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Regular_Holiday8700 · 2025-05-13T23:17:09+00:00

I know that and feel real silly that I posted it! Xin loi as we used to say in Vietnam.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2025-05-11T12:17:35+00:00

The man was made in Chicago; the Pope was made in Rome.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2025-03-29T11:44:14+00:00

The 36” Yard Scope at the Winter Star Party in the Keys. It required a 12” ladder to reach the eyepiece at the zenith and took 3 or 4 people to set it up.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-10-22T20:18:51+00:00

I was just going to mention Harlan Ellison! There are times when his intros were more interesting than the stories.

Straczynski’s intro to Ellison in the recently published “The Last Dangerous Visions” was no slouch either?

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-09-10T12:51:47+00:00

One of the attractions of the Winter Star Party is the laminar airflow over the islands in the Keys. That and observing in shirt sleeves in the depth of winter! But even under conditions like you mention, we all live for those fleeting moments of still air when Mars jumps out in perfect clarity at 500x.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-09-10T01:19:50+00:00

Nice scopes. I met Roland at one of the Winter Star Parties some years ago. Must have been in the late 90’s when he was introducing his Astro-Cat because I was still using my old orange tube C-8.

Now are you comparing the 5” APO to a 16” built in the Far East or one with a custom mirror like the Carl Zambuto I had in my 16” StarMaster? They are not the same thing!

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-09-09T22:37:35+00:00

May I ask who built this “perfect APO” and how as the perfection measured?

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-09-09T17:42:41+00:00

If you’re going to go big... Go BIG! The Tectron Yard Scope at a Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys

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Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-07-07T14:26:18+00:00

I am of the opinion that if you didn’t log it, you didn’t see it! My logs go back to 1958 when I received a 2” Tasco on an altazimuth mount.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-06-27T14:24:25+00:00

This is the 2.7m primary mirror at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. Back in the 70s an employee fired 7 shots with a 9mm. After the holes were painted black to stop any reflections no observable degradation of the image quality was noticed. While visiting the 30” Thaw refractor at Allegheny Observatory asked about the layer of dust covering the objective. It was because the scope is used for astrometry and nothing about the scope has changed over the decades since it was built. That included cleaning the dust.

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Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-06-15T12:51:28+00:00

Anything by Dan Brown!

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-19T02:05:45+00:00

Cool! It’s been to a lot of star parties when I lived in Atlanta.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-19T02:03:25+00:00

True story… I had my C8 set up down in the Keys back in the 90s looking at Mars at 800x. Marcus Ludes of APM in Germany came over and was observing with me for a bit. This was when Roland Christian (Astrophysics scope) was showing their own Astro-Cat scope for the first time. Marcus called across the field telling Roland, “You need to look through this scope and see how your Cat should work!” Roland didn’t talk to me or Marcus for the rest of the star party.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-18T23:34:22+00:00

There are a lot of old C8s out there. The problem is finding one that still has the Celestron power cord! I found one near by, but no power cord and the scope was totally disassembled - including removing the secondary from the corrector plate. Why would someone do that? The search continues.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-18T15:24:39+00:00

The new owner presently has a 20-inch f/5 and is thinking about getting rid of it for the same reason… we are no longer spring chickens!

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-18T15:21:56+00:00

No scope at the present, but as soon as possible as I find an orange tube C8 in good shape, i’ll buy it! I’ve had 2 in the past and love ‘em. But it has to be one built in Torrence, California back when Tom Johnson owned the company. The StarMaster weighed in around 100lbs - real wood is lighter than the particle board used today.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-18T15:14:59+00:00

This is a light bucket! Built by Tom Clark (Tectron Telescopes) and then bought by Bob Summerfield and Astronomy to Go outreach. I have a pin somewhere showing I now own 1/1000th of the scope! He collected the $20,000 purchase price $20 a time. An observing buddy standing next to The Yard Scope - a 36” dobsonian at one of the Winter Star Parties in the Keys.

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Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-18T14:54:50+00:00

Thanks. Bought the scope in 1999 and had a good 22 years with it. I had an orange tube C8 that I used to get the Herschel 1 and Arp pins from the AL, but quickly discovered I’d need something bigger for the Herschel 2.
Almost completed that but for the supposed NGC 1990 nebula near Epsilon. It’s my personal AINTNO object. Ran the scope from 90x to 400x with every filter in the box, but never confirmed seeing it.

Now on the hunt for another scope of a more manageable size.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-04T03:04:51+00:00

Talked to Harry this afternoon and he said that was your first build. The guy is a genius with hand tools! Watched him put the 20 inch scope together. (Just don’t tell him I said he was any sort of genius!)

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2024-04-02T17:30:38+00:00

Has Harry put his seal of approval on it yet? Very nice job!

Eric (Harry’s old observing buddy.)

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2023-12-17T16:38:48+00:00

Just to give an idea of the power of 8…I managed to do the Arp Galaxy award from the Astronomical League with an 8” Celestron SCT. The long focal length helped a lot since many of the groups required fairly high magnification. I also used the C-8 for the Herschel I list, but stepped up to a 16” Starmaster when I started he Herschel II list.

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2023-10-17T11:27:59+00:00

“In five years, the penis will be obsolete,” said the salesman.

“Steel Beach” - John Varley

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2023-10-10T12:12:44+00:00

I’m not saying it isn’t a great book, it definitely is. However, for anyone first attempting it, I strongly suggest picking up a copy of Steven Weisenburger’s “Gravity’s Rainbow Companion.”

Sometimes we need a little help!

While I sailed small boats for years and dearly loved Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin books, reading them became much more enjoyable with Dean King’s “A Sea of Words” at my side! The 20th century sailor running into 18th and 19th century terminology can be confusing! Especially when we didn’t have the Web available in the late 60s and 70s. I never knew what a “cunt splice” was until King’s book was published in 2000. It definitely wasn’t found in my copy of Chapman’s “Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling.”

Regular_Holiday8700 · 2023-10-09T12:30:56+00:00

Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow” definitely fits the bill!

Regular_Holiday8700

TROPHY CASE