March 2006 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Trying to decide between two telescopes
by Chris Russell 24 Mar '06

24 Mar '06

I currently have a Meade 12.5" Dobson. After a few (ok, a lot) of modifications, I love my telescope except for the fact that I have to decide between it or the kids if I'm going somewhere. It's just too large. So, I'm considering another telescope and I'm hoping I can get some opinions on what I'm considering from the wise and learned folks on this list. I've decided that an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain is just the ticket and I think I've narrowed it down to these two models which are in my price range and appear to have all the features I want: Option #1: Celestron Nexstar 8i Product Information: http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/nx8ise.htm Option #2: Celestron C8-SGT Product Information: http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/c8sgt.htm The second telescope is about $100 more than the first. From my searches on the Internet, they both get decent reviews. Does anyone know what the practical differences are between these two scopes? Does anyone know of any issues with Celestron's quality? Are there any other brands/models you would recommend? Thanks in advance for any advice or help you can offer. -- --Chris Russell

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Weapons :)
by sjseebergp＠webtv.net 24 Mar '06

24 Mar '06

A winner!!!!!!! thanks. Stan

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Weapons :)
by Patrick 24 Mar '06

24 Mar '06

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:52:06 +0000 NEW YORK - A public school teacher was arrested today at JFK International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al-Gebra is a problem for us." Gonzales said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in the search for absolute values. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle'." When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Trying to decide between two telescopes
by daniel turner 24 Mar '06

24 Mar '06

>Patrick, I have 3 of the "other" brand and they all >work great. Of course, >being in the next room, I'm sure they feel the >foundation shake and smell the >gunpowder everytime I test fire a weapon, so maybe >they are just behaving themselves... ;) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/geekkopf/detail?.dir=/5fb7&.dnm=3f41re2.jpg&.… I find a range of capabilities among people that is larger than the differences between telescopes. Some people can make any telescope work at full potential, and they manage to enjoy themselves too. Other people are easily frustrated and quick to blame their hardware, even when nothing is wrong with it. DT __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: Trying to decide between two telescopes
by Chuck Hards 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

Have you tried stacking the kids differently? Maybe a roof rack? > From: Chris Russell <chris(a)therussells.net> > > I love my telescope except for the > fact that I have to > decide between it or the kids if I'm going > somewhere. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Trouble with Gallery
by Tyler Allred 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

Cynthia, I have been having this trouble for some time now. I don't think it related to the server issue. I have tried using the reload button with no success. The last two galaxies in the "Galaxy Images" album won't load, and I can't even get a look at the "Star Cluster Images" album. I deleted a few other problems as well. Cheers, Tyler _______________________________ -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+tylerallred=earthlink.net(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+tylerallred=earthlink.net@mailman.xmission.co m] On Behalf Of Cynthia Blue Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 2:59 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Trouble with Gallery On another note about the gallery... you might have to clear your cache. If it tried to pull up a photo when the server was unavailable, it might not recheck the real server now and might try the cached version. If that doesn't work let me know. I can see the images in your gallery okay Tyler, what images specifically are you having problems with? I can see if I can see those. Cyn Tyler Allred wrote: > Cynthia, > > I am having some trouble with my gallery. It seems that some of the photos > are missing. They show up as thumbnails but when you click to view the > image it just goes blank. It does this even if you advance from photo to > photo using the arrow keys. I tried reloading the photos but that doesn't > seem to help. Any ideas? > > Thanks, > > Tyler > > > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com > > > > -- http://www.hexwitch.com CH Pembroke Faded Glory CGC NAP NJP NAC OJC Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius CGC RN Angel Pumpkin Spice Lady CGC DPP Spirit Chasers Spice CGC WVN _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Trouble with Gallery
by Tyler Allred 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

Cynthia, I am having some trouble with my gallery. It seems that some of the photos are missing. They show up as thumbnails but when you click to view the image it just goes blank. It does this even if you advance from photo to photo using the arrow keys. I tried reloading the photos but that doesn't seem to help. Any ideas? Thanks, Tyler

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Resources for a March 23 school star party
by Canopus56 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

Some resources for a March 23 school party. A list of five colorful bright doubles for an urban 2.8 mag sky: http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/plan/20060323ColorDbls.html A list of asterims visible on March 23: http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/plan/20060323Asterisms.html Asterisms charts suitable for school children from Prof. S. M. Morgan Astro 2005 Course: http://www.cns.uni.edu/~morgan/astro/asterisms.html A list of "hot" stars and "cool" stars - visible stars brighter than mag 3.0 by MK SpecClass in the 25 - 40 degree binocular zone between 7-9pm local time: http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/plan/20060323SpecTour.html - Canopus56(Kurt) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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A short bright after-work DSO observing list for 3/22 to 2/25
by Canopus56 22 Mar '06

22 Mar '06

In warm-up for the Messier Marahton, here's a short observing planning list of after-work bright DSOs between 40 and 75 degrees in altitude for SLC, UT between 3/23 to 3/25 - http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/plan/20060322DSOLst.html The altitudes are for 7 pm local time, so the first few entires on the list - westerly az, low RA objects - will be setting rapidly. The object names are hyperlinked to the CDS Simbad database for further object research. The list was prepared assuming an surban transit 5.5 mag sky. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Pueblo Bonito
by Dave Gary 22 Mar '06

22 Mar '06

That brought back some memories reviewing the photos of Pueblo Bonito. I'd forgotten about the wall alignment. Another interesting tidbit about Bonito is that the kivas are not, truly, subterranean. There's a layer of rock beneath the pueblo and the builders of Bonito could not excavate out their kivas. What they did was build the walls of the kiva and then haul the dirt in from the surrounding area to make it appear the kivas were subterranean. They hauled a lot of dirt. Also, the wood for the roof beams and other parts of the structures was hauled from over 50 miles away. They constantly reused wood so it was difficult to get a reliable dendrochronologic date for a particular structure. Remember, a dendro date would tell you only when the tree was cut, not how long it was used. I did a number of archeomagnetic (paleomagnetic) surveys of kilns and fire pits of structures and there was sometimes a big discrepancy between my dates and those posted for the same structures using dendro and radiocarbon dating. Also, various pottery styles excavated from a structure didn't match the dendro dates for that structure. Ah, the memories.

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