Any stargazers here? Or comet gazers? I'm going outside this evening to take a look. I'm staying close to my house so I may may not be able to spot them. I'm not sure how low they are on the horizon and there are some trees to my west. I live close to a lake and I may go to the shore and take a peek if I can't see them from my driveway. They become visible at sunset here and soon duck under the horizon. I guess they're more visible to the west because they'll be up in the night sky.

Boy, talk about being a lugnut. I bought a telescope over the Internet. It's a 14" Meade. Very nice. I bought it when it just became available. I was thinking, cooool. A tele-macho-scope. I had seen the Meade lineup in a couple of Discover Stores. I almost bought their 12" once. It ain't all that big. I could carry it around myself, no problem.

So, my telescope shows up one day ... on a semi-truck idling in front of my house. The driver unloaded two full-size wooden pallets and wanted to know where I wanted them parked. My car comes out of the garage and is replaced by the telescope. It sits there for two weeks until I can get a friend over to help me unpack it. It was all we could do to get the thing unpacked and on the tripod ready to use. It weighs something like 230 lbs. or something. I forgot exactly. It stands about 7.5 feet tall when pointing straight up. It's very unwieldy. I would need at least three relatively strong people to move it into a vehicle for transport, if I could find a vehicle it would fit in. All I'm able to do myself is roll it out of and into the garage (I bought three little dollies at Home Depot and put one under each tripod leg). I use it on my driveway. It's a crummy place to use a telescope. I had no idea it was this big. There were many pics of it I saw while shopping but none had a bottle of Johnny Walker or a person next to it so I could how LARGE it is.

I never knew 2 inches could make such a HUGE difference.

 

Lugnut, there are many occasions where 2 inches can make a big difference

 

Like what?

 

... and the skies were all cloudy all night ... to the west ...

 

like your butt shows up on the back seat....(see speeding ticket)

 

Didn't I correct that to her butt showing?

Hey! My butt was never involved in that. That's twice now that you've made innuendos regarding my butt. You didn't just return from Massachusetts, did you?

 

No, I didn't. Just came from New Orleans, Lousiana....
Actually two inches more whisky in a whisky glas make a difference too

 

True. Makes a lot more difference in a bucket, though.

 

As long as we're talking about ***tral object like moons and stuff...

I check this site every day. If I miss a day, I catch up in the archive. There are all of the dramatic HST pics we've all seen plus some really neat other ones to boot.


antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

If that doesn't work...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html