Posts Made By: Gary Hooper

Can anyone fill me in about the William Optics GT-1 mount. It seems to have dropped off the face of the earth almost as soon as it appeared in about 2002. It looks like it would be the perfect mount, way more substantial than a Vixen GPDX. It seems more comparable to the Vixen Atlux, but a few thousand dollars less. Speaking of the Atlux, Another fine mount that does not seem to be available. Does anybody know why?

The first time I used my vixen sky sensor 2000, I decided that it needed some support on the cable/controller connection. I fabricated a splint that transfers the bending force, to a pulling force. I hope the picture is self explanatory. Note the velcro attachment to the controller.

Very heavy duty. You don't see these for sale very often.http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=455472

The last few nights I have been doing a side by side comparison of
double stars with a TeleVue NP 101 and my new TEC 140. A couple
of examples are 36 Andromeda and Delta Cygnus. 36 Andromeda, @ 1.0 sec, mag 6.1/6.8 is cleanly split with the TEC, but it is a figure eight in the TeleVue. The companion of Delta Cygnus @ 2.5 sec, mag 2.9/6.3 is a grey dot on the difraction ring in the TeleVue, and
appears to be about twice as far away from the primary in the TEC. I
seem to prefere the view through the TeleVue, even though the TEC
has better resolution. The TeleVue has a textbook diffraction pattern,
with a sharply defined central disk with a faint ring. With the TEC, I
don't see the sharply defined disc, and I have not seen a good
difraction ring yet. The smaller aperature with the larger difraction
image is more estheticaly pleasing to my eye. These results don't make me disapointed with the TEC, it just illustrates to me that a 4 inch APO is a great choice for a scope. I am waiting to see what the TEC will do with the planets, I expect it to show more detail than the TeleVue.

For quite a few years I have used red dot finders exlusivly. I have owned a few Orion EZ finders and Daisy BB gun sights (quite a deal at $10). My most recent purchase was a Burges Optical unit, identical to the W.O. and Stellarvue units in the following review:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=501

The operating instructions tell you to use both eyes, but I have never been able to use them that way. The coatings tend to dim the stars a little bit, but the most objectionable thing about these finders is that the red dot is just overwhelming next to a dim star. I have installed a resistor in series with the brightnes control on all of my finders. There is just barely enough space inside the Burges unit to add a 100 K ohm shink wrapped resistor. This makes the dot invisible in daylight, just visible on the face of the moon, and dim enough to look straight through and see the stars next to the dot. I experimented with different resistors and found that 10k did not dim the dot very much, I think I put a 40K ohm resistor in the Orion finders.

I just saw this link on the Yahoo TEC forum. I never heard of this before, so I thought I would pass it on.
http://www.centralds.net/en/index.htm

I am new to meteorite collecting, but in the last month or so I have acquired three Campo Meteorites. They weigh six, twelve and twenty one and a half pounds. I have been searching for information on the Campo meteorites, but I have a few unanswered questions. More specifically, I am intrigued by the meteorites low angle of impact and have been seeking a description of the passage through our atmosphere. I can envision it being in a decaying earth orbit and having a very long and blazing trip from Africa to South America. I finally found what I was looking for, so I will pass it along to other Campo collectors.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1996M%26PS...31..433C&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES

I have found dozens of web sites that mention the "new Campo del Cielo" impact site. I have only found general descriptions of the location. one mentioned that it was about a thousand miles downrange of the "old "impact site, and another site mentioned that it was at the foothills of the Andes. Does anyone know the exact location? I would like to place mark it on Goole Earth. Thanks Gary

Northern California star parties, scheduled for the first week of July are in jeopardy of not happening due to the many forest fires in the area. Make sure to contact the star party organizers prior to making the trip.
see also:
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2481112/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

I have a Vixen GPDX, I believe it is about the same as a CG5 mount. I carry the mount head in a craftsman tool box 26L X 9W X 10H. The tripod tube is 6 inch DF pipe and caps. I carry the SS2K in a Sears case that a socket set came in.