Posts Made By: Jim Carpenter

I've been lurking for too long. Here's a Columbine (Colorado state flower) I shot Sunday evening at Roxborough State Park, south of Denver. CP4500 hand held.

JimC

OK all you entomologists, what kind of moth is this? It was on my deck this morning. For scale, that's a 1x4 that it's on.

Jim

A couple of days ago there was a thread under the topic "Pronto vs. TV76 vs. TV85 vs. Sky90 vs.??" in which a question was raised concerning minus violet filtering on the Stellarvue 102D's objective lens. I remember reading a recent post on the Yahoo Stellarvue group in which Vic Maris addressed this issue. I couldn't find the specific message in the group archives, so I e-mailed Vic at Stellarvue for a clarification. His response follows (posted with permission).

Jim

"The prior 102D's had minus violet filtering in the original objective coating. It was not an aftermarket coating with the center uncoated as this was not durable and created diffraction problems. Some aftermarket filters were tested but the extra optical element reduced performance. This may have been due to poor optical quality in the aftermarket filters used. Stellarvue is producing a new 102D without filtering and using a different method to add and eliminate attenuation. These are due to appear around November.

Hope that helps.

Vic"

Mike,

If you haven't already done so, visit the Garmin homepage www.garmin.com then click on "Outdoor" and then "Product Comparison" (the latter is in the left frame of the page). This will allow you to select several units for comparison of features.

A good basic unit is the Garmin eTrex (the yellow one); however, I think once you get a basic GPS you'll wish you had the features like mapping, etc, and the increased accuracy of WAAS. I recently upgraded from an older Garmin GPS 45 to a Garmin eTrex Legend, and am very pleased with it. The Garmin Gecko series looks interesting for an entry level unit, but I have no personal experience with them so I can't offer any advice one way or the other.

I prefer the user interface of the Garmin units to the Magellens, but that's strictly a personal issue like Ford/Chevy or Celestron/Meade.

Jim

Count me in.
Jim
WD5BKO/0 (Denver)

Here's a nice sunrise from this morning, as viewed from my deck. CP4500, reduced to 640x480.

Jim

"Should I think about renewing my ARRL membership, they just sent me the package?"

Bill,

Whether you agree or disagree with the ARRL, they are still the only organized voice for amateur radio as a whole in Washington. Since you mention your public service, you are undoubtedly aware that the ARRL-sponsored ARES program has more credibility with local emergency agencies than do individual hams that show up after a hurricane or tornado (That's not meant to discourage individual volunteerism.)

Also, in this age of restrictive covenants, remember that the ARRL is leading the fight for our rights as amateur radio operators. It has resources available to individual hams who find themselves in a position of defending their right to erect a reasonable antenna, including knowledgeable legal professionals.

Sure, I disagree with a lot of their policies and past actions, and some of the League officials may be windbags, but in the end I keep re-upping with them because they speak louder than we do as individuals. Use your individual voice to lobby the ARRL for your pet issues, and let the ARRL speak for us all as one voice.

73,
Jim WD5BKO

A couple of bald eagles (one adult, one immature) have been hanging out in the cottonwood trees across the reservoir from me. Here's a shot from .8 mile away taken with a D70 at prime focus on a C90 Mak. If they're still around this afternoon when the light is from the west I'll drive around to the other side and and get a closer shot. Note the houses just behind the trees -- these are suburban eagles!

Jim

Here's a closer shot of one of the bald eagles I posted yesterday from across the lake. The immature eagle was not around by the time I got over to the other side of the lake. Any hints would be appreciated. D70 at prome focus on C90, cropped and resized, with minor adjustments in PSE 2.0.

Jim

Pull-down menu at "Back" button doesn't identify last posts -- they are all "Astromart - Your global astronomy resource." It was nice being able to identify where one was in the overall forum thread and return to that point.

Photos posted with message rather than opening a separate window. This is a pain for the forums which emphasize photos.

Other than those, overall impression of the new format is good. Thanks Herb and the Astromart gang.

Jim