Fred Ley

Yes, a dark day for the exploration of outer space. Unfortunately, we don't have a "rewind" button in order to go back and fix things that went wrong. We can only move forward and learn as we go. Below is the mission patch and one thing that I always liked is the little red apple for teacher Christa McAuliffe. Long ago it was customary for school children in the United States to bring their teachers a red apple. -Fred

Oh yes, the good old days. That's when I thought that by now there would have been a Moon base and a whole lot more. I guess governments found more important things to spend money on. At the rate that we are pushing into outer space, a snail moves faster. -Fred

Yes, I recall that day. I was at work at the airbase when we heard the news. a sad day indeed. -Fred

Hi Everybody, This is a day late, but yesterday, January 27, was the 44th anniversary of the January 27, 1967 Apollo 1 fire which took the lives of the three astronauts Guss Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee while they were in the Apollo capsule for a rehersal. -Fred

Hi Everybody, There is an article on astrophotography by Chris Kotsiopoulos in todays Athens News. There is also a web link at the newspapers web site. It is at... http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/22/36736 -Fred

Sure, having a 42-inch scope would be great. If it is easy to use and permanently located in a dark sky site, even better. I would like to have a 25 or 30 inch scope. I certainly noticed the plastic garbage can that has been converted to a cover for the secondary mirror. A very good idea. Just like using shower caps to cover the ends of the tube on Newtonians. Scrooge Mc Duck, he is up there with my other favorite Disney characters. He will go anywhere to grab a Dollar-even outerspace. I still have a few of his comics from when I much younger. On a searate note, where is Fox Land? The place that you reside in. -Fred

Hi Kokokkolis, Hah! were did you dig up the image of Gyro Gearloose? I remember him from the Disney comic books way back when. Do you have enough telescopes? Nah-never. What's next on your list? -Fred

Also don't forget our neighbors the Anasazi who, it is widely believed, also recorded the 1054 supernova event on a petroglyph in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The petroglyph shows the Moon next to a very bright "star". -Fred

You could try this link to Boston Gear... http://bostongear.com/products/open/internal.html It may be of help. -Fred

This thread reminds me of an 8x50 finder that I purchased from Meade in 1979. It came with a diagonal and a slightly longer tube that could be threaded to the back of the finder for straight-through viewing. Below is a photo of that finder. Still have that finder after all these years. -Fred

Yes, it is a great site. Good for research. I should create a site like that one day as I have been collecting catalogs for the past 40 years. I have been scanning my collection of catalogs. So far I have made over 4,000 scans with more to go. -Fred

Besides the launches that take place from Florida, there are quite a few launches that also take place from Vandenberg AFB in California. Back in the 1980's there was an infrastructure to launch Space Shuttle missions from Vandenberg. That was scrapped and no shuttle launches ever took place, much to my dismay as I would have loved to have seen that view. For those that may be interested in the Vandenberg launches, there is a site that provides information and video of past launches and also streams live video of new launches. The site is located at http://ulalaunch.com/site/ -Fred

Hi Michael, In response to your question, you may also want to slightly elaborate on the "image quality of the Whirlpool that you were anticipating on seeing." A few other items that should also need to be addressed is... -Size of the optics in your telescope -Collimation of your optical system -Light Pollution at your observing station -If the observer wears corrective lens (eyeglasses) -Dark adaptivity of ones eyes (if you are going in and out of a lit room or lighting matches because one needs to have a cigarette while observing) Addressing the above thoughts should assit you in your search for a better image. Keep asking questions, that's what it's all about. -Fred

This exhibit looks like it will be very interesting. Gotta go and see it. -Fred

You're lucky Santa had room in his sleigh to deliver that scope. Now you're ready to collect all that light and have fun exploring the night sky. Just grab a nice dark spot and away you go. Have fun. -Fred