Fred Ley

I have prior plans for this evening and will be unable to attend the meeting this evening. -Fred

I don't know if I will make the meeting tonight as the subway is on strike from what I understand. -Fred

Hi Ilias, I do agree that a star test is the best way. I figure that one "tunes" the instrument with the laser collimator and then "fine tunes" the instrument with the star test. -Fred

Hi Ilias, Great choice. I too have one of these bad boys on order-should show up real soon. Now I will be able to collimate my SCT and Newtonians wihtout to much fuss. For those of you who may be contemplating the purchase of a laser collimator, their web site has a few pdf files by others with additional information on the art of collimation which is helpful. Hotech's instructions are also very good. This link takes you to their collimator page http://www.hotechusa.com/collimator.html -Fred

I just got off the phone with Sky & Telescope. Geee... the guy I spoke to sounded like he was really new to the job. I mentioned that I have not yet received my October issue. He offered to extend my subscription by one month because of the missed issue. I protested, you know the typical stuff... "I have been a loyal subscriber since 1971, blah-blah-blah". So he did some checking and said that I will be receiving an issue by the 20th of October which is about the same time that I will receive the November issue. Just like everything else on this planet -Price goes up, quality goes down. -Fred

Hi Vasilis, I wouldn't worry to much. I am just thinking out loud here and stating a "what if..." scenario here. Who knows, someone may have sent the mail bag with all the issues for Greece to Tahiti for all I know. If you never receive your issue just send them an e-mail stating that you never received your issue. They should send you a replacement issue. I have been getting S & T since I sent in my subscription back in 1971. Everytime I move to a new home I feel the decades of receiving the magazine in their weight. -Fred

I have had my suspicions ever since Sky & Telescope was bought out by another company that they might go under. The reason being that, more than likely, they purchased Sky & Telescope simply as a business investment and definitely not for any aesthetical reasons such as a love of astronomy. Of course I may completely wrong here. I was a, probably one of many, randomly picked subscriber that took part in a survery by S & T last year. One question was if I would prefer a digital issue of the magazine as opposed to a paper one. No way dude! It is far easier for me to sit in a comfortable chair and be able thumb through the pages at warp speed as opposed to sitting in front of a glowing monitor and trying to read off of a lousy pdf file. Astronomy magazine, some time ago, was bought out by Klambach Publishing Co. Of course Astronomy magazine is still going strong-this August marked their 35th anniversary. I have not yet received my October issue either. I will give the guys at S & T a call this evening to find where my issue is lurking at. -Fred

Hi Bi2L, Yes, I can see you looking through the eyepiece with a smile a least a couple of light years wide on your face. I have an original 4.8mm and 13mm Nagler. I don't know if I will be tempted to buy a 13 Ethos. You should have been in Athens last night as Al Nagler gave a wonderful talk at the observatory located at Pendeli. The Hellenic Astronomical Union located at www.astronomia.org.gr will more than likely have an article of Al's visit, with some images, forthcoming on their web site. -Fred

Hi Bi2L, Glad to see that you were able to solve the eyepiece issue. Don't feel bad, everyone has their odd moments in life. I have had my fair share. Great that it is working now a you will be able enjoy the new eyepiece. I hope the view it gives will leave you speechless. -Fred

Saturday, October 11 sounds fine to me. Sign me up. I'll bring a few small samples of the Canyon Diablo iron for show and tell. If we find anything that looks like them-provided that this is a crater and there is some scatteredmeteorites around. If this is a crater and an old one, whatever iron may be lying around could have turned into iron oxide or shale balls-as found at the Canyon Diablo crater in Arizona, by now. With the exception of two samples, I forgot all of my Canyon Diablo specimens in Athens and did not bring them to the Patras meeting in 2007. -Fred

Somehow, we need to organize an outing to go and visit the "crater". It should prove to be an interesting trip. I wonder if there are any local stories of people finding real heavy "rocks" in the vicinity-you never know. The "crater" just looks to symmetrical to me to be volcanic-I'll be the first one to prove myself wrong. In your posting on this thread, am I to understand that you believe that there may a few more "craters" associated with this one? Is there a place in Greece where one can obtain a topographic map of the area? -Fred

For sale is two Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Glass full aperture solar filters for a C11 SCT and four Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Glass full aperture solar filters for a C8 SCT or a Meade 8 SCT. The C11 filter is priced at 110 Euros each and the C8/Meade8 filter is priced at 90 Euros each. The price excludes any shipping costs. Further details can be found at www.thousandoaksoptical.com -Fred

Hi Everybody, I went to Google Earth and looked at the "crater" located just outside of the town of Vonitsa. The candidate that I looked at is to the south-west of the town. From the air it certainly meteoric origin look to it. The lake is extremely round and it has a nice circular rim around it with trees. I do notice that there is a quarry next to it. I do not have a vehicle to get there, but if either one of you do and have the time to drive over there, it would be worth the trip. If a group wants to head out there, I'd be more than happy to contribute for gas expenses. I would grab my geology tools and metal dector that I used for meteorite hunting in California and see if this site has anything to offer. -Fred Here is an image of the "crater" that I found on Google Earth. Above the crater is the city trash dump.