January 2012 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Utah astro swap shop
by Chuck Hards 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

I've got two of the following Surplus Shed 5" objectives: Mounted Telescope Objective 127mm diameter, 700mm FL f/5.5 Item No. L3968 $145 ea. + $5 shipping I was originally toying with the idea of making a large 5" binocular with these, but my Apogee 25x100mm bino is probably about as large as I'm going to be willing to deal with. The extra inch of aperture and a lot more weight will make the 5" something that, while cool, probably wouldn't get used much. So, I'm going to offer one or both for sale. The Jaegers lenses I recently purchased make these redundant as far as single OTA's are concerned. Both are BN and unused, and come with the factory cell. Make me an offer. I'd like to get what I paid for them, especially seeing as Surplus Shed is out-of-stock and doesn't get these often, but I'd cut a deal if someone wanted the pair and will at least entertain any reasonable offer. Also, this is for Joan, are you selling your ortho eyepieces? If so, tell me what you've got as far as brand and focal lengths. Orthos are still the "gold standard" for resolution and while not great for deep-sky, I still prefer them for planetary viewing, where a wide field isn't needed, but the sharpness pays dividends. Let me know, thanks!

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Norman Edmund passes
by Chuck Hards 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

The end of an era. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/NormanEdmundObit-137951448.html The first "serious" telescope I owned was an Edmund 4.25" f/11 Newtonian reflector on their 5/8" shaft German equatorial mount. The secondary mirror was an aluminized right-angle prism, using the hypoteneuse as a first-surface mirror. I had the 28mm Plossl eyepiece (still have it), a 1/2" Ramsden, 1/4" Ramsden, and sink-trap extension-style Barlow. With that rig I marvelled at the planets, the sun (using projection), double stars, and found every Messier object as well as dozens of NGC's, from various sites including my parents back yard near the University of Utah. What a wonderful scope for a kid to dive headfirst into astronomy with.

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Easy navigating of utah-astronomy
by jcarman6＠q.com 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Rather than having each post dropped in your mail box, which can lead to overload and lots of buddy chatter which I am not interested in, I changed my mail option to receive the digest. The digest only includes four or five messages, but the subjects are listed and you can immediately choose to read what you might be interested in. The digests are much easier to delete as well. I tried the "just ignore the person with the most posts route and it was unsatifactory - to me, still too much time spent looking over the mail box. The digest fits my needs, maybe yours. One draw back of the digest is it is a little cumbersome to respond to a post of interest. The second draw back is they come later, like after the start and steps of the "life on venus thread." The obvious response (at least to me) was a geological or weather related feature - Venus does have "weather" not just like ours. Dust storms on Mars are not regular, substantially change features and then do it again. Hmm, maybe we need to send a probe to land on Venus to check for life - Oh wait, the Russians did that years ago and it was crushed within seconds of landing by the atmospheric pressure. Well, if there is life there, is sure is different from ours :)

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Easy navigating of utah-astronomy
by Chuck Hards 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

It seems that the biggest complaint of the list-serve format is that it tends to clutter your email IN box. My solution was to create a free gmail account and use it for utah-astronomy related messages exclusively. The gmail format makes navigating the list messages as easy as it can be, and is then much more user-friendly than a forum format, IMO. I would only use gmail for this, it's much easier to use than most other free email services. Also since I don't use this account for online shopping, it remains spam free. My personal email accounts and business account thus never get "cluttered" with interspersed astronomy posts. I've had it going this way for years now and still love it. Just a suggestion for those facing inbox overload.

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Joe's coming back
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

Hi folks, Just letting you know that I've just received a message from the system indicating joe has applied to come back to the list. I'll approve it of course when I get home tonight. Just be nice, please. We all have "One of those days" now that then and Joe just had a especially bad one. patrick Sent from my iPad

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Easy navigating of utah-astronomy
by jcarman6＠q.com 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

The huge plus of the digest is you avoid the flame war. Well, actually, you don't avoid it, you just get to read it - like passing a train wreck, you just have to look and wonder. Perhaps another down side of the digest is the period question mark that some part of the system is adding to all my posts. :)

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Life on Venus (or Mars)
by Raeburn Kennard 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

My favorite is Ray Bradbury's "Dark They Were and Golden-eyed." Raeburn Kennard

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Testing new U-A footer
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

Testing a new footer to appear at the bottom of all posts. Among other things it will tell subscribers exactly how to unsubscribe from the list. Now I'm going to click on Send and hope it works (that the new footer works not that it makes everyone leave <g>). patrick

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Baader Herschel wedge
by Chuck Hards 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

Has anyone purchased the Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism? I'm thinking of combining one with my 80mm ED scope for solar observing. Ted Wolfe liked it: http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2569

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last note
by Joe Bauman 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

Hi All, I have decided to drop off the UA list, and would like to say good-bye. I am nearly 66 years old, have diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol problems and must take a pill every day to help cope with depression. The group is too contentious for me. That has taken all the fun out of sharing a love for astronomy. Today I will be writing my last blog, because I promised to cover the presentation at SLAS by ATK's Mike Jacobs and Paul Karner. It will also have a good-bye to blogging. I haven't quite decided whether to drop out of SLAS but I am leaning in that direction. Nobody knows how much time is left and I choose not to spend mine in stressful pursuits. I will be writing more about the Revolutionary War, about the Spanish-American War, and at least one novel. I send you my good wishes -- Joe

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