January 2005 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: sunshine!
by Chuck Hards 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Aaron, I'm home now and have time for a more thoughtful reply, thanks for your patience. Posting from work is a love-hate thing, I love to post but rarely have the time to do it justice when I'm actually at the computer and most of the time wish I could have stated something better after I've read the digest. 20-20 hindsight. My little home-made refractors use surplus lenses, either real achromats or projection lenses. The 50mm spotter I mentioned in the post uses a WW2 vintage Kodak lens of 450mm focal length(f/9) that I bought from Paul Rini about five years ago for ten dollars. Gold is where you find it, they say; many of my old sources have dried-up, but Apogee Inc. still lists a lot of usable achromats, albeit at prices a little higher than surplus. Surplus Shed has some appropriate ones every now and then. It depends on how big a scope you want to make. Generally the copy lenses are heavy triplets with short focal lenghts and can't be used at higher powers since they are not true achromats and weren't designed for an infinity focus. They work well for low power finders and RFT's. A binocular objective works well at low to medium powers, sometimes broken or mis-aligned binos can be found at pawn shops for only a few dollars and yield a wealth of parts. Half a binocular by itself (monocular) is a great little fixed-power spotter by itself. I prefer to make a tailpiece that allows 1.25" or 2" eyepieces and accessories to be used. My 50mm uses a correct-image diagonal and focuses by sliding either the diagonal or eyepiece and tightening a setscrew. I use the mini-lathe to turn fittings such as cells and tailpieces from sheet PVC plastic and PVC pipe fittings, but with some ingenuity the lathe can be dispensed with, at the expense of a more rustic appearance. I also like to add tripod-mounting blocks, with a 1/4-20 tapped hole, so I can attach my scopes to standard tripods or my "Weightless" mount mentioned here recently. Small scopes for viewing sunspots usually don't need to magnify more than about 40-60x to bring out plenty of small sunspots. In my office at work, I can set it up to look out the window, and by removing the solar filter, can project it on the wall or ceiling for group viewing, yeilding a large, bright solar image, without having folks have to line up at the eyepiece. I'll bring a few home-brewed spotters and finders to the swap-meet for inspection and to hopefully give some folks some ideas. I have a few suitable achromats that I'll bring, for sale, for those ready to take the plunge. I also will be selling a "Chuckified" Meade 60mm refractor/guidescope tube assembly, retrofitted with a metal, 1.25" rack and pinion, as well as (drum roll, please,) a whopping 5" f/9 doublet refractor tube assembly from Apogee, both at fantastic discounts, but these are really commercial telescopes, not homebrewed. Aaron Lambert wrote: > How do you go about making a home-made spotter? I > had a lot of fun last > summer showing my kids and some scouts the sun using > my binos and a > cardboard box, but it was a little awkward. > Searching around I found a > Keplarian(?) one for sale on the net but it was over > $300. Is there a > way to build a cheap spotter that gives you a decent > image? I had > wondered If I could buy one of those little ~$30 > radio shack 50mm > plastic scopes and take it apart to see if I could > build my own, but I > really have no idea what I am doing. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com

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Re: Various
by Chuck Hards 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Patrick had the right idea, the list is incredibly active lately, so I'll address multiple topics at once (I have to get some work done eventually ;) And here I'm just getting the digest! 1: Home-made spotter. Just a small refractor. Easy to do, many ways. Surplus objectives run anywhere from five bucks to as much as you want to spend, eyepiece lenses a few dollars, everything else can be scrounged in the garage or at Lowes. Performance can be excellent and even better than commercial instruments. If you like, I can bring some examples of small home-made refractors to the swap meet (not for sale!) 2: Barbarella. Not a good sci-fi movie as such things go, that was the gist of my original mention of it as Siegfried pointed out. But the perfect flick for teenage boys with a science-fiction interest in the '70's! Back then any interest in Jane Fonda had nothing to do with her politics, but other "points" entirely. 3: 2001. Siegfried, the idea that once a species (or individual) advances far enough, it effectively becomes deity is specific to your faith, I believe. I don't believe it can go that far and sincerely hope it can't, although I have no proof of course. So this is strictly subjective IMO. Being able to warp space and time, and manipulate matter on certain scales is still a long way from being in the same league as "The Creator of All Things". __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

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Re: Best space/sci-fi movie ever
by Chuck Hards 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Siegfried wrote: > the baby God I don't think Kubrick used that term; (correct me if I'm wrong) in fact it wasn't at all the point from my perspective. I'm troubled that someone could have interpreted the star-child as deity. The entire story didn't resort to any kind of metaphysics or mysticism; it did paint a picture of nature as much larger and perhaps more complex than mankind is capable of understanding, but baby God? No way. The monolith and star-child represented a massively superior alien race and their interventionist tactics, nothing more. Maybe this is a good application of Isaac Asimov's definition of "magic", but not deity. There were allusions to modern religion having it's roots in ancient alien intervention, but that was just a plot device and an artistic statement. Certainly the audience, with it's outside perspective, can see that God as God played no direct, interventionist role in the story. > If there ever was a movie where you had to read the > book to enjoy the movie, > this was it. Did you really mean "enjoy", or would "understand" be more appropriate? Are you saying that for you, full comprehension is a prerequisite to enjoyment? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? All your favorites on one personal page Try My Yahoo! http://my.yahoo.com

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See ISS tonight
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Looks like northern Utah will have a good ISS pass just after 6 this evening. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/Sighting… Patrick

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Re: Best space/sci-fi movie ever
by David Moulton 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

This is a recurring theme in a few of Clarke's short stories. On Wed, 2005-01-12 at 12:36 -0700, utah-astronomy-request(a)mailman.xmission.com wrote: > The aliens are benevolent high > intelleigences that, while not creating humanity, gave > us the "spark" of creativity and set us upon the path > to enlightenment.

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4 at once
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

The list has been pretty active this morning so to save bandwidth I'll respond to 4 recent messages at once. Chuck Hards wrote: > There is a very large sunspot group visible, a smaller > one not too far away, and two dots between them. I was able to pull out the larger one with just a filter in front of my eye. No scope or binos needed. Aaron Lambert wrote: > How do you go about making a home-made spotter? Hey, Chuck, this is right up your alley. Think you might be able to demo making such at thing at next week's swap meet? Jim Stitley wrote: > No one mentioned Barbarella yet with Jane Fonda... Vietnam vets aren't fonda Jane. Kim Hyatt wrote: > I was 14 when 2001 was released. Sure, I had some questions, > but I "got" most of it. Yes, but haven't you said you had a lot of pharmacological help back then? :-)

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Funny moments
by Chuck Hards 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

IIRC, the instructions for the zero-G toilet were a modification of the instructions for how to flush a toilet in a submarine, from the novel "On The Beach"... I never saw "Contact"; it came out during the diaper-changing segment of my life IIRC, missed a lot in those days. Worth buying? (I don't rent) I love Carl Sagan as a popularizer of astronomy, even met him and had a short conversation many years ago, (pre-Cosmos) but I've never been especially captivated by his writing as prose (though the ideas behind it are fantastic). So I'd value a group judgement on "Contact". Was that the one with Jodie Foster? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] sunshine!
by Lambert, Aaron 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

How do you go about making a home-made spotter? I had a lot of fun last summer showing my kids and some scouts the sun using my binos and a cardboard box, but it was a little awkward. Searching around I found a Keplarian(?) one for sale on the net but it was over $300. Is there a way to build a cheap spotter that gives you a decent image? I had wondered If I could buy one of those little ~$30 radio shack 50mm plastic scopes and take it apart to see if I could build my own, but I really have no idea what I am doing. Aaron > -----Original Message----- > I'm using a 50mm f/9 home-made spotter at 41x with a > Baader filter and home-made eyepiece, through my > office window. >

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sunshine!
by Chuck Hards 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

What's that bright thing in the sky that hurts when you look at it? ;) There is a very large sunspot group visible, a smaller one not too far away, and two dots between them. I'm using a 50mm f/9 home-made spotter at 41x with a Baader filter and home-made eyepiece, through my office window. Check it out if you get a chance. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? http://my.yahoo.com

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Best space/sci-fi movie ever
by Chuck Hards 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Memory Lane time again. Looking at the Cassini Website over the weekend while nursing the flu, I was reminded of 2001: A Space Odyssey (in the book ,Discovery goes to Saturn, not Jupiter), so this morning I am watching the movie on the little DVD player in my office. Even after all these years, and nit-picky little details aside, I consider this movie still to be the best Space/Science-fiction movie ever made, bar none. Nothing else even comes close. I sure am glad of my age, for once. I saw this movie when it first came to theaters, on the big screen. I was about ten or eleven and the country was in the middle of the Apollo program as well. What a great time to be a kid with your head in the stars. Anything and everything was possible. You just had to be there. You folks 45+ know exactly what I'm talking about. Any other great movie suggestions? Inspirations? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

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