Posts Made By: Michael Castellini

Hello everyone,

I live in Fairbanks, Alaska at 65 degrees north. I use the old 1980's Vixen Super Polaris mount because its unique latitude design allows it to be used from 0 to 90 degrees, just like the even older Polaris. The latitude design for the later Great Polaris was changed and it can only go to about 61 degrees. My question is whether the SP-DX was like the completely latitude adjustable SP, or whether it was limited like the GP?

I would like to buy a SP-DX if I can find one, but only if it can only handle the Fairbanks latitude. If any of you have a Vixen SP-DX, I would appreciate it if you could let me know about its latitude range.


Thanks,

Everyone,
I am fairly new at collimating scopes, but have done about half a dozen with an artificial star before testing them outside. The hardest was a Bird-Jones, but my question is about centering the out-of-focus star in the FOV. I was out working last night with a scope and the out-of-focus star gave nice concentric rings, but out about 20% from the center of the FOV. When I focused on that star, at that 20% off center point, it was very good. I know that the goal is to get the out-of-focus star in the center of the FOV, but if you can get concentric rings NOT in the center of the FOV, does that mean it is collimated at that off center point? Is this totally wrong and "perfect" collimation can only be done at the center of the FOV? I have a copy of Suiter's book in the mail coming to me, and maybe my answer is in there...but I thought I would ask the group this question.
Thanks.

Hi....I am working my way through the new version, and have a few suggestions. As a survivor of the head of a large program "new web presence" re-design, I understand how tough it is at first. 

1. If I ask for Classified Ads to include both sold and found, they are listed, but not highlighted on the listing. That is, I can't look at a page of results and see which were sold. I must click on an individual ad to see its status.  I do a lot of research on pricing for before I list a piece, and could easily see which ones were sold and for how much in the original version.  I cannot do that in this newer version.

       1.a Also, the Global request button under preferences to display sold and found is not functional. I have to go to the classified listing and change the status there, then relist. 

2. There seems to be an issue between the version I can see on my laptop, and the version on my smaller mobile tablet. On the tablet, the listing of the classifieds has all the columns that I ask for, but the two outer fields (menus on the left and sponsors on the right) are so large that the center column cannot handle the data columns. I have to scroll the center classified field left and right to see all of the information.  I think this is what a previous poster noted about not being able to see everything at once in the classified fields. 
My suggestion is to redesign the classified ads results without the sponsors on the right, and  open up that much more usable space.  We all  know the sponsors, and can get to them many other ways. 

3. I also get the "Aw SNAP" crash, at least on the mobile tablet if I ask to look at an individual ad.  But not all the time. 

4. I used the mobile version at a moment's notice (bus, waiting for  a coffee, etc) because I could scan for new ads with all available information quickly. That allowed me to buy some really good deals because I could respond within moments of new posting sometimes.  Because the newer version has the display problems with field width on mobiles, I must scroll both left/right  and up/down at the same time. I can do that, but much more cumbersome and aggravating than the previous version. Fixable.


Thanks for listening.

Mike

I have been working more on the new site tonight and found another item to bring up.

If we are placing a new ad, I see an option for font color, but font size is gone?  There used to be an option for small medium, large if I remember correctly because all of my older ads have the special character inserts for font size.

Thanks, again.

Mike

Hello,
It is Tuesday PM (ET) and I can see that some of the bug fixes in the new version have been resolved.  The big ones (screen size for classified results on mobiles, etc) will probably take some significant work.  In the meantime, there are some smaller fixes that might be easier:

1.  The classified results do not highlight or mark those that are SOLD if we ask for SOLD or FOUND to be included.  I can't scan the list and find out what is sold or  not without opening each.

2. Creating or editing our own ads do not have a font size option.  Was that accidentally lost, or not available now?

3. The GLOBAL include SOLD in Display Preferences does not work. You must ask for it on the classified results page. And, see #1 above when you get results.

Thanks,
Mike

Hello,
It is Tuesday PM (ET) and I can see that some of the bug fixes in the new version have been resolved.  The big ones (screen size for classified results on mobiles, etc) will probably take some significant work.  In the meantime, there are some smaller fixes that might be easier:

1.  The classified results do not highlight or mark those that are SOLD if we ask for SOLD or FOUND to be included.  I can't scan the list and find out what is sold or  not without opening each.

2. Creating or editing our own ads does not have a font size option.  Was that accidentally lost, or not available now?

3. The GLOBAL include SOLD in Display Preferences does not work. You must ask for it on the classified results page. And, see #1 above when you get results.

4.  The MY AUCTION database seems broken....It shows many of the same items for ones that I "won" and ones that I "lost". Also, my OWN AUCTIONS has only one page, of my very first auctions years ago,  and many of those are duplicated.  Also, I can only get a single page....no history.

Thanks,
Mike

1. On My Auctions, I am not able to find history and there are many duplicate listings.

2. I think there is some glitch in the "Yesterday" "Today" time posted data column in the classifieds when you get to around midnight.  It seems to move back and forth around that time slot. 

3. "Include" Sold/Found in Classifieds is actually ONLY sold/found, except for the ads that pay more for their listings. I THINK those are ones that have not yet been sold.   FIXED as OF Thurs AM, 4/12.  THANKS

Thanks,
Mike

As of 4/12, 11:37 Pacific Time

This is getting better and better, each day as bugs are fixed. 

Thanks in particular for fixing the column width issues, especially on mobile platforms.  And for fixing the Include/Sold label results on the classified listings. 

I only have a few items left on my topics:


1. MY Auctions history pages not showing up.
2. The GLOBAL "Include Sold/Found" button on overall preferences does not seem active. I need to click that button once I get into classifieds.
3. I think you said you were fixing the sorting function on the Classified results this morning. Right now, the TIME sort is generating a random result about "yesterday, today" etc.


Thanks, again. 

Mike

Andy,
Like you, I have been noting the missing auction history issue on the new site through these posts for a few days now and waiting for it to get fixed.  I think it is a bug at the moment.

On another issue, are you seeing unusual date/time stamps on the classifieds? Here is an example from just a few moments ago attached. Notice how it was "Yesterday PM " and then switched just a few minutes later to "Today PM.

The site is getting better and better as these bugs are fixed.

Mike

Thank you for the many fixes and continued responses to the many suggestions coming in for the new site.    Everyday is better, more stable and with features being updated.

You have fixed several of the bugs I noted this last week:

The SOLD badge on the classified listing  FIXED
Pagination on auctions  FIXED
Display issues on mobile systems (along with many other users)  FIXED.


As of this AM (Sat), there are two remaining on my list that need some help:

1. The time stamp on classifieds continues to do something bizarre when labeling "Today" and "Yesterday". At first I thought this was a midnight switchover problem, but now I see it in the middle of the day, too. 

2. Auction pagination / history is back (Thanks!) but the database has been compromised. There are auctions listed that "I won" that I have never seen before, auctions that "I lost" that I actually won, etc. Auctions that I won and the details showing someone else the winner, etc.   If this is a permanent data loss, I am ready to accept that the history may be lost.  But, if it can be fixed, that would be great. 

Thank you for the continued work on the new site.

Mike