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Posts Made By: Jack Day

March 27, 2003 10:47 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Soldier of Surrender Magazine.

Posted By Jack Day

Sorry Couldn't resist....




May 20, 2003 12:01 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Re: Cold light

Posted By Jack Day

Hi Michael,

As I understand it the speed of light is only a constant (3x10^8 M/s^2) in a perfect vacuum. Using the old PV=nRT equation from college / H.S. chemistry classes you will find that once P (pressure)reaches "Zero" so does T (temperature). So from that I would say that temperature in and of itself has no direct effect on light. But temperature does have an effect on the substances that light passes through. The closest thing to a total vacuum in nature is in fact the empty space between galaxies. So it is only there that light can reach it's true speed. Also remember there is a world of difference between Absolute zero and the average background temperature in space of ~4 Kelvin. Per the article:
" Vacuums hundreds of trillions of times lower than the pressure of air at Earth's surface, and temperatures almost a billion times colder that that in interstellar space, are needed to produce the condensate. Temperatures must be lowered to within a few billionths of a degree of absolute zero" Now that is cold!

So you can see that interstellar space as a varitable sauna in comparison...

Hope this also helps!

Jack


July 21, 2003 03:49 PM Forum: Star Parties

***Important Table Mountain Star Party Update ***

Posted By Jack Day

FYI Anyone attending this years TMSP should check out the website: HTTP://www.tmspa.com as there are some very new (this past week) changes. Not for the better I am afraid... : ( I was up there on Saturday night and spoke with Dale Fiske and Thom Jenkins. On the other hand viewing was great until the moon came up. Put my 4" ABS Plastic refractor through its paces and saw my best views of Mars yet!

Clear Skies...


July 30, 2003 08:37 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Connecting DSC's to PC to work with The Sky

Posted By Jack Day

Anyone out there running The Sky with their DSC's? I have been trying to get my PC to talk to my DSC's without success. It is a Mountian Instruments version of the Tangent Systems DSC's. So it is Identical to a sky wizard 3 or Lumicon Sky Vector or the NGC Max. Using the wiring diagram provided on the Orion Sky Wizard 3 PDF and on Software Bisque's web page it seems that everything should be ok. But no such luck. The PC works with a serial mouse so the PC side is good. I went as far as to map out the connections with my continuity tester and have per the diagram: ground to ground, and th Tx on the DSC's connected to the Rx on the PC side. (Vice versa for the Rx/Tx.) Any thoughts? Is there any specific mode the DSC's must be in? And yes, There is a brand new fresh battery in the DSC's.

Any help would be appeciated!

August 13, 2003 11:18 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Anyone else have a problem w/the pic in this add?

Posted By Jack Day

http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=209833

Or is it just me?

August 29, 2003 05:17 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Pass the Marshmellows... : (

Posted By Jack Day

Here is the Mars opposition viewing report from Wenatchee, WA. Courtesy of our local newspaper, The Wenatchee World:


Fire ruins astronomers' plans to view Mars from mountain
By Ailey Kato, World staff writer

WENATCHEE - A once in 59,619-year chance to see Mars move closest to the Earth was ruined by a 150-to-200-acre fire on Badger Mountain for two local amateur astronomers.

Jack Day and Rich Tucker made plans to travel to the top of the mountain at 1:30 a.m. today to get a better view of Mars than they could in the valley.

But the fire, which started at 9:15 p.m. made them change their plans to visit their favorite close-in stargazing spot. Instead, the two set up their telescopes in Day's front yard, 914 College St., to gaze at Mars when it was the closest to the Earth at 2:51 a.m.

"Well, rats," said Day, who has taught astronomy classes at Wenatchee Valley College for two quarters. "That fire really holds things up."

"We kind of got smoked out," said Tucker, who's a doctor during the day at Wenatchee Valley Clinic.

Day said the view on Badger Mountain, minus the fire, would have been better because there would be less atmosphere to distort the view as well as less light.

The two can now say that they saw Mars when it was closest to the earth, but about their look at Mars, Day said, "It sucked."

"The view could have been better," Tucker said.

Day said pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope will be a much better way to see Mars.

"We can say this is what we saw, just a little smaller and fuzzier," Day said.


Well there you have it. Tonight it is off to Table Mountian for a much better look!

Clear Skies,

Jack Day

September 26, 2003 03:56 PM Forum: Star Parties

Orion Nebula Star Party

Posted By Jack Day

Well today is the day I head back up to Table Mountian one last time for the Orion Nebula Star Party a.k.a. Freeze with a friend. Looks like it will be an awesome weekend as well. Hope to see some of you there!

Jack

February 11, 2004 10:06 PM Forum: Telescope Making

My thoughts on Zambuto Optical

Posted By Jack Day

Well I posted some over in the equipment forum so if anyone is interested here is the link....

http://www.astromart.com/messages.asp?message_id=170420&page=

Those 2 post pretty much sum it up for me.

Thanx

Jack Day

March 6, 2004 07:53 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Current Project

Posted By Jack Day

Tonight I started breaking in my mirror grinding / polishing machine. Not much better way to spend a rainy night. For a maching made out of mostly junk parts and 2x4's it seems to function ok. The first victim is a 9" blank I tre-panned out of what used to be a 3/4" thick table top. One hour of polishing so far and another 7 to go! Well for starters at least.

Clear skies!

Jack

August 28, 2004 02:52 AM Forum: Politics

What is this place?

Posted By Jack Day

It sounds like a bunch of pro wrestlers took over this forum. You would think, from some of the stupid and often irresponsible posts on this forum, that there was no way that any of us could have anything in common. Yet I am pretty sure that most of us would agree that we have a passion for Astronomy.

I am a conservative, and I am going to vote for the person I choose. Period. Is the person I will vote for perfect? No. But neither am I. I have friends that will vote for John Kerry, and I have friends that will vote for President Bush. In no way, however, does that make any of them better or worse than another.

Politically speaking, I think we all have some responsibilty to do what we can to promote a cleaner environment, perhaps that could start here. Put some of the passion shown here into fighting light pollution, which is something I think we all equally agree would be nice to see become the next endangered resource on this planet.

Clear, dark & steady skies...

Jack