Just a heads-up to SPOC users; someone has placed a padlock on the gate as Erik and I discovered last night. I have already emailed Bruce about it. Skies were very bright last night and the seeing soft, probably due to all the smoke in the air from distant wildfires. Planetary nebulae were relatively unaffected; especially with my OIII filter, but galaxies suffered. M27 is a magnificent sight in the 32" with OIII filtration and medium powers. One guest observer called it "almost 3-D" in appearance. We also managed some so-so views of Uranus and Neptune. The color difference was easily noted with Uranus a grey-green in tint, and Neptune more of an azure hue.
On 08 Sep 2007, at 13:52, Chuck Hards wrote:
Just a heads-up to SPOC users; someone has placed a padlock on the gate as Erik and I discovered last night. I have already emailed Bruce about it.
I have not been to SPOC in a couple of days but I'm told by a guy with the service agency that the lock has the same combination as the one that was on the previous gate.
Skies were very bright last night and the seeing soft, probably due to all the smoke in the air from distant wildfires.
There was even some smoke clear down in Kanab yesterday. Flying north after my visit with Cindy and Jerry it just got worse and worse. By the time I got to the south end of Utah lake I could only barely make out the profile of point of the mountain. However, I got 450 images of my current target star last night and they all seem to be ok. patrick p.s. Chuck, you might want to know that should your car/telescope event ever happen, Cindy has a killer new Z car parked in her garage...
Patrick, the new padlock is not a combination lock. It takes a key only. And there is no longer a "gate key" in the drawer in the control room desk. This is still an unresolved issue. Cindy is of course welcome to bring her Z if she is willing to drive it the length of the state for a club car show. I'm very familiar with the 350Z (if it's the Nissan you're talking about); it's one of the "finalist" cars I was interested-in and test-drove before I finally settled on my RX-8. http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/12896/2007-ford-mustang-shelby-gt-v-... I found that the Z has oodles of power, but homely, on the noisy side, and not as sticky in the turns as one would hope- but a definite contender. As close to Porsche as the Japanese have come yet. But here, someone else- Cindy obviously, for one- feels differently and may value different parameters than I. I have to admit to being an old rotor-head. I am a former RX-7 owner so I was very familiar with the care and feeding of rotary engines. That said, I have never driven a car that was as responsive and as sure-footed in my entire life as the RX-8. It has more than enough torque to get me into trouble if I let it, and a fairly inexpensive turbo kit instantly remedies any perceived shortcomings (I don't think it needs it) if you're really worried about it. Contrary to the Car & Driver text, it's not horsepower that it really lacks, it's low-end torque, due to the lack of mass in the moving parts of the engine. The top speed of the Z and the 8 are about the same, but the Z will get to 60 a tiny bit sooner. The 8 starts to get up and move at 5000 rpm- redline is 9000 rpm, by the way, and the engine shut-off doesn't kick-in until you hit 10,000 rpm! Also the 8 has a back seat for the kid, and my binos and smaller scopes fit in it. As to mileage, it's not anywhere near the figures bandied about in the press. It's almost identical to our 4-cylinder Subaru and is really determined by how heavy one's right foot is. That's it from our Mazda correspondent; back to astronomy. On 9/8/07, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote: I have not been to SPOC in a couple of days but I'm told by a guy with the service agency that the lock has the same combination as the one that was on the previous gate. p.s. Chuck, you might want to know that should your car/telescope event ever happen, Cindy has a killer new Z car parked in her garage...
On 08 Sep 2007, at 17:28, Chuck Hards wrote:
Patrick, the new padlock is not a combination lock.
Yeah, I just found that out when I walked over there. I spoke to the guy with the service district again and he's going to get me a key which we could leave in the control room. However, I'm hoping they'll let us replace the existing lock with a combination lock. I want to check with Bruce first but have not been able to raise him today. Once the matter is resolved I'll include an update in News.
Cindy is of course welcome to bring her Z if she is willing to drive it the length of the state for a club car show.
Probably not a problem since she drove it to RTMC. BTW, this thread could turn out to be an expensive one for me. I miss my SL and now this thread has got me putting out feelers for my second most favorite SL, a "Pagoda top" 230 (most favorite is a 300 Gullwing but considering they're going for so much these days that a friend was recently able to trade his for a large house up Emmigration Canyon, and, well, sigh, it's just not realistic).
Funny you should mention the gullwing. When I was a teen, I often would see Tribune editor (back then) Jack Gallivan driving his silver gullwing Mercedes back and forth to work, near our house next to the U of U. See? This thread is legitimate because some sports cars have "astronomical" price tags! LOL. On 9/8/07, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote:
BTW, this thread could turn out to be an expensive one for me. I miss my SL and now this thread has got me putting out feelers for my second most favorite SL, a "Pagoda top" 230 (most favorite is a 300 Gullwing but considering they're going for so much these days that a friend was recently able to trade his for a large house up Emmigration Canyon, and, well, sigh, it's just not realistic).
Hi Chuck, This e-mail manages to blend the sports car with SLAS history. I've been (slowly) going through the old meeting minutes, etc. to try to pull together a history of SLAS (in late fall/winter, I hope to get groups of long-time members together and have them reminisce and fill in some of the gaps and liven things up with their stories). In doing this, I see you were the cover illustrator for the Scope Jockey's (sp?) journal. There is a guy waving his hat and riding a scope in the air (looks a bit like the bomb scene from Dr. Strangelove) but, in the corner there appears to be . . . . a sports car! So, what was your inspiration? And, while I'm asking, did you do the drawing for the first SLAS logo, the earth moon? Thanks! -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 9:36 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: SPOC Funny you should mention the gullwing. When I was a teen, I often would see Tribune editor (back then) Jack Gallivan driving his silver gullwing Mercedes back and forth to work, near our house next to the U of U. See? This thread is legitimate because some sports cars have "astronomical" price tags! LOL. On 9/8/07, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote:
BTW, this thread could turn out to be an expensive one for me. I miss my SL and now this thread has got me putting out feelers for my second most favorite SL, a "Pagoda top" 230 (most favorite is a 300 Gullwing but considering they're going for so much these days that a friend was recently able to trade his for a large house up Emmigration Canyon, and, well, sigh, it's just not realistic).
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Hi Ann: For a while, I was the editor & illustrator for the Scope Jocky's Journal. Dr. Strangelove was the inspiration for that sketch. I believe John Mosley's MG Midget was the inspiration for the sport's car. (John was staff astronomer at Hansen Planetarium at the time, and founder of the earliest incarnation of a planetarium-associated astronomical society. He's now at Griffith.) I can't recall any other illustrations I may have done for the club's publications at the moment though I'm sure there were others. That was such a long time ago! I do recall some pencil drawings of various club members as historical (and pre-historical) astronomers- shown on slides at one of our Christmas parties in the '70's. No idea of their whereabouts today. On 9/10/07, Ann Blanchard <a.blanchard@ugs.utah.edu> wrote:
Hi Chuck, This e-mail manages to blend the sports car with SLAS history.
I've been (slowly) going through the old meeting minutes, etc. to try to pull together a history of SLAS (in late fall/winter, I hope to get groups of long-time members together and have them reminisce and fill in some of the gaps and liven things up with their stories). In doing this, I see you were the cover illustrator for the Scope Jockey's (sp?) journal. There is a guy waving his hat and riding a scope in the air (looks a bit like the bomb scene from Dr. Strangelove) but, in the corner there appears to be . . . . a sports car! So, what was your inspiration? And, while I'm asking, did you do the drawing for the first SLAS logo, the earth moon? Thanks!
Chuck, I thought you might be interested to know that car is still in SLC. I related your story to the guy that's trying to find me a 280 SL and he said he's very familiar with the car and that it's still around but now in the hands of the previous owner's son. Oh, if anyone is interested (and has very deep pockets) he told me about a guy in Heber with two 300 SLs which he'd be willing to sell. patrick On 08 Sep 2007, at 21:36, Chuck Hards wrote:
Funny you should mention the gullwing.
When I was a teen, I often would see Tribune editor (back then) Jack Gallivan driving his silver gullwing Mercedes back and forth to work, near our house next to the U of U.
See? This thread is legitimate because some sports cars have "astronomical" price tags! LOL.
Sorry, I've been floating around on Lake Powell for several days and may have missed the end of this thread. Is there going to be an "off topic" automobile concourse between now and Oct. 1? BB ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Wiggins" <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 4:01 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Re: SPOC (really: Gullwing) | Chuck, I thought you might be interested to know that car is still in | SLC. I related your story to the guy that's trying to find me a 280 | SL and he said he's very familiar with the car and that it's still | around but now in the hands of the previous owner's son. | | Oh, if anyone is interested (and has very deep pockets) he told me | about a guy in Heber with two 300 SLs which he'd be willing to sell. | | patrick | | | On 08 Sep 2007, at 21:36, Chuck Hards wrote: | | > Funny you should mention the gullwing. | > | > When I was a teen, I often would see Tribune editor (back then) Jack | > Gallivan driving his silver gullwing Mercedes back and forth to | > work, near | > our house next to the U of U. | > | > See? This thread is legitimate because some sports cars have | > "astronomical" | > price tags! LOL. | | _______________________________________________ | Utah-Astronomy mailing list | Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com | http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy | Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com |
I don't think so. I think Chuck is now shooting for sometime next year. patrick On 14 Sep 2007, at 22:21, Barney B. wrote:
Sorry, I've been floating around on Lake Powell for several days and may have missed the end of this thread. Is there going to be an "off topic" automobile concourse between now and Oct. 1?
BB
Update: I just spoke with the service agency guy again. Seems they only have one key. However they are going to replace the current lock with a combination lock soon. He hopes it will have the same combination as before but if not the new combination will be distributed to all SLAS members. patrick
participants (4)
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Ann Blanchard -
Barney B. -
Chuck Hards -
Patrick Wiggins