Posts Made By: Dean Warlin

Took my son's 70mm Observer and looked at Mars with a 4mm Radian (June 8&9). Could make out the south polar cap and some dark shading on the planet. Could barely tell there was a white "end" to the planet with a 5.1mm ED-2. I got a good version of this scope, split Izar with it and the 4mm Radian. Great Moon scope.

Has anyone downloaded the Virtual Moon Atlas version 1.6? I've tried this twice with the Star Downloader software and it will not unzip. I've even downloaded a freeware zip/unzip program to see if this would unzip it, no luck. It takes me about 2 hours to download the VMA - dial up connection on old rural phone lines.

I viewed Mars at 3 a.m. this morning with my 13.1" Discovery Dob and noted Solis Lacus and Mare Sirenum, the only surface features that really stood out (besides the SPC). Solis Lacus had the "eye" quality to it when viewed through a #25 red filter. I used a variety of filters to decrease the brightness of the planet, the red filter finally working well with Mars so bright. I collimated the Dob just prior to viewing. Best views were with a 5.1mm Epic ED-2(293x), it's slightly darker images helped it compared to a 4mm Radian (374x). The ED-2 had some coma toward the field stop. I tried a 12.5mm Highlight Plossl (119x), but the image was just too darn small for my poor eyes. A beautiful night for viewing Mars and the deep sky.

I was reading a review of a Vixen scope and the reviewer stated that using Baader solar film (which I have) and a 8-10 angstrom calcium filter and a Day-Star .5 angstrom T-scanner would all be helpful for solar observing. How essential or beneficial would the calcium filter be? Where would I get one? (I reckon I can look up the Day-Star T-scanner before I ask any questions on that, though any information posted would be helpful to me and future transit observers).

Should we take a hard look at the third party candidates instead of just the Republicans and Democrats? I think a lot of people have the view in their minds that the third parties are kind of the lunatic fringe. I think there was some truth to the statement by Ralph Nader that there's not enough of a difference between the Democrats and Republicans. There is a wide variety of viewpoints among the third party candidates. The Reform Party has a lot of internal strife currently, and the Constitution Party candidate is supported by the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan here in Michigan (to make things more confusing than they need to be). But why not look at these parties and their platforms? I'd like to see what people from countries that have a developed multi-party government have to say. And, of course, the U.S. people.

They "settled" this over three and a half years ago; not a cent of the $375 million that was supposed to be given back to the shareholders has been returned. And I've been a loyal client (fool?) of AIM/Invesco/Financial Programs for over a decade.

Anyone seen any of their money back from their mutual funds that had a "settlement"?

Oh, did you ever look at those "_fairfund.com" web sites they were required to make (i.e. aimfairfund.com), they have no content, all but the home page only have "coming soon...".

I have the 8" Discovery DOB (not the premium one) and I love it, though sometimes I find myself looking at their 13.1" and going hmmmm....

Yikes! I've got a telrad coming with my next scope! I read a posting where the guy spelled everything wrong except aberration!

My was a 60mm camera shop scope on a wooden altazimuth tripod in 1969 or 1970. I saw all I could within a year or so; the only lasting memory I have of it is seeing Alberio as a football shape with one end golden and the other end blue.

My best nights of viewing were August 12 & 13 when it was very humid and hazy...the atmosphere was very still and the thick haze dimmed the planet enough to reveal a wealth of detail. I thought observing would be better night after night until opposition; now I know what a blessed and extraordinary couple of mornings those were.