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Posts Made By: Stanley Feather

September 11, 2002 06:05 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

manual for NA120?

Posted By Stanley Feather

I bought a used NA120 recently, and it's been great.

I can't seem find a manual for it, or the 7x50 finder, on the web. Does anyone know of a URL with that info? I plan to keep it awhile and maybe the manual has maintenance tips, or some interesting details.

Thanks for looking.
Stan

October 12, 2002 02:51 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Lumicon Easy Guider question

Posted By Stanley Feather

I'm looking into a used 2" EG for Newts, and have a question about the camera ring that comes with it.

Does anyone know if the camera mount part of the EG is 1 piece, unique to each camera type? Or is it 2 pieces, a standard T-ring and a "T-ring to EG" adapter?

Thanks for any and all comments,
sf

December 6, 2003 03:37 PM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

LCD Monitors for Image Processing

Posted By Stanley Feather

I'm considering adding a 17" 0.26mm LCD with a 500:1 contrast ratio to my image processing workstation. It would sure free up a lot of space, compared to a CRT.

Are these monitors even close to a good CRT in displaying shadow detail? I'm working mostly with 3600-4000dpi 48bit scans of 35mm film on PS and Picture Window.

Stan

March 31, 2004 05:36 AM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

OAG on Orion 8" newt?

Posted By Stanley Feather

Gurus

Does the focuser on Orion's 8" SVP newt have enough in-travel to work with a 2" Lumicon off-axis guider? Seems like all the film photos I've seen from it used a guide scope, or were unguided.

Thanks,
sf


August 28, 2004 05:37 PM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

M52 and NGC7635 in Cas

Posted By Stanley Feather

E200, three 8 minute exposures done 2 weeks ago.




October 24, 2004 02:52 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

SCT Dewing

Posted By Stanley Feather

I'm looking for some tips on anti-dewing.

I have a c9, and 3 of the 4 times I've used it, it dewed up. This is in spite of the fact I'm running a Dew Buster, plus the flexible dewshield.

The scope seems to be the only thing with dew for miles around. The relative humidity here (Colo) is about 30%-35% right now, but generally runs 20%-30%. For example, there's no dew on the grass, but the fallen leaves aren't 'crunchy' either.

I'm going to investigate ways to make the heater and shield fit around the dovetail plate better, but I can't see why such precision is necessary. I also have a medium sized refractor, never used heaters or fans or witchcraft, and never saw dew until I got the SCT.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
sf


September 6, 2005 04:22 AM Forum: Meade

Auto tracking vs Autoguiding

Posted By Stanley Feather

When scopes are connected to Autostar's DSI software, some are shown as 'will autoguide' and others as 'auto track only'.

What distinction does Meade make between autoguiding and auto tracking? From what little I found on the web, they appear to do the same thing.

Thanks,
sf

October 12, 2002 05:40 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Lumicon Easy Guider question

Posted By Stanley Feather

Modifying the T-ring is a step I hadn't expected, but it is now clear there's a "T-ring to NEG" adapter part.

That's exactly the info I needed. Thanks for the help. This is a great forum!

sf

October 16, 2002 04:20 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Has anyone measured the wobble of the Sun?

Posted By Stanley Feather

Pete,

The wobble is detectable in systems with double stars, or *very* large planets. The sun's system is different in that most of the solar system mass, something like 99.999% of it, is in the sun.

The wobble has to do with the barycenter of the system being offset from the center of mass of the sun. For the solar system this offset is small. If similar systems exist 100s of light years away that degree of wobble can't be reliably measured (yet).

sf

November 21, 2002 04:36 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Astronomers vs Church

Posted By Stanley Feather

This is just one (certainly one of the most prominent) instance of an idealist running foul of politics.

Idealists should be aware they'll probably be persecuted. It's classic tragedy, a good story and an inspiration to other idealists.

Politicians should be aware that if the idealist is right then the truth will eventually come out and they'll be judged by history. Unfortunately in this case we'll have to wait a few hundred more years to see if history decides the church's apology and pardon were sufficient.

Until that time the score remains Idealists 1, Politicians 0.