Space Forum / Amateur Astronomy / July 2008

I have a Desktop PC and a Laptop. Both are running Windows XP
Professional SP 3.
I am trying to get the ASCOM platform and Cartes Du Ciel working with my
iOptron Series A mount.

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/marsexpress/401-20080729-5851-6-na-1b-Phobos
-Flyby_H1.jpg
A geologists playground !

Is visual magnitude based on what you can maximumly see with averted vision?
Last night the stars below Beta and Upsilon Lyra only appeared with averted
vision.
I concluded the sky was mag 5.5 with below average seeing. (there was

Apart from software programs that use "the" Messier catalog, where is the
official version and the description of its fields?

I have recently obtained a used Mitutoyo digital dial gauge head for
my old 2" radius spherometer.
Back in the last century when I was making mirrors, doublets and large
optical flats I had an Imperial mechanical dial gauge fitted which

Dustin Smith here...anybody remember me? I just did a google search
for my name on the newsgroups (out of sheer bordeom at work) and found
a bunch of my old threads. My disbelief of Jay Reynolds Freeman in my
"Refractor Red - HA!" post and my "use your brain" comment to Roland

NASA keeps on concealing micrographs of Mars Lander Phoenix
Fig. 1 below shows micrographs taken by Phoenix without comparative
micrographs ( Note 1). NASA thinks only it can, or has the right to,
interpret the micrographs before anyone else does. In fact, NASA has

What did the Lowell, Lick and Yerkes refractors originally use for
eyepieces? Have these changed much since these magnificent instruments
were first put to good use? The incredibly long focal lengths of these
instruments suggest that we aren't talking about typical amateur sized

Why can't NASA be more open. I've been following the Phoenix
lander. Most of the reports from the NASA site are so watered
down as to be worthless.
I don't mean the reports of scientific results. I realize they need

<
MOON-WALKER CLAIMS
ALIEN CONTACT COVER-UP
<

The sun is in a time of amazing inactivity that began around last October
and especially after such an active solar max cycle. Has anyone here
observed this
type of inactivity before?  The sunspot count has been flat basically for

Any ideas how make such a mask (Subject) without using velcro for 8" to 16"
scopes? Here's one method,
<http://lonewolf-online.net/astronomy/tutorial/making_and_using_a_hartmann_mask/>,
for a Hartmann mask, but maybe there's a way to make one that's more of a

The law establishing NASA was signed 50 years ago today. - Canopus56
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1139.html

This was written by a well known NASA engineer and writer concerning "what
we believe to be true".
"So far we've experienced what I'd call a poly-monologue, ...sincere people
telling their views and talking past each other, vocal but deaf.