January 2003 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Unsucribe me from the list please
by Chad Utley 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

1 0

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Bowling Ball International
by Kim Hyatt 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

I truly am sorry for any embarrassment this may have caused anyone. From now on, I'll keep my wacky ideas to myself. (Did I tell you about my plans to launch myself into orbit in a 1953 Cadillac?) -----Original Message----- From: Patrick Wiggins [mailto:paw@trilobyte.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 12:50 PM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Bowling Ball International Kim Hyatt wrote: > > Patrick - did the magazine interview you? Yep, and the Tribune reporter and someone from the BLM. Patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

4 5

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Bowling Ball International
by Kim Hyatt 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

Sounds great, but would we get the press? -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 1:20 PM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Bowling Ball International > Kim Hyatt wrote: > > > > (Did I tell you about my plans to > > launch myself into orbit in a 1953 Cadillac?) Why not simulate a supernova by burning ants with a 25-inch Dob? ;) C. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Easier way to collimate an SC accurately
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

Chuck That makes sense. I should collimate on Polaris during good seeing? What kind of diagonal should I use if any at all? Debbie

2 1

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Bowling Ball International
by Kim Hyatt 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

Patrick - did the magazine interview you? The interviewer told me they wanted to treat the story "light-heartedly." I guess we now have a sense of what that means, don't we? -----Original Message----- From: Patrick Wiggins [mailto:paw@trilobyte.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 12:18 PM To: utah astronomy listserve Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Bowling Ball International Would you believe "New Scientist" magazine (Great Britain) is doing a story on our humble bowling ball experiment? Patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

2 1

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Bowling Ball International
by Kim Hyatt 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

Yeah - they called me this morning from London for an interview. This story truly has "got legs." I wish it would go away. We're really going to have a hard time now convincing anyone that we're serious. -----Original Message----- From: Patrick Wiggins [mailto:paw@trilobyte.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 12:18 PM To: utah astronomy listserve Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Bowling Ball International Would you believe "New Scientist" magazine (Great Britain) is doing a story on our humble bowling ball experiment? Patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

1 0

Bowling Ball International
by Patrick Wiggins 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

Would you believe "New Scientist" magazine (Great Britain) is doing a story on our humble bowling ball experiment? Patrick

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Saturn
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

What's the difference between Enke's Division and Enke's Minima? Debbie

4 10

Easier way to collimate an SC accurately
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

Hi, I got this off of the Astromart Forums. What do you guys think of this method? Debbie "The "experts", writing in articles and on the net, and the telescope manufacturers themselves, tell us to collimate using a slightly defocused star..the two diffraction rings scenario. This is difficult and thus in my opinion, absolute crap! Even so, most people hardly bother to go this far, collimating instead while looking at the 'big donut'at low power and are happy with "just about or good enough" collimation. With miserable results. Don't collimate on a star at all! Why not? Well at 500-600x what do you see?..even with relative steady air the defocused highly magnified star will still be wobbling and the diffraction rings will be wiggling all over hell and back...how accurate a measurement can you do with this scenario?? Instead, try this...thread on a straight thru visual back adapter..don't use the diagonal..center Jupiter in the field of view..now you have a rock solid steady object to look at!..big difference..it's also bright and easy to see, large in the field of view...start at about 300x..look at the limb of Jupiter, usually one side will have a halo. That halo is a secondary image of the planet caused by miscollimation, & if your seeing that, your NOT getting NEAR the view your instrument is capable of, your not getting the most out of your SC telescope...go to the front of the scope and tweak the screws until that halo disappears..completely..now kick it, the magnification up, to 600x..say 4.6 mm eyepiece 2xbarlow combo...very very fine movements/changes now..1/15th turn..when your finished there should be no evidence whatsoever of limb halo, you should be looking at a solid planetary edge!..and I will guarantee you your eyes aren't going to believe the difference..when it's right on...WOW..POP..all those fine details you thought were impossible to get, with an SC, are going to suddenly be there. "

2 1

Vixen NA Refractors
by David Bennett 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

Hi Folks, Just curious if anyone along the Front happens to own a Vixen NA 120S Refractor? The NA is a Neo-Achromat and from what I've heard, it seems to be a fairly nice scope with noticeably less color than your standard Achro. I've seen a few on Astromart lately with an OTA selling for $700...less than half what they're costing new from OPT & Anacortes. Ron Ford has a beautiful 4" Vixen (FL?) which gives some incredible views but I'm afraid an Apo is not in my budget right now. Any comments would be appreciated. Dave Bennett

1 0