Fred Ley

You may find some assistance from the Digital Sky Suyvery. This link will take you there... http://archive.stsci.edu/dss/index.html -Fred

One easy alternative is to use screws that have a nylon insert on the end. That will, at least, do away with the marring of the eyepiece tube. It is an inexpensive route. -Fred

Don't forget that places like OPT receive lots of e-mail every day. While I am certain that they strive to answer back in a timely fashion, the volume of e-mail may at times may be somewhat overwhelming. Perhaps giving them a call might be of use and also inquire if you can just fax in your order. Dealers do not ship new items to countries that already have a representative. The only legal around that is if... 1. You personally fly to the country of the manufacturer. 2. You are purchasing a used item from a dealer located in the country of the manufacturer. 3. You have a friend who lives in the country of the manufacturer pick up the item and ship it you. 4. Having a friend who is visiting the country of the manufacturer and picks up the item for you. Those are the options that readily come to mind. -Fred

YES! We are back on Mars and I can't wait to see what the results of this mission will be. I hope that the current instrumentation package will be able to find a trace of something. -Fred

Ammonite, Here is a detail scan from the AAVSO star atlas of the North Celestial Pole. Alpha Ursa Minor is prominently labeled and also gives one an idea of scale. I don't know if this may be of any immediate aid to you but nevertheless it may be of use to you in helping you acheiving polar alignment. -Fred

Hi Niko, Its me again. Tell you what, I'll give the good folks at OPT a call this evening and ask them real quick what the procedure is for placing an order from Greece and wanting to pay using Paypal. They should be able to give me a quick answer as to how to go about it. They open at noon on Sunday which is 10 p.m. here in Greece. So I'll call them this evening and pass on to you whatever information I find out. -Fred

Hi Niko, Since you are experiencing some difficulties trying to order on-line, just give they guys at OPT a call and ask them if you can fax your order in. That should work and it may be safer than sending your credit card number using e-mail as some people don't like to do so for security purposes. Yes, toll-free numbers work only in the US and not from abroad. Hope this is of some help to you. -Fred

Hi Frank, Yeah, Al keeps churning out new eyepieces. What else can he do. At least they are all quality items and gives us an great excuse to dig deeper into our wallets. The new 13mm Ethos sounds like it is something that I would like to look through on a 20-inch dob while viewing a globular star cluster or some galaxies. Years ago I viewed M13 and M31 through an original 13mm Nagler on a 24-inch scope. The view blew your socks off. The new 8mm must be great too. I am curious as to how the Moon will look through this one. Probably similar to the Apollo film footage taken from lunar orbit. So, when do you take delivery of your two 8mm GR8's (Great)'s? -Fred

Hey Frank, Them is some really sharp images that Wes took. I checked out the one showing Plato and the Alpine Valley. Wow, there sure is a lot of small craters on the floor of Plato. I know that Plato has quite a few craters, but this image shows a lot more. He aslo has been able to pick up those small craters in the Alpine Valley too. I'll go ahead and peruse through his site and enjoy his other images. Thanks for the heads up. -Fred

There is a very nice instructional video on collimating a Newtonian telescope located at http://www.andysshotglass.com/Collimating.html I watched the video and found it to be really good. It is in English and I do not know if that will be something to consider. The magnified and out of focus star disks that I mentioned look like this example that I took from another web site in order to show you an example of what I am trying to explain. Like they say "a picture is worth a thousand words". Polaris is a good choice to collimate with as you do not need a clock drive if you have a Dobsonian telescope. Another web site that talks about collimation is located at http://web.telia.com/~u41105032/kolli/kolli.html -Fred The crcles are not concentric in the image on the left. They should look like the image on the right.

Hi Everybody, Ok, so that's how the date of Easter is determined. Thanks for the feedback. -Fred

Hi Nisam, When you feel that you have achieved correct collimation, look at a star and slightly make an adjustment to your focus until the star looks like a disk. You will see the diffraction rings which are evident under higher magnification. When you are able to have the star centered in the diffraction ring, the circles all look like circles, your optics should be highly collimated. Hope this helps. -Fred

Hmmm... To me it just sounds like the joining of ASTRO and VOX. Which make up ASTROVOX-there that is easy. Hah! So much for scholastic contribution. -Fred

HI Everybody, I was wondering how the date of Easter is determined in Greece. Does anyone have a clue? I would be interested in finding out. For me Easter is determined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox which is why East fell on March 23 this year. It made it the earliest Easter since 1913 when Easter was last on March 23. The next March 23 Easter will happen on March 23, 2228 which is 220 years from now. The earliest possible date for Easter is March 22 and that last happed on Mar 22, 1818. The next March 22 Easter will happen on March 22, 2285 which is 277 years from now. -Fred

Hi, Hope you can understand my English. A good place start from is by finding out what area of sky you would like to cover through the eyepiece. By dividing the appearant field of view of the eyepiece by the magnification that you get through your telescope with that particular eyepiece, you will get the true field of view of actual sky that you are looking at. You could make some small disks that are cut to the star atlas that you are using in order to determine the area of sky that you would be comfortable viewing. Hope this is of some help. -Fred

Hah! I know what that gizmo is. Here is a couple of images from the 1987 RTMC showing a Unitron Model 160 with a weight drive. Fred 4-inch Unitron weight drive, taken 1987 RTMC. 4-inch Unitron, taken 1987 RTMC.