On 08 Jun 2009, at 17:28, Chuck Hards wrote:
One has to wonder why the hundreds of pounds of actual moon brought back can't give us the compositional information that the spectrum of a dust cloud supposedly will. Is all this for the signature of a few molecules of water vapor?
I don't think any of the lunar material we or the Soviets brought back from the Moon came from anywhere near the perpetually dark areas of the Moon where water ice might exist. So, yes, I believe the primary reason for this mission is to look for water ice.
Erik, I promise you that the Grim has enough focus to accommodate my little camera. If it can focus with that 55mm eyepiece, it can focus with anything. Ideally I need to machine a thread-on adapter first.
If in fact you can achieve focus I did have adapters made a couple of years back that fit in the Ealing, refractor and Grim scopes' draw tubes and onto which accessories can be threaded. But those were made in the days before Bruce moved the Ealing and Grim primary mirrors (see my post from earlier this evening about that) so they may now work only in the refractor. patrick