Fred Ley

That's a very interesting Lego project. The video giving the explanation was equally interesting. I wonder what other devices from back then await to be discovered. -Fred

The Horsehead? I have seen it as plain as day, without any filter, through a Meade 16-inch Dob and a 24mm Wide Field Tele Vue eyepiece. The apparent field of view of the eyepiece is 65-degrees. -Fred

Brandons, oh yeah, good stuff. Got five of them and they are nice. -Fred

Yes, it is that time of year again where lots of aspiring astronomy enthusiasts give up the hobby due to poor quality telescopes, that were purchased with the best of intentions, as their Christmas present. Take a close look at the photo of the Newtonian. What's wrong with it. The viewfinder is in BACKWARDS. What next? -Fred

I enjoyed your photos very much. I have not been to the science Museum in many years. It is one of the places that is on my list the next time that I am in London, along with the observatory at Greenwich. Taking photos from the aircraft window can be a challenge. I have an image of the Moon and Mars that came out odd looking due to the movement of the aircraft as I had the camera pressed against the window. -Fred

Hi, I havn't had the pleasure of reading David Levy's book yet. But, I would like to mention that you can obtain a wealth of information on variable stars by visiting the web site of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) located at http://www.aavso.org/ as it offers quite a bit of information on the subject. The British Astronomical Association (BAA) also has a variable star oberserving section and they are located at http://www.britastro.org/vss/ Hope this helps. -Fred

I don't know which texts you have, but these two classics, among others, are worth looking at for information on mirror grinding. All About Telescopes by Sam Brown and Standard Handbook For Telescope Making by Neale E. Howard There is a huge list of information on ATM'ing at the Stellafane site. The link is... http://stellafane.org/tm/index.html -Fred Addendum- The Stellafane link above is alright, but, I should have given you this direct link to an overwhelming amount of ATM info on their site. It is... http://stellafane.org/misc/links.html

Hi Argyrhs, Looking at the tool that you have, you have got to many tiles on it. Below is a copy of the tool that I made for a 6-inch mirror. You can see that the tiles on the tool have worn down a bit when you compare it to the tile next to the tool. The tiles are attached with pitch and can be taken off of the tool in the event that one wants to reuse the tool for another mirror. When grinding the mirror, I used a friends mirror grinder that slowly rotated the mirror blank while "pushed" the tool in a "W" pattern while also rotating the tool concurrently. My mirror needs to be finished and when a ruler is laid across the mirror, it does display a Sagitta. Like George said, going through Willmann-Bell should take care of any additional needs that you may have for your project. -Fred

This outfit should have a case that will cover your needs. They're at... http://www.pelican.com/ -Fred

Hi, I also found this site that shows some interest in regards to the Dec. drive. It is at... http://www.kwastronomy.com/LX200_Dec_Motor_Assy.htm At the bottom of this site are three links to further information of the Dec. axis. And another site... http://jatobservatory.org/images/LX200_Dec_fix/Dec_fix.html This site addresses the LX200GPS unit. Hope this can be of some use to you. -Fred