Things to do on cloudy nights
Dustin Smith
hotel room (a place for them to sleep at night), I've had to find
something to keep my attention when I can't get out under the stars.
I've came across two *VERY* addictive PC games, which make hours seem
like minutes when you start playing them.
Railroad Tycoon II (everyone needs this one) - $49
Download the Demo - http://www.railroadtycoon2.com
RollerCoaster Tycoon - $29
Download the Demo - http://www.rollercoastertycoon.com
I am NOT trying to promote these games, I'm just letting you all know
that these
are great ways to pass the time when you're bored.
--
Dustin Smith
Waterloo AL USA
34° 46' 12" N
87° 40' 12" W
The Heavens: Astronomy on the Net
http://www.airnet.net/dustins/default.html
Orion 8" Deep Space Explorer Review
http://www.airnet.net/dustins/dob.html
mpi...@webmail.bellsouth.net
Dustin, most of us are at least twice your age and have plenty of
things to do (spouse, kids, house, yard, car, pool, in-laws, work
responsibilities, just to name a few) on the cloudy nights so we can
free up some time on the clear ones. Enjoy your free time while you
still have some! It's a precious commodity.
But I do wish it would clear up. Last night, I thought it was going to
clear up for this morning but when I woke up at 4AM it was already
raining.
Regards,
Mark Pippin
Melbourne, FL
In article <376C9100...@airnet.net>,
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
John Lagerling
longer? =)
/ John
<mpi...@webmail.bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:7kir90$hfe$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
duh me
John Lagerling wrote:
> Do married people live longer than single people or does it just SEEM
> longer? =)
a guy answers the door
a man with a gun says ' i'm the boston lady killer '
guy ; ' hon, its for you '
i go thru ' the night sky observers guide ' and ' the sky ' on my pc trying
to plan for the next clearing in the murk. get on the net for abell groups,
do saa.
then take my well laid plans out only to find a patch of smurf where i wanted
to go.....
starhop starhop
cs
Frez
beat up from 2 long days of work to put the scope out. Gotta
pay that mortgage ya know. Funny how these things go.
I did "Wing Commander Prophecy" 3 times.....Awesome!
The "Heros of Might and Magic" series is incredible though.
And I'm 45 but still refuse to grow up.........Frez
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dustin Smith wrote in message <376C910...@airnet.net>...
Allan Mayer
>I've had to find
>something to keep my attention when I can't get out under the stars.
I thought thats what women were made for..... <G>
(always worked for me !!!)
Allan
http://members.aol.com/Thetabat/hello.html
"Only a Gentleman can insult me, and a true Gentleman never will..."
JOHN PAZMINO
JF> Subject: Software to plot planet tracks relative to horizon
JF> Date: 19 Jun 1999 00:47:58 GMT
JF> Organization: Ireland On-Line
JF>
JF> for the past seven years two of us in the Irish Astronomical Society have
JF> been producing a magazine detailing celestial phenomena of interest to
JF> Irish observers ... it details conjunctions, eclipses, astronomical
JF> anniversaries, planetary and lunar data, meteors, upcoming space missions,
JF> etc.
JF>
JF> We would like to produce some more attractive diagrams for the booklet.
JF> Something I would like to do are to produce plots of the paths of Venus and
JF> Mercury relative to the horizon (with the Sun six degrees below) over the
JF> period of their visibility during the year. I have some software packages
JF> (Redshift 3, etc.) and a C++ program to generate a text file of the planet
JF> positions in altitude and azimuth but I am looking for a sky simulator
JF> program that can do this for me. I would appreciate any help and many
JF> thanks in advance.
Software authors, note! Is there a software that can timeskip by an
interval relative to local sunset or sunrise? Timeskipping by one day
is no good being that in a week the season movement of the Sun louses
up the display.
---
þ RoseReader 2.52á P005004
JOHN PAZMINO
RM> Subject: Re: Prison Threatens Stellafane - Part I
RM> Date: 19 Jun 1999 16:26:33 GMT
RM> Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
RM> >It's not much consolation, but everything has its time and place. Since
RM> >Stellafane can't be moved, perhaps that's a sign its time is over :-(
RM>
RM> Well, Stellafane certainly will be over if we accept the fact that it is doomed
RM> and 'butt out.' If you are an amateur this _is_ your business, not just that of
RM> the 'Vermont voters'. That would be like saying that a descision to build a
RM> lockup on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial is 'strictly for DC voters!' All
RM> this leaves aside the fact that the U.S. incarcerates more folks (often
RM> needlessly) than any other nation in the western world.
RM>
RM> Stellafane _is_ our business, and if we don't recognize that fact, well, you
RM> can indeed color it gone!
Someone will have to elaborate. For 99-44/100 of the amateur
astronoers Stellafane is the one weekend annual telescope makers
convention. While many people do go for the chance to stargaze, the
fundamental theme is to have a telescope rally. It would be good to
preserve darkskies over Stellafane, of course, but isn't this better
done by ararnging for the area lighting to be toned down for that
weekend?
At the Custer Jamboree on Long Island, the motels that host the
attendees do shut off their outdoor lighting -- which I do admit is
pretty lusy to begin with -- during the jamboree weekend. This allows
the guests to do stargazing on the motel grounds.
Now, isn't there something missing from all this situation?
Vermont -- the whole state! -- is an environmentally sensitive region,
declared so by the US EPA in the early 1990s. And isn't true that
Vermonters are rather protective of their scenic and rural landscape?
JOHN PAZMINO
R > Subject: Free Program for Astrophotographers & Observers
R > Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 18:08:20 GMT
R > Organization: 2xtreme.net NewsReader Service
R >
R > Observer & Astrophotographer Friends (especially beginners):
R >
R > We have discontinued selling our old DOS-only software "EYEPIECE 2.0",
R > which does not run in Win98. So we have placed the full commercial
R > edition on our website: you may download and use it absolutely FREE
R > wtih no obligations whatsoever: consider it freeware.
R > . . .
How is this compared to RedScope?
---
ž RoseReader 2.52į P005004
JOHN PAZMINO
WZ> Subject: Prison Threatens Stellafane - Part I
WZ> Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 14:19:40 GMT
WZ> Organization: @Home Network
WZ>
WZ> Dear Friend of Stellafane,
WZ>
WZ> What follows is an article that I have written to try and discourage the
WZ> Town of Springfield from placing a Vermont State Prison 3 miles Southeast
WZ> of Stellafane.
WZ> The town vote will take place on June 29th 1999. Time is of the essence.
WZ> After my article you will find a list of contacts of persons or agencies
WZ> which may be able to influence this decision.
WZ> . . .
WZ> Our Fallback Position is to argue that the Prison must be designed with the
WZ> most modest full cut-off (FCO) lighting available to minimize the damage to
WZ> the sky at such a close distance. (newest IESNA specs)
This should be the primary position. It is far easier to achieve
and far more reasonable and socially far more acceptable. OK, O do
not know how big this prison is or what the layout is, but we got in
New York some monster jails (we got lots and lots of prisoners) and
they do not trash up the sky anywhere close to what their size would
suggest.
We got Riker's island, which may be the most populous single
jail in the western world, so I'm told, with 20,000 residnets and
about 2,000 staff. It covers the whole island of prehaps a full square
kilometer. Yes, it has several offensive lights. But for its huge
size, you really hardly notice it. (Good!) More over the few obnoxious
lights can be removed or relocated if there was a need to do so.
We got SingSing upstate. A giant place in the beautiful darksky
region of the Hudson River Valley. You can't miss it from the train --
the railroad runs right THRU the grounds! -- and it retains its 19th
century character. Yet at night, from the darksky site at Kykuit you
really can't find it at night. (By the way, the term 'sending him up
the river' comes precisely from the shipment of baddies up to
SingSing.)
We got the Tombs, which may be the tallest jail in the world. It's
about 25 floors tall and mightty ugly in design. It's aesthetic
offense is vastly greater by day than by night. The place has no
general outdoor lights!
Hence, while as a citizen of the area around Springfield you may
oppose the prison as a facility of its own right, the astronomy
potential hazard can be remedied rather simply and easily.
JOHN PAZMINO
T > Subject: Re: Prison Threatens Stellafane - Part I
T > Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 12:17:09 -0500
T > Organization: Posted via RemarQ, http://www.remarQ.com - The Internet's Discussion Network
T > I hope the initiative up there works, and the prison goes somewhere
T > else, but IMO, this is strictly a matter for Vermont voters, and others
T > should butt out. Without political friends though, the development will
T > roll on.
T >
T > I have watched this happen here in Georgia as development encroaches on
T > rural areas. The sad fact is we live in a society with a growing
T > population and a general coarsening of values. The result is more noise,
T > more fear, more lights, and more prisons for the bad folks. A park where
T > my daughter used to play is now a 24-hour basketball court with obscene
T > rap music playing in the background. Local governments become addicted
T > to the tax revenues that development brings.
T >
T > It's not much consolation, but everything has its time and place. Since
T > Stellafane can't be moved, perhaps that's a sign its time is over :-(
If you read the petition again you see that it is, as presented,
pretty diffuse and weak. It is possible to build prisons with
star-friendly illuminations (we have them in New York).. That's what
the Stellafane petition should stress. Simply moaning about a prison 3
miles (say 5 kilometers) from the landmark isn't going to ratlle many
people.
This doesn't say that an offiste project can not influence some
skyview and be successfully modified. We had in the City a case a
couple yers ago between Fordham University and Bronx Paek. The uni
wanted to improve its radio station transmissions by erecting, on its
oown campus, a lattice broadcasting tower of about 120 meter height.
The Park objected for the tower would have intruded on the skyscape as
seen from within the park. This was not a light pollution issue, but
a daytime scenic degradation issue.
The relevant City agencies and the US FCC convened hearings on the
tower. After rounds of dicusions the tower was relocated to a part of
the campus where it was far less visible from the Park.
JOHN PAZMINO
T > Organization: Posted via RemarQ Communities, Inc.
T >
T > In your opinion, that may be true. I doubt anyone outside amateur
T > astronomy circles knows or cares anything about Stellafane. If we as
T > amateurs have done such a poor job of educating the general public about
T > the importance of preserving dark skies, and the significance of
T > Stellafane, who's fault it that?
This is a bit overly extreme. I noted in an other post that for
essentially all home astronomers tellafane is an annual meeting and
not an ongoing astronomy center. I do agree to the extent that of the
visitors I now who go to Stellafane (the meeting) do so for the
telescope convention and not for the stargazong. Of, yes, as long as
you are in a setting more removed from local lights than your hometown
you will get in some starviewing.
T > And how would you feel if your local pet project or cause was subject to
T > the approval of people living in other states? IMO, this is a political
T > matter that is in the hands of the good citizens of Vermont. We may be
T > opposed to it, but unless you live in Vermont and pay taxes there, you
T > shouldn't have any influence on the outcome.
his happens all the time with other ecologicly hazardous projects. Ask
any New Englander who really opposes the development of rural lands up
there. Note how I said that: 'up there'.
T > No one is going to take away any property at Stellafane, so legally, the
T > prison development is a non-issue. The idea of damages due to light
T > pollution is something that has to be proven in the courts. In this
T > regard, I think a Stellafane legal fund is entirely in order, and I
T > might contribute to it. Once again, the outcome of any legal dispute is
T > decided by Vermont jurors, not a mob on the internet.
Five kilometers (roughly) is a mite away from the Stellafane site and
there is no causal relation between the prison and the convention.
Unless the Stellafane folk can demonstrate a causal damage they are
pretty much out of luck.
Note that in some cases you can show this
damage. If you build a factory 5Km from my farm along a river, I may
well oppose it. Your factory may spill poisons from it into the river,
the river floats the stuff into my farm, and my animals may eat grass
soaked in the chemicals.
The petition and the arguments so far here do not make any psotive
assertion of adversity regarding the jail. It looks like the
Stellafane is more afraid of escapees seeking refuge in the
observatory?
JOHN PAZMINO
RM> Lines: 19RM> Actually, I think that the Stellafane site has been declared a National
RM> Historic Place, so I beleive the value of the site and what goes on there is
RM> actually known beyond the admittedly tiny amateur community. Once again, this
RM> shrine to the stars is of value to everyone in the United States, and not just
RM> to the amateurs.
This status may allow Stellafane to draw on funds established for
historical preservation and mitigation of historical context. Hence,
allowing that it can make a credible case, such money may be used for
opposing a trashlighted prison. Note that the mission should be to
improve the illumination of the prison and not to stop the project
from construction at all. And!, so fat no one has showed just what the
plans for the prison say about its lighting. You may find that, given
the modern practices in institutional lighting, the illuminations
planned for the prison in fact are star-friendly.
JOHN PAZMINO
BM> Subject: Re: Stellafane: A Call to Arms!
BM> Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 10:25:30 -0700
BM> One group of addresses that is missing are the addresses of the papers in
BM> Springfield and Monplier. I sent email with the extoling of the site and
BM> the request to move the prison to the north area and mentioned that I wasn't
BM> trying to eliminate the prison to the area, but rather that a historical
BM> site needed to be protected and the way to do it was to change the site
BM> slightly.
I took it you scoped out sites north of the Stellafane site; I don;t
know Springfield anywhere that well. In any case, this is a reasonable
appraoch; elocating a proposed development is a common way to satisfy
assorted concerns about it.
JOHN PAZMINO
CL> Subject: renting a telescope?
CL> Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 10:30:06 -0700
CL>
CL> I built a portable scope like Alice (http://www.atmpage.com/ravne.html),
CL> and am considering renting it out to folks in my area (New York City). I
CL> like the idea of renting from two perspectives. First, I think it's a
CL> good way to introduce people to sky watching. Star parties are probably
CL> better, but they do not necessarily agree with everyone's schedule or
CL> location. Club meetings are good too, but again, there is the scheduling
CL> issue. Had I been able to rent a scope, I would likely have done so
CL> before I built one. However, no one I talked to ever heard of scope
CL> rentals. Second, I'd like to earn enough money to buy a new set of
CL> optics so I can rebuild a better version of Alice. Renting out my scope
CL> might be one way not to go broke practicing the hobby of telescope
CL> making.
CL>
CL> What experiences has anyone had renting out (or even loaning) their
CL> telescopes? I suspect it is easy to exaggerate the likelihood of damage
CL> from dumb users or rough handlers. But I'd be curious to hear anecdotes
CL> of successful or disappointing experiences loaning or renting out,
CL> especially of highly portable scopes.
Telescopes, and other optics, can be rented in the City from the
major photgraphy stores. You generally have to put up a bond equal to
the price of the items as security. The usual situation is that a
movie producer needs some prop for co many days. You could rent a
scope for some set time, like to take it on a weekend trip to your
country house or for an eclipse trip. However, in general to rent a
scope for local use for a period of days plain will not work. The
wather here is too fickle to assure good use of the instrument.
If you rent a scope for, say, the first two weeks in July and
it'scloudy or you're away from the sky in that period, you're out the
rental amount regardless. If you try to claim that you'll pay for only
the clear nights in that interval, you'll earn yourself some nastily
terrible disputes. You must know that the 'weather in New York' is
really the readings taken on one spot in Central Park.
The problem of scheduling does afflict everyone in the City, even
those who do rent a telescope. However, do look again at the slate of
events we offer. You'll see that there are so many that you get some
hits evry month. Do not overlook the fact that there is far more to
trying out a scope than merely getting the use of one, whether by rent
or loan. You absolutely need the fellowship of the other club members
to tutor you in its use and show its good and bad features.
JOHN PAZMINO
I > Subject: Re: unexplained green streak in the sky
I > Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 01:52:47 GMT
I > Organization: Telenor Online Public Access
I >
I > MAybe this is just dumb, but could it be coronea Borealis?
I > At low lattitudes you would only see glimpses of the corona which
I > could fit your description.
You do mean aurora borealis, I dare to hope?
JOHN PAZMINO
DS> From: Dustin Smith <dus...@airnet.net>
DS> Subject: Re: Seattle Mayor thing/lights/whatever
DS>
DS> > Turns out the lighting display in Seattle is for ONE NIGHT ONLY:
DS> > December 31, 1999. I got this information from a friend who lives
DS> > there. Nothing to worry about, folks.
DS>
DS> Uh....no.
DS>
DS> Why would the city of Seattle pay tens of thousands of dollars to buy
DS> the lights, pay workers to install the lights, and pay the electricity
DS> bill, just for one night of use? Sounds kinda odd, eh?
Without knowing one way or the other, a town can for this coming New
Year's very well pour out a huge expenditure. It is the turn of the
millennium and New Year's is generally a public raree anyway. In New
York we do spend several millions of dollars for the annual New Year's
celebrations that last for just the one night. For the New Year's
coming up we paying just for the crystal ball in Ties Square some $7
million. That's just for the big shimmering ball itself from the
Waterford folk in Ireland.
JOHN PAZMINO
WZ> Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 22:24:34 GMT
WZ> Organization: @Home Network
WZ> >
WZ> > lighting, with all the light fixtures being of the "full cutoff" variety.
WZ> > That's fairly irrelevent to us here, since this by no stretch of the
WZ> > imagination could be described as a "dark sky" location, but I suspect
WZ> that
WZ> > prisons on the whole probably tend to have well-designed lighting, since
WZ> > shadows and glare are obviously a security problem.
WZ> >
WZ> > Never having lived in a dark sky location, I'm curious as to how much
WZ> effect
WZ> > on sky conditions a "properly lit" (full cutoff, etc) site of that nature
WZ> > would have on seeing condition; 3 miles seems like a pretty long way away!
WZ>
WZ> Chris,
WZ> There is a shopping center in Downtown Springfield (which is closer than the
WZ> prison will be), the parking lot has 10 shielded fixtures. The light is
WZ> noticable from that. Having a prison with nearly 300 fixtures, all bouncing
WZ> off white peastone, will have a detrimental effect on our skies.
WZ>
WZ> I only wish that rather arguing here you'd add your names to the petition
WZ> and do something to help prevent a major blow to a beautiful observatory,
WZ> not to mention a National Historic Place.
WZ>
WZ> Thank you for your time.
I have to agree with Chris from our experience. Modern, new,
peisons as a matter of course have good lighting. Even if the lamps
are shielded so you do not see the direct rays from the luminary, you
may see the reflection of that light off of the ground or other
surfaces. Hey!, isn't that how things at night are rendered visible?
I would also take a closer look at that petition. It really
doesn't assert any cause of plausible harm to the Stellafane site at
all! It describes the site and all that, and that's all.
An other poster here (or in sci.astro) privately pointed out an
other defect, and when I verified it, I was surprised I didn't catch
it. The signature lines at the bottom of the petition do not ask for a
club/campus affiliation! Does Stellafane )the org) really want the
signatures to be counted as isolated individuals?
Yet an other, I think this was on the NG, questioned what routine
use is made of the site outside the Stellaafane convention. I plain do
not know and the peition and the Stellafane website are silent on this
point. Is the Springfield club active at the site -- I mean exploiting
the darkskies and not painting the place and weeding the grounds --
generally thruout the year? If not, one quite plausible rememdy for
the Stellafane weekend would be for the prison to turn off certain
extra lights for that weekend.
There's yet an extra issue to consider. This can be a bonus or a
malus, depending how you play your cards. The president of STM lives
in lower New York state. The secretary (you) lives in central New
Jersey. The chifanimateur lives Boston. So right away three principals
of the club are much too far away for causual coming and going to the
site for their own stargazing. What does this say about the routine
operations of the Stellafane observatory? You can swing the answer
either way, and others will, too.
Dave Bush
- Dave -
JOHN PAZMINO <john.p...@relaynet.org> wrote in message
news:908E592.0469...@relaynet.org...
meier
> It is NOT the turn of the millenium. That's still 18 months off.
I think I'll post my disagreement with this whenever somebody posts
this. Argue until you're blue in the face, but public opinion is swayed
toward Jan 1 2000.
-Rolf
Chris
I like this. The "millenium" is a human convention, and the humans have
decided to change it. That's the way it is. Deal with it.
Chris
James Lyon
> It is NOT the turn of the millenium. That's still 18 months off.
>
> >Year's very well pour out a huge expenditure. It is the turn of the
> >millennium and New Year's is generally a public raree anyway.
What's the use of facts? There are too many zero's in 2000, it MUST be very
important! After all, the whole universe is "aligning" itself for this event,
isn't it? Just think, it is MM in roman numerals, so I plan to see it in by
eating the millennium candy!
Michael Richmann
>
> In article <3773E372...@americasm01.nt.com>, meier <mrm...@americasm01.nt.com> wrote:
> >Bob Norton wrote:
> >
> >
> >this. Argue until you're blue in the face, but public opinion is swayed
> >toward Jan 1 2000.
>
> I like this. The "millenium" is a human convention, and the humans have
> decided to change it. That's the way it is. Deal with it.
They can all decide to stampede into calling blue green. Still doesn't
make it right.
Len Philpot
>>I have not had any problem running Eyepiece under Win98.
>>
>>- Dave -
>>
>>JOHN PAZMINO <john.p...@relaynet.org> wrote in message
>>news:908E592.0469...@relaynet.org...
Where can you get Eyepiece (web site URL)?
Thanks.