Posts Made By: Philip Godfrey

February 17, 2005 11:05 PM Forum: Pet Pics

Tiger & Quicksie

Posted By Philip Godfrey

These are my two cats. They are brother and sister about 1 year 8 months now. Tiger is a domestic short hair brown tabby, Quicksie is a domestic short hair gray tabby.

My son named them during our trip home from the humane society. At 6 months of age Tiger ingested a knee high panty hose. Yes, you think that's funny? No it wasn't. It became stuck in his stomach and he couldn't pass it.

It cost $835 to have it removed... But I got the $.10 hose back! Unusable, runs torn etc...

This is the enlarged photo that I have placed on my profile. Tiger is on top of 5 cases of beer, (Halloween party) (Wife works at Anheuser-Busch - it's all free) smile and Quicksie drank too much Mich Ultra.

October 18, 2005 01:05 AM Forum: After Dark

GPS (Serial port based) & Scope

Posted By Philip Godfrey

Hello all,

I'm sorry if I am posting this in the wrong section, but it seemed to fit I suppose.

I have a Magellan GPS310 (old) receiver that works, I made a data cable for it - but found that it runs very happy at 4800 baud. I don't think my LX200 runs at that baud rate...does it - or can it? I have built a serial "Y" cable to connect both to a laptop.

This past weekend I found that Digital Sky Voice ($29.00) version didn't like or support GPS. What software supports it? (Sure, I can enter my lat/lon in the scope, but this just seems more fun).

Also, I found that when using the PC for "go to" it wasn't as accurate as the scope was. Could this be a slight difference in time between the two devices? Is there a way in Digital Sky Voice to sync the time of the PC to the scope?


Clear skies, (though not tonight in St. Louis) sad


Phil Godfrey

October 21, 2005 03:37 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

LX200 (classic) 18 Volt version

Posted By Philip Godfrey

Hello everyone,

I'll try to be brief. My question is:

I have an LX200 10" (non gps) that runs from the 120v AC power supply that is supplied with the scope.

The output voltage on the pack is 20.77 volts DC (scope turned off)

Turning the scope on drops the voltage to 18.50-18.65 volts DC. (normal under load)

Wouldn't powering up the scope cause it to briefly expose it to 20-21v? I realize the LX200 main board has many, many problems (depending on which revision) some including different ground voltages...which shouldn't be there.

Has anyone had problems that were caused by faulty power supplies, besides the fuse blowing.


My scope is working great... Just worried about spikes.

Your thoughts?


Thanks,

Philip


November 6, 2005 06:12 PM Forum: Meade

201XT (Pictor Autoguider) manual request

Posted By Philip Godfrey

Hello everyone,

I am having a difficult time locating a manual for a Pictor 201XT. I would like to use this unit but know nothing about it.

I've seen the flowchart that describes the operation...but I need the whole thing. I was only able to find information on the 208 thru 1616 Pictor series cameras.

A PDF version would work well.


Thanks,

Phil Godfrey
St. Louis, MO

May 18, 2009 09:38 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Photoshop, Atlantis transit

Posted By Philip Godfrey

Okay, it's not really Photoshop - it's Gimp since I'm running Linux...though I do own Photoshop CS3.


Thought I'd have some fun with the featured Atlantis sun transit photo. No harm intended as I'm sure he worked so very hard to acquire the image.



Enjoy,


Phil

May 19, 2009 12:01 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Backpack style carrying case for Meade LX200

Posted By Philip Godfrey

Does anyone remember those blue backpacks they used to sell (or still sell)? I don't remember who manufactured them. It wasn't the rectangular style one that used the factory foam.


Where they any good? Did they have adequate padding?

I'm thinking about buying one. I'd like to get my LX200 out of it's monster case from the back bedroom closet and into something a little smaller that I can get to easily.


If anyone has one for a 10" LX200 in nice condition, let me know.


Thanks,


Phil Godfrey

May 29, 2009 05:12 AM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

Search function

Posted By Philip Godfrey

It seems I am having trouble with the search feature.

I click on "Classifieds" then click "Search Classifieds".


Search For: Meade -or anything else-
Seller: left blank
Category: Astromart Classifieds -or anything else-
Ad Type: For Sale
Ad Status: Any
Date Posted: 5/21/09 to left blank
Price Range: left blank to left blank
Seller Location: left blank


After 30 or so seconds I get the following message:

Welcome to Astromartâ„¢!

We apologize for inconvenience. Astromart.com is currently down for maintenance. Please visit us back after sometime.

Thank You



This has been going on for a couple of weeks on mutiple machines I'm using. Either of the 4 machines I use on a daily basis have this problem. From Linux to Vista - Firefox to Internet Explorer...so I know it's not machine/browser specific. Sometimes on the Linux machine it will lock me out entirely and I have to kill the process and restart a new browser session.

Is anyone else having this issue? I like the search feature, it helps me narrow down things.


Thanks,

Phil Godfrey
St. Louis, MO

July 12, 2009 05:49 PM Forum: Home Observatories

Roof top observatory question

Posted By Philip Godfrey

I have been thinking about putting in an observatory on my roof for many years. (read: thinking about = waiting for wife's approval)

My question is, since a roof has a tenancy to become very hot during the day, does the heat radiating from the surface present problems with observing late in the night? Does it cause unwanted distortions is what I'm really asking...


Also, I've been thinking about the roll off roof design for a LONG time. I want to avoid putting supports at the opposite end where the roof would roll off. I've found one manufacture that makes industrial slides that can support over 1,000 pounds...but the problem is they are only 4 feet long. It is similar to a drawer slide. Has anyone seen or used such a part? They're a bit on the expensive side, so cost will most likely force me into putting supports in.

Anyways, thought I'd ask.


Thanks,

Phil Godfrey
St. Louis, MO

August 1, 2009 04:29 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

LX200 Classic R.A. & DEC motor assembly !help!

Posted By Philip Godfrey

Okay guys -- don't ask why or tell me what I did was %&^*ing stupid...I already know that.

I took apart my R.A. and DEC motor drives before I remembered not to because of the encoder mask falling out of place.

I am at a loss now as I've tried to align it using my oscilloscope, but no matter what position it's in or how much I tweak the pots on the board it just doesn't work.

I've placed an ad to purchase two working ones, but in the mean time is there any way to adjust these the proper way or anyone out there who can do it?

I've asked Dr. Clay...he said he doesn't mess with them for obvious reasons. Now I understand why.

Also - will the drive assemblies from a 7" 8" or 10" LX200 work on the 12"? I remember reading that they were the same for the first 4 but different on the 16". Am I correct?


HELP!


Phil

August 3, 2009 03:50 AM Forum: ASTRONOMY

Who was that guy?

Posted By Philip Godfrey

This probably doesn't belong in this section, but I couldn't think of where else to put it.

The person I'm in search of...his name might be Don? He sells spare parts and stuff for scopes -- his list is all text based and time consuming to go through. Once you're at his web site it shows a photo of him standing next to a huge scope mount with giant rings.


I can't find his site or anything that relates to it.

Anyone know who I'm talking about? If so, could you supply the URL to his page?


Thanks,

Phil