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Posts Made By: Darrell Hensley

April 24, 2009 04:23 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Meade mySKY Plus

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Sorry if I'm stepping on any toe's by changing the thread for a quick question. I noticed that the Meade mySky Plus is a lot cheaper than when I was able to keep up with everything a couple years back. My Question is: Has anyone here used one and how is it's accuracy? It look's like it would be fun to mess with and actually learn a little something. I appreciate any help or advice I could get. Regard's, Darrell

May 17, 2009 01:10 AM Forum: Refractors

Telescope of interest??

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello Vintage telescope collectors,
I was web surfing and came upon a telescope on www.shopgoodwill.com . Anyone interested in vintage telescopes should check it out. It's a Danchyka 60mm with the wooden case and wooden tripod.
It seems to have everything on it and the objective lens looks ok too.
I saw it a couple days ago and was just curious if these were good scopes in their day. There has'nt been any bids on it yet but to have it shipped to my house would be around $90.00. The minimum bid is $17.00. I bought a unitron from that site 2 yrs ago and have checked it for different merchandise off and on since. Just thought I'd let you guys know it was there.
Clear Skies, Darrell

December 25, 2009 06:59 AM Forum: Prayer Line

That feeling of dread is back!

Posted By Darrell Hensley

I have shared with a few astromarter's of the reason that I left the forum's for a while. Actually almost 2 year's. On father's day 2007, my 2 son's, my wife and I had plan's for the day to celebrate good ol' dad. That never happened, instead my wife was gone from noon till 11:30 pm. My son's and I tried all day to get in touch with her and just simply couldn't. Needless to say we didn't have our big day.
The next day I called her and was trying to plan something for during the week and I could schedule off from work. She shot me down with a big -I don't love you anymore! We were at this time going into our 30th year of marriage. There was no talking to her, she wouldn't hear me, she was stone. It turned out that she had found someone else.OUCH! I didn't think anyone could hurt that bad. There's lot's of in between stuff but I wont air it out here and bore you with it. She would deny having someone else right on up, even after the divorce. My sons' friend's would even see her out with this guy while I was at work.
What I'm leading to is that I turned to alcohol very heavily. My crutch that understood! After the divorce I started hitting the bar's to kill the pain of such a betrayal. I actually didn't hurt as bad if I wasn't alone when I drank. But I still could'nt forget. Mind you, I had never even been in a bar till this happened and I was 48 year's old. I never had the desire to sit and listen to a bunch of drunk's and I alway's spent my time at home, family outing's, at work, or in my yard stargazing with a yard FULL of kid's. I loved my life, nobody had a better one I felt.
One night coming out of a bar I was pulled over and taken to jail for the night and lost my license for just 30 day's because the judge said he kind of understood and in his word's" Mister Hensley, your record's show nothing on you, no speeding ticket's, traffic violations of any kind. You haven't even spit on the sidewalk! So I did without my license and was glad to finally get them back.
I had almost completely stopped drinking because I was shown the path I was taking until a week before Thanksgiving. My brother had borrowed my pick-up and had left a huge bottle of tequila in the back floorboard. I was depressed about losing my old way of life with my family and all the thing's we would do during the holiday's. My favorite was putting up our Christmas tree's in the house and all the outside decor with everybody tripping over each other, my sons' friend's would be there and the goodies we would have along with the music.
So I gave myself the excuse to not hurt again and drank the biggest portion of what looked like about a half gallon of tequila and chased it with a couple of beer's. The first thing I do is get on the road and was pulled over for speeding, the cop smelled the alcohol and saw a beer in the cup holder. I recieved 7 day's in jail and lost my license for a year. It broke my 2 boy's heart's, I have never been so ashamed of anything in my life. The law use to be that you take a DUI class for three week-end's and I was ready to take the class in October but was told that Ky. law now require's 26 week's of classes, one and a half hour a week. I have 11 week's done now.
Seeing all the happy families and the decoration's this year is about to do me in. I have never lied to my son's and I also promised God that I would never drink again. Because with me, it is all or nothing. Sitting here in the wee hour's of Christmas morning all alone and raining has me thinking that there is no such thing as coincidense. I think that if I had my license I may have gotten something to drink and would have tried to justify it.
Typing this long boring letter has gotten me over wanting to drink, it reminded me of my promises and got my head back on straight. I don't think just typing the letter completely helped, it was the fact that I would be sharing something with someone other than a relative or accuaintance friend.
I can go to bed now victorious in getting over these holiday's again. My son's will be up to see me for a big dinner that I'm preparing. By the way, I did all the cooking thru my entire marriage and my boy's can't wait to get some real food for a change(their own word's). Their favorite is my dumpling's...hahaaa!!!
I'm sorry for such a long letter, so if you get bored reading just part of it just delete it. It helped me to look my situation the eye and tell it to kiss my azz!!!!
Merry Christmas and let your families know how lucky you feel!
To all a good-night,
Darrell

December 25, 2009 04:12 PM Forum: Eyepieces

2" Zhumell Barlow lens

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hi all,
I just purchased the Zhumell 2" ED 2X barlow lens with a 1.25" adapter. Has anyone tried this barlow? It came in yesterday and rain is in the forecast...SURPRISE!! I'm getting pretty anxious to use it so maybe I can at least get some facts about it. I have to budget myself very strictly but I have needed one for quite some time now, so this was my Christmas present to myself. There aren't any for sale here on the mart so I got a less expensive one new. It seems to be a nice quality barlow, it has some weight to it and isn't plastic. Any input would be appreciated.

Clear skies,
Darrell

January 14, 2010 04:32 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Re: virgin teflon source

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hi Steve,
I had to strengthen my base for a 12" Zhumell when I first got it about 3 year's ago. While doing so I also replaced their teflon with bigger piece's from meridian telescopes and used a record as the ground bearing. It was such a difference, very smooth and is just as smooth now as it was then. Don't know if it would be as good for a 13.1" but it would'nt hurt to try. No problem's here with mine.
Clear Skies,
Darrell

January 23, 2010 06:03 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

opportunity making track's on Mar's

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hi everyone,
Not trying to steal a thread, maybe adding to some of the latest ones. All the pic's that have been shown by some of the folk's here on astromart has gotten me mars crazy and found this video that just came out. Very cool!!

http://www.nasa.gov/mp4/418827main_mer20100122-320.mp4

Hope you like it,
Darrell

January 27, 2010 04:41 AM Forum: Prayer Line

The Dread is gone

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Floyd Blue said:

Darrell, I want to hear in 30 days that you are feeling much better about your life.


Hi Floyd,
It's been 30 day's since you told me this bro, I am feeling sooo much better. Concentrating more on myself and not the problem's I went thru and those I put myself thru. Those day's are gone and this is a new day. Working on getting an old credit card bill paid, I did a balance transfer. It came from 29% to 0% for a year. That felt like a ton of bricks was lifted off me. My boy's have noticed a difference in me since the holiday's. I even found an old Sear's refractor on goodwill for $6.00 still in the box. There's lot's of thing's I could tell ya but I wont bore you with all that. I feel like a million dollar's and I haven't had anything to drink in almost 15 months.
My best Christmas present was having you guy's talking to me and actually sharing your own experience's, I wasn't alone.

Sincerely,
Darrell

February 15, 2010 04:06 AM Forum: Antique/Classic/Vintage Optical Instruments

Shrine Manon

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hi all,
Just got myself a very good used but fantastic condition Shrine Manon 60mm X 700mm fl. telescope. There is not one thing wrong with the scope. It has 2 ep's. a 20mm and a 5mm, a 2 X Japan barlow, and what I think is the erector prism. It say's E P-7. It has the wooden hinged box, the bottom is scuffed up but in great shape.
I got home a little after midnight and rushed to put it together, 10 min. later I had it outside and my first target was sirius to set the finder scope. Very beautiful, no spikes or coma and believe it or not I didn't notice any color. I may have been too excited but usually the color will stand out on sirius with no mistaking it. Still trying to hurry because cloud's way off in the distance, looked straight up at Mar's, could see some detail with the 5mm but hard to track. The little .965 ep didn't have much afov but was perfectly clear. I moved back down to M42 and was absolute pinpoint star's. I was using the 20mm on this target and the nebula was beautiful. Finall I tried it out on M37, the star's in this one is dimmer but I could see all of them.
The optic's in this scope are fantastic. Knowing I wasn't going to let anyone have this scope, I had already ordered a hybrid diagonal and switched them out and put a regular celestron ep in it. You could see the quality had dropped, still great view's but different.
I hope the pic downloads, just look over me, I'm a little excited about the view's I got and about having this treasure from the past. One more thing, the optic's in the Sear's refractor are fabulous but the focuser isn't much good. So I thought I would replace the Meade 60mm F11 achro I had to settle for a few year's ago that I put in my Unitron. But I have the Sear's refractor looking nice and getting some good view's with it as well

March 3, 2010 03:51 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Baader coma corrector

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hi all,
A couple of week's ago I was drooling over the new Meade light switch telescope's and pondering whether to get one. My income tax check came,,,yippeeee! Well I didn't get it because my son's needed some thing's and I unregretably helped them get what they wanted.
I ended up getting the spare bedroom furniture and a Baader coma corrector for my dob and a fast homebuilt 6" reflector, around F3.5. Does anyone have experience with this coma corrector? I really wanted the telvue paracorr but come up short on money.....again!! What can I expect in the view's with my new coma corrector? I'm getting anxious to use it but it's been snowing and cloudy again but supposed to be clear Fri. and Sat. night's. My dob is a 12" Zhumell at F5 I think, maybe a little longer haven't checked the manual in a while but does have coma on the planet's, Mar's more so than other's.

Thank's for your opinion's in advance, I'm leaving for work now and wont get to check any post's till after midnight, Got a 12 hr. day ahead.

Darrell

March 27, 2010 10:31 AM Forum: After Dark

Re: Help on use of Antaries lazer collminator

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hi Gene,
Here's an instructional video on collimating a SCT. It is the first part of I think 3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJdo8RwDwi4 Althogh this isn't an antare's laser collimator, it should be of some help.

Good Luck,
Darrell