January 2004 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

OT: Clipper story
by Chuck Hards 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

Some of you know that much of the scope restoration & fabrication work for SPOC-2 was done at my place of employment. Here is a story in the Clipper that details where I spend my days and how the business survived: http://www.clippertoday.com/p_Historydetails.asp?id=4847 We are Davis Co. Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year! (And the Clipper misspelled the name of our CEO, my boss Al Tiley.) C. (BTW, I manage the tooling dept. if you were curious. I started with the company in 1986 under the original owners/founders) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

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Thin Mirrors vs Thick Mirrors
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

What are the advantages of each and which ones to your guys/gals prefer? Is there a visual advantage to a thicker mirror or are they about the same? I was thinking of upgrading to an 18" dobsonian reflector. The StarMaster 18" telescope seems a little more portable than the 18" Obsession. I can't lift the Obsession 80 lb mirror box. I'd need a trailer or truck to haul the 18" Obsession. Which would you guys/gals pick and why? Debbie

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Astromart
by Dale Hooper 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

I'm coming into this rather late, but I've always had good experiences dealing with astromart. It's been a great place to buy and sell. Perhaps Herb has become a bit more paranoid due to fraud concerns, etc. But, if you still have any inkling to try astromart I would contact Herb York directly at: herb(a)buytelescopes.com and let him know your situation. > -----Original Message----- > From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] > Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:50 PM > To: Utah Astronomy > Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Astromart > > > Yep, twice! > > I made darn sure that the problem had nothing to do > with anything under my control before I posted to this > list. This story started some time ago, and I've done > the whole procedure using both my yahoo address, and > my AOL address. I also tried it from my work machine > as well as home machine, in case it was something in > Windows ME that was shooting me down. > > No big deal. > > I used to get a lot of stuff through the old Starry > Messenger, a neat little paper shopper about fifteen > years ago. Ebay items usually get bid up way beyond > reason, so I thought finding some dedicated > astro-classifieds again might be the way to go. At > least there you only have to be fast to be victorious, > not rich. > > I can live without Astromart. These problems don't > exactly give me confidence in them anyway. > > Thanks > > C.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Thin Mirrors vs Thick Mirrors
by Michael Carnes 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Astromart
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

Chuck, Did you fill out the name, password, address, and phone number sections under "My Account"? I think most of those spaces have to be filled in. Debbie

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Re: budget binos
by Chuck Hards 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

Several folks have asked me about the "zoom" models now available, all based on the Bear/Obie/Galileo/Barska frame. I've seen 2 versions of the zooms, actually ordered the 15x-45X model, and both were TERRIBLE. I sent the one I ordered back immediately. Narrow field at low powers, poor resolution at high powers, and of course excessive color at high powers. Jupiter was an irregular, smeared blob at high power (even with terrible seeing, at 45X it shouldn't have been that bad). That said, however, I ran into an enthusiastic clubber (who will remain nameless) and his friend who both bought the zooms and loved them. I used his pair and it was plain to me that love is truly blind, these had terrible images but he thought the view was terrific. Discretion being the better part of valor, I just smiled and handed them back to him. But as a sidebar to Michaels posts, I never met a budget zoom bino that was suitable for astro use. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

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JSR
by Patrick Wiggins 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

For my fellow space junkies out there, here's a newsletter by the guy that writes a column on te same subject for each issue of S&T. If you like it you can subscribe per the info at the bottom. Patrick Jonathan's Space Report No. 519 2004 Jan 29, Garching bei Munchen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NASA/JPL Mars Exploration Rover B (MER-B, MER-1) "Opportunity" landed on Mars successfully on Jan 25. On 0433 UTC on Jan 25, Opportunity's MER-1 cruise stage separated. The lander and the cruise stage entered the Martian atmosphere at 0448:42 UTC; the cruise stage burnt up as planned, and the lander deployed its parachute after a successful reentry at 0503 UTC, followed by heatshield jetison, airbag deployment and retro rocket firing, with touchdown around 0454:33 UTC (this was the expected time, I haven't seen a precise actual time). The airbags bounced several times and began rolling at 0500 UTC, coming to rest a few minutes later. Petal opening was at 0706 UTC, turning the spacecraft right way up and revealing the rover inside. Light time to Earth at the time of landing was 11 min 4s. The Meridiani site is at about 2 S, 354 E. The airbag-enclosed lander came to rest inside a small (20 m diameter) crater. The rover deployed its wheels on Jan 28 and will roll onto the surface at the weekend. Its landing site has been renamed the Challenger Memorial Station; the Spirit site has been named the Columbia Memorial Station and some hills near the site are named the Apollo 1 Hills, individually Grissom, White and Chaffee hills. Recall that the Viking 1 lander was named Mutch Memorial Station after Viking imaging team member Thomas Mutch, and the Pathfinder landing site was called Sagan Memorial Station after Carl Sagan. In July 2001 Dan Goldin announced that Viking Lander 2 would be called Soffen Station after the late Gerald Soffen, but to my knowledge no press release or written announcement about this was ever made, and I'm not sure if it's official. For the MER sites, there seems to be some ambiguity about whether the Station is just the lander, or some poorly defined area surrounding the lander, or all the way to the local horizon. The Spirit rover, exploring Gusev crater, entered safemode on Jan 20 because of a file system problem in the vehicle's flash memory. Controllers are repairing the problem and a full recovery is now expected; Spirit successfully returned a new surface image on Jan 28. A Progress M1 cargo ship is scheduled for launch on Jan 29 to bring supplies to the ISS. Editorial --------- My sources confirm that the Hubble servicing mission cancellation decision was indeed made on grounds of expediting the completion of ISS and the limited gains from extending Hubble's life, and not largely on safety grounds per se. Recall that the Columbia accident board explicitly commented that the mission should not be precluded. Now if the pragmatic reasons for the move were admitted, I might agree with the decision anyway if alternate facilities for ultraviolet astronomy are to made available - but I'm not too optimistic about that. Whatever the merits, it is clear that major problems remain with vertical communication in the NASA organization - the folks on the Hubble team should really have been made more aware that this decision was being weighed rather than being reassured that SM4 was almost certain to happen and totally blindsided by the cancellation news (at least, that's my impression as an outsider after conversations with several Hubblers.) I don't know where in the management chain this communications failure happened. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Dec 2 1004 USA 173 ) Atlas IIAS Vandenberg SLC3E Sigint 54A USA 173 P/L 2? ) Sigint 54C Dec 5 0600 Gruzomaket Strela Baykonur PL132 Test 55A Dec 10 1742 Kosmos-2402 ) Proton-K/Briz Baykonur PL81/24 Navigation 56A Kosmos-2403 ) Navigation 56B Kosmos-2404 ) Navigation 56C Dec 18 0230 UHF F/O F11 Atlas IIIB Canaveral SLC36B Comms 57A Dec 21 0805 GPS SVN 47 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 58A Dec 27 2130 Amos-2 Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur PL31/6 Comms 59A Dec 28 2300 Ekspress AM-22 Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur PL200/39 Comms 60A Dec 29 1906 Tan Ce 1 CZ-2C Xichang Science 61A Jan 11 0413 Estrela do Sul Zenit-3SL Odyssey Comms 01A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm(a)host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm(a)cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo(a)host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Astromart
by Josephine Grahn 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

Hi, We have bought a bunch of stuff through them, and always had good results. I've even sold one or two things, with no problems. The problem you are having is answered in their FAQ, as follows: "Why are some email addresses not allowed for sellers? In the past, almost 100% of all fraud could be traced to anonymous email accounts that are designed to hide the user's identity. To prevent this, we have blocked Yahoo, Hotmail and several other free email services. You must provide a legitimate ISP account, or one that could be traceable in the even of fraudulent activity." I have vague memories that Cynthia was offering e-mail addresses through Utah Astronomy (but I could be wrong!). You may want to check into that. If that doesn't work, contact me off-line, and I may have some possibilities for you. Good luck, Jo At 10:16 AM 1/29/2004 -0800, you wrote: >I finally checked out Astromart recently, and tried to >register. I'm disappointed. > >I signed-up awhile ago, they never sent me a >confirming email. Hitting the "re-send the >confirmation" button does nothing. They have my >correct email address. > >Further, no one at Astromart responds to my inquiries. > >Has anyone on this list actually purchased something >through the site? > >Is it always this flaky? > >Thanks > >C.

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Astromart
by Chuck Hards 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

I finally checked out Astromart recently, and tried to register. I'm disappointed. I signed-up awhile ago, they never sent me a confirming email. Hitting the "re-send the confirmation" button does nothing. They have my correct email address. Further, no one at Astromart responds to my inquiries. Has anyone on this list actually purchased something through the site? Is it always this flaky? Thanks C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

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Budget binoculars
by Chuck Hards 29 Jan '04

29 Jan '04

http://www.sportsmansguide.com Sportsmans Guide has 2 ecconomy binos suitable for astronomy currently listed: JC Optics 11x70mm w/L bracket WX2-80792 $49.97 Slightly lower power than the popular 15x70mm, use these only if your pupil opens nearly 7mm. Barska 10x50mm WX2-78167 $19.97 Excellent entry-level bino, the most-recommended "mid" size bino. S&H must be added to the above prices. Spring is just around the corner! C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

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