User comment history
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 27. |
Halo 2 at the Planetarium |
May 8, 2007, 18:11 |
Jim |
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I've always wanted to flight simulate in the Omni Theater at the Boston Museum of Science.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 1. |
No subject |
May 6, 2007, 13:08 |
Jim |
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One is the boy who recited three excerpts from presidential speeches from memory ... JFK's speech about going to the moon
That's great. Besides the Gettysburg Address that was my favorite presidential speech. Its good to know at least some kids are being exposed to some good history education.
Nixon's "I am not a crook,"
Haha. Surprised he didn't have Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" instead.
The funny part was he actually did a passable Kennedy impersonation for those quotes.
They should have casted him for the move 13 Days, where the actor playing JFK didn't sound close the real JFK.
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| News Comments > Into the Black |
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| 8. |
Re: Broken |
May 4, 2007, 07:44 |
Jim |
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So how did you break it? Be generic ...
Well ya see, there was a pressure point, and one part of the bone went this way, and the other part went that way.
Seriously though, heal well Cutter, and good luck getting your legal issue resolved. Being on the 60-day DL, so to speak, this time of year has got to suck.
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| News Comments > Morning Tech Bits |
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| 2. |
Re: Optimum |
Apr 27, 2007, 12:18 |
Jim |
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Isn't this the third time that a ship date and price has been announced? And every time the date moves further into the future and the price moves further into the ridiculous.
By the end of the year it will cost over 2 grand. Hell it ALREADY is slated to cost more than a computer does.
Sell it for under $200 and I may be interested.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 2. |
Happy Anniversary Blue! |
Apr 27, 2007, 10:41 |
Jim |
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Hope you have a good one.
If you have no plans for tomorrow you may want to go check out the North East Astronomy Forum.
http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/neaf/
I think this is pretty close to your neck of the woods. A few people from our gooup are going. I may be going as well but am not sure yet.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 18. |
"Earth-like" planet |
Apr 25, 2007, 17:45 |
Jim |
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Ok this is all over the press now and as us science types know, the press often twists it a bit to make it sound like something it isn't.
Up until now, "Earth-like" has been a term used to describe a planet which, if placed in our solar system, would be closest to Earth in mass and relative distance from its parent star to make the surface temperature similar to that of the Earth.
Other than mass and distance to its parent star, we know little of this "Earth-like" planet.
In the next few years as more new telescopes such as LBT come online, we may be able to derive the spectra of individual planets (separately from their parent star), and possibly even the diameter by using stellar disk transits. This would give us a rough guess at the density of the planets. Knowing the density and contents of the atmosphere or surface will eventually give us better insight into whether or not these planets are similar to Earth or just something completely unknown.
Throwing around the word "habitable" without knowing more is a bit premature. I'm certainly not going to book my next camping trip there until I get to see a full-color brochure.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 10. |
Re: No subject |
Apr 23, 2007, 14:08 |
Jim |
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I am sure everyone has heard - but "Boris is dead Jim"
They're always telling *me* when someone is dead. Dammit Batman I'm Jim not the coroner. 
Anyway, sounds to me like an occation to have a White Russian or 3.
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| News Comments > Into the Black |
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| 11. |
Makes Your Home Like a Public Toilet. |
Apr 20, 2007, 09:07 |
Jim |
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When I have a house built I'm considering putting a urinal in the half-bath.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 6. |
Re: No subject |
Apr 19, 2007, 11:39 |
Jim |
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Crook wins damages for injury during theft.
Blood starting to boil.....
x2
x3
Baines, who represented himself, said employees of the supermarket in a Vancouver suburb used unreasonable force when he struggled during his capture.
You want excessive force?
Click... POW! Thump. Clean-up on aisle six. There's your excessive force. Criminals shouldn't be entitled to ANYTHING, especially when they admit guilt (as in, removing any reasonable doubt that they committed the crime). Don't want to be treated with excessive force, don't F'n shoplift.
You-know-who finally gets boot on 'Idol'
Actually, "I-don't-know-who." Am I the only one that doesn't follow this American idol nonsense?
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| News Comments > Lost Game Plans |
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| 6. |
Re: No subject |
Apr 18, 2007, 09:46 |
Jim |
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I never watched the show, but from what I gather, if you have Flight Simulator and Far Cry you can pretty much simulate all of the interesting aspects of Lost.
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| News Comments > Into the Black |
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| 13. |
Re: nin |
Apr 18, 2007, 07:40 |
Jim |
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Real nin: sig + >14000 posts.
Fake nin: no sig + ~615 posts.
Even without checking the post count, the imposter is quite obvious from the content of the messages.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 5. |
Re: No subject |
Apr 17, 2007, 11:12 |
Jim |
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Blue, unless you make a hell of a lot more from this web-site than I ever thought you did, there is no easy solution. The easy solution is to do the drainage correctly when the house is built.
I've heard of more people with water in the basement during the last 2 years than ever before. I'm beginning to think that basements are nothing but a flood liability. Store your junk in the attic or build houses with bigger closets.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 19. |
5Mb Hard Disk in 1956 |
Apr 12, 2007, 18:06 |
Jim |
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Wow talk about portability. Who knew you could fit an entire MP3 in a cabinet the size of a refrigerator?
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| News Comments > Morning Tech Bits |
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| 6. |
Re: Here we go again. |
Apr 12, 2007, 18:01 |
Jim |
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Why make advancements in a direction where the draw-backs are far worse then the current state of technology?
Lower energy consumption and better picture quality? I'd consider both of those to be positive advances.
I'm not an early adopter though and won't buy a new TV until my old 27" CRT craps out.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 30. |
Re: weather reports |
Apr 11, 2007, 20:43 |
Jim |
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Wow, I had not looked at the price of scopes in a while. Some of the good starter sized, name brand ones, like say a 4.5" Dobsonian or Shortube reflector is starting at less then $250.
I remember my first 4.5" short tube reflector was like ~$600.
Yeah its crazy ain't it. So many choices now and lots of affordable GOOD stuff. 20-25 years ago there were maybe 3-5 choices if you had less than $1000 to spend on a scope.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 29. |
Re: weather reports |
Apr 11, 2007, 20:39 |
Jim |
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Also, of course the site matters. I am sure your club goes to a nice dark dark spot. I have yet since I moved, where it is now fairly dark to look at the planets through a ~4.5” or so.
And even just near city lights and haze and pollution has a drastic effect on the view of planets. Fucking other people. How dare they all not stop living their lifes so I can have a few hours of perfect dark.
You have it the other way around though. Even though we love dark sky observing, we find it difficult to impress unseasoned observers with galaxies and nebular because unless you have a GIANT telescope (> 16") they're not likely to see much detail on anything but the brightes ones (Orion Nebular, etc).
Our site at Seagrave is relatively dark. Even though we're near the reservoir we still have washed out skies from the area of junction Rt 6 and I-295, which is only a couple miles away. Only on the best nights you see the entire little dipper, M-44 and Coma Berenices. And my best view of Saturn ever was during last season during an exceptional night at Ladd, which is in a heavily light polluted area in Providence. It is a 12" scope though, and you're right, I wouldn't expect a beginner to get anything bigger than 6", but you can still see quite a bit of detail on the planets with small scopes. I have a 70mm (2.8") Televue Pronto and can see Cassini division on a good night, and usually 4-6 belts and zones on Jupiter, and I have on rare occasion seen eclipse shadows of Jupiter's moons. Mars is tough because it's often too far away and too small, but you can see the phases of Venus with it pretty easily. And that's not to mention what a small refractor can do on Milky Way star sweeps.
Edit: and you can't forget about the moon. Its really the easiest object to observe and you can see a good amount of detail with just about anything.
This comment was edited on Apr 11, 20:46. |
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 24. |
Re: weather reports |
Apr 11, 2007, 19:23 |
Jim |
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I find, while it is harder, many beginners get better “Bang for their buck” by looking at a certain few nebula and galaxies and such through a telescope, as their expectations for planets is just high. It is however much harder for a beginner to find and focus on these, and it takes more then a $100 department store telescope to see anything substantial.
I generally find the opposite to be true. Going back 20 years to the first time I saw the planets even with the old $100 department store scope I had at the time (which I still have), I was completely blown away by the planets, after spending months hunting down the "faint fuzzies."
We often find that Saturn is the biggest WOW object when showing to someone who has never looked through a telescope before. Planets and the Moon are among the few objects that actually look like the photos of them even through the most modest equipment.
And yes, follow Enahs advice by not buing what you may see in Wal-mart. It is also important to note that how "powerful" a telescope is has nothing to do with magnification and everything to do with the aperture, which is the clear diameter of the lens (if its a refractor) or mirror (reflector). Magnification is generally maxed out at 50x per inch of aperture, although when there is good "seeing" (how steady the atmosphere is) you can expect to get good results at 100x per inch.
If you are curious, my preference is for refractors.
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 23. |
Re: weather reports |
Apr 11, 2007, 18:59 |
Jim |
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Ive been thinking about getting some sort of telescope, as I sawan image that some guy took with his webcam through his telescope of jupiter, it was pretty detailed. Which just blew my mind.
I assume you mean this?
http://www.christone.net/astro/
Yeah, VERY impressive stuff, even to seasoned astrophotographers (which is way beyond my level).
If i wanted to to get something to look at other planets (Spot those pesky martians maybe!), any suggestions?
Ive always been interested in Stars and such but (weirdly enough) it had never occured to me to get a scope.
If you want to start learning your way around the sky, I'd recommend getting one of these:
http://www.shopatsky.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=855
And for finding stuff with binoculars or a telescope, I recommend this:
http://www.shopatsky.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1159
As far as optics go, it all depends on what kind of observing you want to do, how often, and how good your observing site is. Also to consider is if you'll travel with it, even if you take it a few miles to a dark sky site.
And of course, there's always the question of budget.
Many people recommend you start with binoculars, a good pair of 7/50 is a good start there. You can use the above star atlas to find your way around and pick out many of the brighter objects.
If you'd like to see the planets, binoculars unfortunately don't show a lot of detail.
The most cost-effective telescope (aperture per dollar) is a Dobsonian. It is a simple reflecting telescope on a very easy to set up and use mounting.
http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=238462&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=3&iSubCat=334&iProductID=238462
If you want something a little more portable and better suited to photography, a rich field refractor on an equatorial mount is the way to go:
http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=109403&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=4&iSubCat=13&iProductID=109403
There are many more options available, for a wide range of prices. You may also want to find your local club and visit them.
http://skytonight.com/community/organizations
Let me know if you decide to get anything, or if you have more questions.
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2491 Comments. 125 pages. Viewing page 31.
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