantly, shuttling vacationers, businesspeople, fleeing criminals/politicians, to all corners of the globe. Heaven must have ONE HECK of an Air Traffic Control system for sure. Though, oddly I don't see it marked on any charts anywhere. Interesting.

The third alternative is to just end it all right now and hop a ride on the nearest passing comet (17P/Holmes!) to be taken to la la land where I can live in happiness and serenity for an eternity in a magical land of unicorns and fairies. Comets are nice to look at. But I would be afraid to choose the wrong comet and find myself on a one way ticket to the Sun. That would be hellish indeed. So I won't attempt that option.

I hear stories of people living in bliss, partying, eating, and being happy in the afterlife. If we are able to consume food/beverages in the afterlife. That must surely mean spirits have a need to excrete wastes. I'm not leading to a poop-joke here. But even spirits would need to poop if they ate. Do they use toilets? Do they have wood pulp with which to make toilet paper.

I'd really like to meet God for sure. He must be a great guy. But, is he male? I always hear reference to God as being a 'Him'. That must infer that he has a Johnson. Then, by logical deduction, that must surely mean he must have a female counterpart. For what purpose is it being male if there is no opposite sex? If there was no opposite sex, then he must be an asexual, non-sexual being. By definition then, 'he' wouldn't be a he would he? He would more likely be classified as an 'it'.

I'd hate to be the person to discover that and be forced to update all texts accordingly. NOT ME!

Plenty to ponder on there.