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Jupiter (clearer) Nov 5th 2023 w/Mewlon 180c

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Posts Made By: Tony Aguire

September 19, 2009 09:07 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

I am almost ashamed...

Posted By Tony Aguire

But NOT...


I live in a pretty rural area. There are 4 homes, including my own, in an area of about 10 square miles. While the distant lights of Maricopa City and the Phoenix metro area wash out my northern view to about 30 degrees, all else is decent. The Milky Way is very prominent, South and West are very good.
One of the 4 homes is occupied by what I consider to be "paranoia". In the past our area has had a couple problems with illegal immigrant squatters. Sometimes they steal or burglarize in attempts to raise money...The reaction of our neighbors has been to put up "security lights" in an effort to discourage thievery. The neighbor with "paranoia" had done the same to the extreme. Close to a dozen motion sensing security lights that were kicked off by the barking dogs that were owned by said neighbor. The dogs bark at any unusual sound, including me walking my Shiba Inu named Taka (my avatar) after I get home from work at 12am.
I call this neighbor "paranoid" as every time I walk my dog, his dogs bark, and he jumps in his truck to drive up and down the dirt lane to see what his dogs are barking at. Last night was the first time he came upon myself, walking my dog. He said to me "Can I help you?" I said, "just walking my dog, My house is the one back there with no lights". I could tell by the second word spoken what this guy would respond to.
....His lights P* me off, so I then told him that the illegals could not see as well as his dogs, if he shut off his lights, he would be more secure. I told him that his Shepherds could see and SMELL better in the dark than any illegal could....


The end result?

I took my buddy Taka for a walk tonight, and that house was completely devoid of spotlights and my skies are a little bit darker... grin




Lets hope it stays that way...

September 26, 2009 08:45 AM Forum: Mounts

CG5...Autoguiding?

Posted By Tony Aguire

Hello, All

I have a CG5-GT on the way for my C8/WO SD66 combo. I am looking at methods to autoguide this mount. I have a Meade DSI color (first version) that I am not using, but I am wondering if I would have better luck with the Orion Starshoot autoguider. Software, ease of use etc matter. I will be using an older Dell laptop running XP to do this. Up till now I have been manually guiding, so this is going to be a learning curve...


Thanks and Clear Skies.

October 3, 2009 09:07 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Wolves...

Posted By Tony Aguire

2 days ago my neighbor came over to make sure my wolves were still on our property, (they were) as he saw a wolf looking creature down the road on his way home. I have seen wild wolf cubs in the last couple of months locally. Are Mexican Grey Wolves making a comeback? I hope so, or maybe the Timbers have come south...My neighbor was a little freeked out as the animal he saw was easily in the 140# range, about where my male Timberwolf hybrid (Khan, about 145# these days) is. While my neighbor is not scared, we are both wondering what is going on....

October 4, 2009 07:44 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Barlow question...

Posted By Tony Aguire


Maybe this belongs in the "Beginners" forum. I have a 1.6x barlow lens that came with my WO binoviewer. This accessory screws onto the nose piece of the WO binoviewer, for use as a barlow. I would like to use this to increase the focal length of the guide scope I am using (an Antares finder scope)as an auto guider. Will I get a greater increase in focal length by having the lens farther from the imaging chip (focal point)? Or is it the other way around, more magnification with the lens being closer to the chip. I can set this up a couple of different ways with the barlow being different distances from the imaging chip in the auto guider camera. I have already used this guide scope to guide my WO 66 and it worked great, but would like to try it with my C8.

Thanks and Clear Skies

October 6, 2009 09:42 AM Forum: Audio

Motorhead

Posted By Tony Aguire

As far as I am concerned, this is one of the best Motorhead songs/videos ever....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnSaNfG9tV4

October 21, 2009 07:13 PM Forum: Politics

Re: Obama's newest political tool---VACCINE

Posted By Tony Aguire

Ron Streetenberger said:

The distribution priority list is out for the H1N1 flu vaccine. States that Obama feels that will vote for him in the next election have been given the highest priority for receiving it. Conversely, those states seen to be opposed to his re-election will be last to receive it. Texas and Mississippi are at the bottom of the list. As a Texan, I consider this an honor. As you are all aware of, genocide is one of the favorite tools of a dictator. WAKE THE HELL UP, AMERICA!

....On the one hand I see your rants of "idiot liberals" then you give the president credit for masterminding this devious plot. You better be careful or Obama might send his liberal thug henchmen to snuff you out wink

October 22, 2009 03:15 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Thought I was going crazy...or blind

Posted By Tony Aguire

Back in May I was driving home from work around 11:30 PM, and saw what appeared to be a rather LARGE cat crossing the road about 150 feet in front of me. I figured I was tired...

A few weeks ago, I saw the same cat about the same time, only within 50 feet of my truck. I would say 70 to 80 pounds, looked like a mountain lion to me. On both occasions it was crossing the road unto the farm that is adjacent to my property. The route I take home is about 12 miles of dirt road and washes. Turns out, there have been several sightings of this cat in the area. After asking the local feed and tack store owner, she confirmed that there was a mountain lion in the area. My property is less than 3 miles from the Sonoran Desert National Monument, a habitat for mountain lions. While I am thrilled at catching a glimpse of such a creature, I am concerned as to how Fish and Game will handle this.

One thing my wife and I have noticed, there USED to be quite a few feral cats and dogs about 5 miles to the west of us. We would see them at dusk driving home, but lately have not seen one. These days, we are seeing them on our property pretty regularly(though we seldom saw them before). Our own dogs seemed to keep interlopers at bay, though not so much lately.

Clear Skies


November 25, 2009 07:46 PM Forum: Politics

SO...

Posted By Tony Aguire

In the interest of educating myself and others...What precisely are the differences between a liberal, a conservative, and a republican?

Clear Skies

November 29, 2009 06:55 AM Forum: Audio

I love my wife...

Posted By Tony Aguire

My wife got us tickets to see Slayer, Megadeth, and Testament at the Dodge Theatre Phoenix in January grin

Taking a day off afterwards to recuperate... 8)


December 20, 2009 06:49 AM Forum: Audio

Really looking forward to...

Posted By Tony Aguire

Seeing these guys with Slayer and Megadeth in January....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78-fbo-YOJw

8)