Posts Made By: Thomas Holst

I retired almost 5 years ago and I have no plans to move from the house I've lived in for nearly 32 years. I've got access to a pretty good dark sky site only 45 minutes away, a better site 90 minutes away, and the best high-elevation observing I've ever had is about 4 hours away. I have no interest in living out in the middle of nowhere just to enjoy good seeing from my back yard. I'm a visual observer and a permanent observatory is not a necessity for me. I also have a couple friends with permanent observatories in rural areas that I can visit most any time. I would not move to another country for any reason.

I never could see the reasoning behind the use of a laser on a firearm, even in a gun fight, except for maybe an inexperienced shooter. The problem is that it alerts the bad guy that someone's drawing a bead on him and give's away the laser shooter's position. I much prefer iron sights for combat, with tritium inserts for night shooting.

As my eyes have aged, the best solution I've found for target shooting is a good 1x red dot scope. I've been using a 30mm Ultra Dot on my .22 target pistol for several years now and it works great for me.
See: http://www.ultradotusa.com/ultradot_dist_2008_004.htm

Tony Aguire said:
My wife recently started a new career, as a vet tech...

Be forewarned, Tony. This is only the beginning. My wife has worked for vets for over 25 years and the result is a never ending supply of dogs and cats that nobody else wants. We even raised a baby mule deer in our back yard one summer, which grew up thinking it was a dog. Fortunately we found a wild animal preserve to take it off our hands. I finally had to put my foot down - one animal at a time. At least you've got some room for some extras.

Wow! I'm used to seeing a little fuzzy spot of light through my 4" refractor. I've never seen so much detail.

I bought my TV Genesis SDF about 5 years ago after doing a lot of research on the 101mm series of TeleVue scopes and came to the same conclusion as Mark Rieck. I have not been disappointed. Even though the G-SDF does not say "APO" on the OTA, it certainly performs like one. I've compared it to my TV-76 (APO) and a friend's TV-102 (APO) and cannot tell the difference in terms of control of color fringing. I've not had the opportunity for a side by side comparison with a TV-101 or NP-101, but doubt there would be enough difference to make me trade "up".

The only (minor) downside I can see with the Genesis SDF is it's length (and weight). It's 29.5" long OTA is noticeably longer than the Genesis 500/f5, 3" longer than the TV-101, but 1.25" shorter than the TV-102. That hasn't been an issue for me.

Since all of these scopes are pretty "fast" and focusing is critical, I found the addition of the Feather Touch TVRFB Focuser Pinion assembly, with 10:1 fine focus, a worthwhile modification. I'm a visual observer and the ability to easily fine tune the focus is a real plus.

Steve Hollenbach said:
Did you know a dome can walk, assisted only by high winds...

Been there, done that, sort of. At our club's Messier Marathon event at a desert campground a couple years ago, I had finally called it quits at about 3:00 AM and went to bed. I was just dozing off when I heard a terrible clatter outside. I crawled out of my sleeping bag in time to see my free standing shade canopy tumbling down the campground road, with the two propane tanks I had secured it to, still attached. (This place is known for sudden 40~60 mph winds.) Club members still chuckle about seeing me running down the road in my underwear at 3:00 AM, chasing my canopy.

Although I have the big heavy battery out of my boat when I need it, I rarely use it. I have three of the smaller sealed lead-acid battery packs with built-in chargers and cig. lighter plugs. (Two from Harbor Freight and one from Walmart.) They're much handier and if one poops out, I've got a spare. These always seem to do the job for powering my scope mount and laptop (via a small inverter).

My favorite power saving invention is my reading/writing/chart lamp. It's a cheap clamp-on headboard reading lamp from Walmart. I removed the standard 110v socket and wiring and replaced the lamp with a round red 8 LED truck clearance lamp from an auto parts store, diffused by a piece of white translucent Lexan. I bought a curly cord cable with cig. lighter plug from Walmart to replace the old wiring. I set one of my battery packs on my table out in the field, clamp the lamp to its handle and plug it in. The LED's draw so little current that the battery only requires occasional recharging.

Donald Tucker said:
...was at star party way out in Mojave Desert last night and when pack up time at 230am came, I searched high and low for the aluminum screw on cap lens dustcover for my TV76...to no avail...it is MIA and swallowed up into the Mojave to probably be excavated by scientists in 1000yrs or so!...

Don't fret. I'm sure a call to TeleVue will help you find a new lens cover for your scope. However, make it a point to visit the same spot next year and you will find it. Then you'll have a spare.

A few years back I was shooting scenics with one of my Nikons (a real film camera back then), way up in the high mountains of Idaho, next to a stream and small waterfall. I lost a rather spendy 77 mm Nikon lens cap but didn't realize it until I got home. (I actually didn't know for sure where I lost it.) I happened to visit the same spot the following year and right out in the open was my lens cap, complete with my initials scratched on the inside and since I had forgotten I had lost it, I wasn't even looking for it. In spite of the 8,000 foot elevation, a winter's worth of snow and snow melt runoff, numerous hikers, ATV's, motorcycles and wild animals, the dang thing was lying right where I had been standing the year before. It just proves that after you've given up looking for something, you'll find it (after you've bought a replacement, of course). St. Anthony was a little slow on this one.

You needed to use a lens shade (or just your hand) in the first photo. They look good, though. What method did you use to determine exposure?

Last week I received a legislative update letter in the mail from one of the State Representatives in my district. Upon reading the letter, I was appalled at the typographical errors it contained. Obviously, no one proof-read the letter before it went out. I've attached a copy of the letter below. The corrections and highlights are mine but the text is all hers.

I also emailed a copy of this corrected letter back to the Representative, pointing out the errors and telling her that it wasn't very confidence inspiring. She emailed back an apology and blamed the errors on her secretary and/or computer. Her email acknowledgment was enough for me. I thought I had gotten my point across.

Yesterday, I received another envelope in the mail from this same State Representative, which contained a corrected version of the original letter plus a letter of apology. All these letters were printed on gold seal State letterhead and mailed in State envelopes, bearing $00.335 each in Presorted First Class Postage - altogether, probably a couple dollars of my tax money.

Now, I am quite certain that this same letter went out to many thousands of her constituents, not just me. Can you imagine how much taxpayers' money was wasted in re-sending a corrected version of a letter which never should have been mailed without proof-reading?

Here's the kicker: In the body of this letter, she states: [COLOR="Red"]"I am going to work to preserve the government services that are necessary in your lives while finding ways to be more efficient with taxpayer money."[/COLOR]

This is why I have lost all faith in the politicians representing us.