1923 replies to this topic

[CHASLX200]

Sad news.  This C-8 (https://www.cloudyni...5-c-8-wgoodies/), that I sold to a colleague and friend at JPL several years back, was in his Altadena, CA house.  So far as we know, his house burned to the ground Tuesday night.

 

 

He's okay.  Was at his San Diego house at the time.  I'm also fine.  I live about 5 miles from Altadena, and though we had the wind and the smoke plume over us for 2 solid days, we never lost power or water pressure.

 

-Tim.

I was thinking how many scopes went up in flames since they have more real scopes over there than anywhere else. I bet AP 's to Zambutos went up in smoke.

[deSitter]

Sad news.  This C-8 (https://www.cloudyni...5-c-8-wgoodies/), that I sold to a colleague and friend at JPL several years back, was in his Altadena, CA house.  So far as we know, his house burned to the ground Tuesday night.

 

 

He's okay.  Was at his San Diego house at the time.  I'm also fine.  I live about 5 miles from Altadena, and though we had the wind and the smoke plume over us for 2 solid days, we never lost power or water pressure.

 

-Tim.

It always amazes me in a horrific way to see the melted aluminum wheels of a car making 4 puddles on the street where it was parked. The heat of these firestorms is astounding. One of my earliest memories is of seeing the hills on fire from Santa Monica as a 2 year old toddler. An awesome sight, in the scary sense. A SoCal friend says that was probably the 1961 Bel Air fire.

 

-drl

[tim53]

It always amazes me in a horrific way to see the melted aluminum wheels of a car making 4 puddles on the street where it was parked. The heat of these firestorms is astounding. One of my earliest memories is of seeing the hills on fire from Santa Monica as a 2 year old toddler. An awesome sight, in the scary sense. A SoCal friend says that was probably the 1961 Bel Air fire.

 

-drl

I remember that fire. I was 8

[Terra Nova]

I remember that fire. I was 8

Me too!

[tim53]

Some potential good news. My friend drove up from San Diego yesterday to see if he could check out his house. The police would t let him in the area, but he heard from another evacuee that a few homes on his side of the street may have survived the fire.  It certainly of course,  it maybe some hope in all this. 

[tim53]

He's now had confirmation that his house is still standing.  Having been through a house fire 23 years ago, I know he's going to have to have everything removed and cleaned, to get rid of the smoke smell.  Then the whole house will need cleaning.  I've offered to clean the C-8 for him.  I doubt an insurance company hire would know how to work on a telescope.

 

-Tim.

[Bob W4]

Sad news.  This C-8 (https://www.cloudyni...5-c-8-wgoodies/), that I sold to a colleague and friend at JPL several years back, was in his Altadena, CA house.  So far as we know, his house burned to the ground Tuesday night.

 

 

He's okay.  Was at his San Diego house at the time.  I'm also fine.  I live about 5 miles from Altadena, and though we had the wind and the smoke plume over us for 2 solid days, we never lost power or water pressure.

 

-Tim.

God bless.  I am horrified at watching the news coverage of the LA fires. The aireal views of the devastated neighborhood views are far worse than what a nuclear bomb blast would look like.  On top of everything else, there are looters working the evacuatored neighborhoods.  Back in WW 11 Europe, looters were "shot on site"  Just saying.  God bless the fire victims.

Edited by Bob W4, 15 January 2025 - 09:22 PM.

[deSitter]

Roll your own Schmidt corrector.

 

https://www.considin...pfaff/pfaff.htm

 

-drl

[RichA]

I asked it to generate an image like a painting of the constellation figure of Cassiopeia, laying on a Roman style divan, with the major stars showing through the figure as white dots, connected by white lines, and a scattering of smaller random field stars. I wanted to see how close it could get to what one of my high school students did.

 

It gave the queen a beard and three legs, didn't get the stars right, and didn't put them in the figure. Hard to believe that this what you get for billions of dollars of investment. 

 

DALL-E - 1.jpeg

 

Chip W. 

Looks like the product of a geriatric artist who longs for the 60's again.

[RichA]

God bless.  I am horrified at watching the news coverage of the LA fires. The aireal views of the devastated neighborhood views are far worse than what a nuclear bomb blast would look like.  On top of everything else, there are looters working the evacuatored neighborhoods.  Back in WW 11 Europe, looters were "shot on site"  Just saying.  God bless the fire victims.

Not everything was "lost."  I have a feeling a lot of stuff that was more desirable as an insurance pay-out was left to the flames.  Same thing happens in floods. Even though torrential rain is predicted days in advance, people somehow manage not to move some vehicles to areas of high ground.

[RichA]

I've often wondered why Meade made a Research Grade 7mm ortho and a 7mm widefield.  None of the other focal lengths in the line were duplicated between the orthos and the widefields.   Additionally, 8mm eyepieces used to be very rare.

[deSitter]

Looks like the product of a geriatric artist who longs for the 60's again.

Obviously AI just aped something it found on the webernet - do an image search and dozens of similar images pop up, one of which is probably from a humanoid.

 

-drl

[Terra Nova]

Obviously AI just aped something it found on the webernet - do an image search and dozens of similar images pop up, one of which is probably from a humanoid.

 

-drl

The 7mm RGO was truly one of the greats! It was certainly one of my favorites up until I got the 7mm Nagler T6. The RGO now resides with my brother who has lots of classics that it works well with.

[deSitter]

What's in Goof Off? You have to go here.

 

https://barringredie...brands/goof-off

 

Pro Strength

 

https://barringredie...f-off?id=fg655b

 

Dang near everything No wonder it works. Like a snifter of fine wine, I could detect a bouquet of acetone, with just a hint of smoky aged oaken barrel. Xylene and ether, not so much.

 

So "Goof-Off" is many things, and some of them eat plastic. Be warned.

 

BTW GOPS is absolutely the best stuff for cleaning worm gears and fouled screws.

 

-drl

Edited by deSitter, 20 January 2025 - 01:17 PM.

[clamchip]

Early Astro-Physics catalog:

https://www.astro-ph...ures/870701.pdf

 

Robert

[ccwemyss]

There's a quote in that ad from MR (Mike Rudenko) who co-discovered comet Levy-Rudenko (1984t). Shortly after that, I hired Mike to work as a programmer in my research group. Although the quote is listed under the 6"f8 standard triplet, he actually had a 6"f9 NASA glass like mine. The discovery was late November 1984, and he only had the scope for a short time. Mine was dated just a couple months later, in January 1985. Mike was such a dedicated comet hunter that he wore red glasses during the day, claiming it helped him dark adapt faster. I was probably one of the few people he could have worked for who actually understood his passion. After our project ended, he moved a few floors up in the building to develop software for a project in the Astronomy department. I lost track of him after that wrapped up. 

Chip  W. 

[clamchip]

Going thru my "Manage Attachments" here on cloudy nights again and ran across this photo

of a Vixen file.

The Vixen file is great for removing a large amount of soft metal fast and accurately like a milling

machine. They were popular for smoothing lead in automotive bodywork years ago and are still

available today. It leaves a beautiful finish on aluminum. 

Sometimes we need to make missing parts from solid like say a missing or broken casting.

You clamp your block of aluminum in the vise and go at it with tools like this and keep at it until

you have the part you need. And you very well might have more metal on the floor than your

finished project !

Robert

 

[Bomber Bob]

I wonder...   Any CSNs (Classic Scope Nutz) interested in an Archaeo-Astronomy Forum / Thread?

 

After a year-plus of 100% retirement, I've rekindled my interest in this topic -- it's a MUCH larger area than it was back during my College Daze.  And, I can combine my education (History & Social Sciences) + our Hobby in a number of fascinating subjects.  Before last month, I had no idea how many journals, articles, books, & videos there are now...

 

Hey!  It's either this, or I'll get back into The Balkans during the Hapsburg Dynasty...  (A-A is definitely more interesting!!)

[cavecollector]

Yes, please, that would be so totally awesome! 

 

I wonder...   Any CSNs (Classic Scope Nutz) interested in an Archaeo-Astronomy Forum / Thread?

[Garyth64]

I wonder...   Any CSNs (Classic Scope Nutz) interested in an Archaeo-Astronomy Forum / Thread?

 

After a year-plus of 100% retirement, I've rekindled my interest in this topic -- it's a MUCH larger area than it was back during my College Daze.  And, I can combine my education (History & Social Sciences) + our Hobby in a number of fascinating subjects.  Before last month, I had no idea how many journals, articles, books, & videos there are now...

 

Hey!  It's either this, or I'll get back into The Balkans during the Hapsburg Dynasty...  (A-A is definitely more interesting!!)

Yes.  I have an interest in Archaeo-Astronomy.

[ErnH2O]

I wonder...   Any CSNs (Classic Scope Nutz) interested in an Archaeo-Astronomy Forum / Thread?

 

After a year-plus of 100% retirement, I've rekindled my interest in this topic -- it's a MUCH larger area than it was back during my College Daze.  And, I can combine my education (History & Social Sciences) + our Hobby in a number of fascinating subjects.  Before last month, I had no idea how many journals, articles, books, & videos there are now...

 

Hey!  It's either this, or I'll get back into The Balkans during the Hapsburg Dynasty...  (A-A is definitely more interesting!!)

Absolutely! Please make this happen.

 

Ern

[Terra Nova]

 Count me in. I read widely on the subject 20+ years ago when I was a geological consultant on an archaeological project. I'd be very interested in such a forum.

[Bomber Bob]

Great - I'll ping the MODs.  I think an Archaeo-Astronomy Forum should be under the Speciality Forums group.  If the MODs don't want to create a new Forum... maybe create the A-A thread(s) in the Science! Astronomy & Space Exploration, and Others Forum??

 

MODs asked about Topics / Threads...

 

- Types of ancient astronomy instruments, from Megaliths (Gobekli Tepe) to hand-held (Antikythera Planisphere).

 

- Ages, Bronze to Neolithic.  Maybe even... Paleolithic.

 

- Knowledges & Skills required to make this stuff.

 

- Tools we use to determine if an object, site, etc. is A-A related.

 

- Stellar Alignments, Precession!  Computer-modeling.  Creating modern replicas.

 

That's just for starters.  I'd say there's tons of topics to while away on Cloudy Nights (pun intended).

Edited by Bomber Bob, 03 February 2025 - 05:44 PM.

[Bomber Bob]

Based on this guidance:  https://www.cloudyni...ead-this-first/

 

No Forum.  Best we could do is a TAG for A-A Posts -- at least make them easier to find...

[Terra Nova]

Darn! Oh well. I agree.  It seems to me as well that at this point, the best fit for now would be

 

SPECIALTY FORUMS > Science! Astronomy & Space Exploration, and Others

 

and appropriately tag posts A-A 

Edited by Terra Nova, 03 February 2025 - 07:44 PM.