Of probably no particular interest to anyone: Tonight was the first astronomy class of the summer term, and we had gotten just about to the halfway point, and I was winding the string around my gyroscope in order to use it to demonstrate precession, when the county sheriff who does security for the campus stuck his head in the door to tell us that we had to evacuate the room because a tornado warning had been issued for the area. Of course, it wasn't even raining at the time, and the rain didn't even start falling until over an hour later, about the time they cancelled the tornado warning, after everyone had stood around in the hall for that time.
It has just started raining again, with lightning and thunder, but if there was a tornado warning involved I already missed it: where I am located, at the very eastern edge of town, the warnings usually expire by the time the storm arrives at this end of town.
Ronn
Can I ask, what do you teach, is this....home or (industrial?) astronomy? I was looking at Sky&Telescope just for some fun. Of course, there was a local gathering last Friday and Saturday and I didn't know about it until Sunday. There is another one in August, near my hometown in the middle of nowhere.
Would there be a telescope you'd recommend, for beginning? (If there is one question you always get asked, is that it?) Are the 'toy' ones that bad? I mean (when I was in shape) I used to get asked about bicycles a lot and it was tough to recommend because the difference between an $80 box store bike and a $800 bike store bike was more than just ten fold....well maybe not that much but it was tough to say 'buy a cheap one, realize that it's cheap and you won't go fast or far but if you like it a good bike will make it that much better'. Even to buy second hand is tough to recommend, I got screwed by a bike shop when I first started riding again.
Anyway I have binoculars. I could always get a great pair of binocs first. Ahh, it doesn't matter. What I need is time.
Oh, I know my real question. There is a telescope, it looks like, well, a hair dryer (or a bong...you know the things drummers play).
I went looking for a picture. First I tried the York Astro scociety.
http://www.yorkastro.freeserve.co.uk/
I read a few pages before I realized they were talking about York, UK. One page talked about a shed costing 500 pounds and I thought, pounds? but kept reading.
Also wondering if the type face is enlarged on purpose or the HTML went haywire:
http://www.yorkastro.freeserve.co.uk/scopebuild.html
Going to check it out at work.
Here's what I wanted:
http://ycas.masondixonstarparty.org/
See the red thing, second picture down, what is it?
This group meets at a landfill! And they have a bigger Dobson than the UK club!
Kevin T. - VRWC
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