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Posts Made By: David Williams

January 17, 2004 10:08 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

1978 Edmund Pedestal Equatorial Mount

Posted By David Williams

I recently acquired a mint red tube Edmund 6 inch, f/6 reflector with the cream colored Edmund pedestal equatorial mount, also in mint condition. I have a problem, however, in getting the latitude to stay set. If anyone is familiar with the setup of these mounts, I'd appreciate any help. The mount has the large knob adjustment for latitude, however the 2 adjoining parts of the head have practically no friction between them and they slip. The previous owner knew nothing about the scope, but it seems there should be some type of lock washer that I'm missing. If anyone is familiar with the setup or know of any Edmund talk sites, I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks,

Dave

June 2, 2004 06:34 PM Forum: Polls

Osama Bin Laden would vote for..(if he could)

Posted By David Williams

We have an agreement at my family dinner table where 4 generations have dined in peace and pleasant conversations for decades; don't discuss politics or religion. I don't know whose idea these polls are, but they don't even pass the first huddle of a valid survey and they form divisions in what had been for the most part a pseudo science forum and area of exchange of products and ideas. Thanks for polluting what had been an enjoyable site to visit and tainting it with poltical agendas. :S

June 3, 2004 12:23 PM Forum: Polls

Osama Bin Laden would vote for..(if he could)

Posted By David Williams

And so is this a new trend, will Sky and Telescope publish political commentaries and will Cloudy Nights start posting reviews of candidates? I deal in politics every day, so astronomy is an oasis where I escape.
Dave

September 13, 2005 03:25 AM Forum: Polls

ATWB buying and selling used on AstroMart

Posted By David Williams

8O
1. Astromart has been an invaluable resource to the astronomy community.

2. Anacortes has lost 30% of sells due to Astromart.

3. Anacortes makes up a percentage of this loss of sells through sponsoring Astromart and having their logo immediately available if you can't find what you're looking for. (I've done it several time myself).

4. 80%(a guess) of ads on Astromart are advertised for market value or higher.

5. That leaves 20% of items that can be bought and resold for a profit for those few Astromart members that choose to do so.

6. That 20% will now be partially captured by Anacortes.

7. Most of the undervalued items are rare and sold by individuals with no profit in mind but as a benefit to the astromony community or just generally because they don't need the $ to buy another eyepiece.

8. Rare items such as Byers mounts, TV140s, Tak225 (that advertise for less than $4000), AP scopes, 4" Unitrons, will now only be available to the wealthy members of Astromart.

9. Astromart members with limited funds need no longer apply.

10. Profiteering rules.

11. Astromart is still an invaluable resource to the astronomy community that can afford it.

Regards,

David Williams

June 20, 2008 04:07 PM Forum: Polls

Drill ANWR

Posted By David Williams

After spending 30 years in the oil business, I can attest that there are recoverable reserves throughout some of the most pristine wilderness in our country. The South Florida Basin is a well kept secret and has the potential of more reserves than ANWR but is underneath the Everglades and offshore of the Florida Keys. Underneath Canyonlands in Utah is also some of the largest known reserves in the continential US. All of these are much more accessable than ANWR.

The problem is after we muck up all of our beautiful wilderness areas and National Parks, we'll still only recover about as much as one small oil field in the Middle East or South America. I had the opportunity to view seismic sections from Kazathstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the late 80's when the USSR was breaking up and the size of the potential reserves in these largely uptapped regions dwarfs even Saudi, Iran and Iraq oil reserves. (Brazil has just found a 33 billion barrel oil field) If we don't start a Manhattan Project for alternative energy now we will be handing over the keys to the Federal Reserve to these countries.

We cannot drill our way out of this crisis, we have to use the intellectual and academic talent that we have and become the world leaders in non-petroleum based energy technology.

June 28, 2008 03:32 AM Forum: Polls

Drill ANWR

Posted By David Williams

Man this is great!

All my buds and I in the oil buisness have been waiting since the 80's for this kind of enthusiasm to drill for oil. The beauty of the oil business is that it remains a very pure capitalistic venture aside from all those liberals and environmentalists that have kept oil out of the hands of good Americans.

The rewards of investing in an oil prospect are better than they've ever been! I have great admiration for the intelligence of the Astromart community and since almost 70% of you realize that oil is there just for the picking, I'd like to let everyone know that there are prospect fairs held regularly in Houston and Denver where you can put your money in any number of ventures that is sure to bring you great wealth from the almost certainty that you'll hit oil anytime and anywhere you drill.

There are Trillions to be made!!!

For information go here http://www.hapl.org/en/cev/?166, or better yet I have prospects in Utah and Florida that are almost certain to hit oil and bring you great wealth. All you have to do is help me through the environmantal BS so I can run a D12 Cat over those desolate canyons or those useless Everglades.

Happy drilling,

Dave

June 21, 2008 12:44 AM Forum: Polls

Drill ANWR

Posted By David Williams

It was well over 20 years ago, 1956 in fact, that one of the greatest minds in geophysics, Dr. M. King Hubbert, a consultant with Shell Oil, wrote his famous paper predicting the decline of oil production in the U.S.. http://www.hubbertpeak.com/Hubbert/

Even as far back as 1949, Dr. Hubbert was one of the first scientists to effectively apply principles of geology, physics and mathemmatics to the future of oil production from the U.S. reserve base and predicted that the fossil fuel era would be of short duration. He also predicted that shortly after 1995, would be the deadline for development of alternative forms of energy to replace the sharp drop off in U.S. petroluem production.

"Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know."
M. King Hubbert



June 29, 2008 01:19 AM Forum: Polls

Drill ANWR

Posted By David Williams

My point is, you don't have a clue.

We have to have armed guards with seismic and drilling crews all around the world, because of the environmental damage from clearing rain forests, dozing all sorts of environments to gain access and because of the continual and devastating damage to fisheries from offshore drilling. Governments sell off the native people of the rain forests, the nomadic tribes of North Africa and the fishermen of the sea of China and the surrounding waters of Indonesa, because corrupt leaders shipon off millions while the rest go to big oil and the CEO.

I have written dozens of economic analysis for exploring and developing potential oil and gas reserves in sensitive areas of the US. The problem is complex, these oil reserves would have been developed in the early part of the 20th century if they would had been easy to find, as 80% of all developed reserves in the US were. Generally large anticlinal structures that were easily detectable using geologic mapping and gravity surveys. Seismic signals are very poor over almost all of our potential reserves, because of thousands of feet of salt offshore and in the basins of the Rocky Mountains, a thousand foot thick boulder field at 5,000 ft depth that allows no detection by seismic over the South Florida Basin and frozen tundra and a 3 month exploration and drilling season in ANWR (ANWR does not have detectable, proven reserves, just a theory that reserves could be present based on the geology of the North Slope). All of these areas require helioportable equipment to access and the costs of exploration and drilling make even $140 barrel oil margainlly profitable. As much as people are trying to make this a political issue, the reality it is a pure economic issue and few companies are willing to take the risk.

If we can drill these areas with no or negliable environmental impact or if we can even find the oil at all will take new technologies that rival the development of alternative technologies that reduce our dependence on oil. One requires major development that has no future value once reserves are exploited. The other will carry us into the future to a sustainable society.

Dave

June 30, 2008 01:55 PM Forum: Polls

Drill ANWR

Posted By David Williams

ANWR - "A fart in the wind"

September 18, 2010 03:51 AM Forum: Polls

I prefer this telescope design

Posted By David Williams

And it's not even biased. smile