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Subject: Re: vote by xxx.xxx.95.179 By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.241.35) In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.95.179) (Original Vote) Date: 11/03/2004 01:30:44 pm PST >The only reason I have the Field Model 3.5" Questar rather than the Standard Model is that I already had a Fecker 4" EQ fork-mounted Newtonian when I got the Q from the factory in New Hope in 1967. I got the Q as a 1300mm telephoto lens for my Nikon F. In comparison it blew the Fecker out of the celestial seas. > So I removed the Fecker OTA and installed a cradle between the fork's arms to hold the Q with its tripod adapter. Then I removed the wooden legs from the mount and adapted it to fit on the Davis & Sanford tripod I got along with my Q. > > Essentially I have the advantage of the Duplex Model at the much lower cost of the Field Model. When using the 'scope for terrestrial viewing I remove the fork. For celestial work I have the clock drive, the slow motion, and the circles. > > Over the years I have given a lot of sidewalk astronomy observing parties with that little telescope. In Brazil we were in Porto Alegre where I was showing the planets to Mary and her Brazilian husband. Mary had been a Fulbright Scholar that we met at the U.S. Consulate in São Paulo. > > A minister happened along and joined us. He talked me into returning that December to give the Christmas story lecture to his congregation along with an observing party. > > Howsomever, on the trip back South to the tip of Brazil I broke a rear axle in the Land Rover Dormobile (camper conversion at the factory in England of the 12-passenger Land Rover station-wagon), put the vehicle into four-wheel drive, giving an effective front-wheel drive and drove it that way about 1500 miles! Mary's husband owns a garage in Porto Alegre and he got me a new axle. Whew! > > (When we got to Brazil at the end of 1967 the life-span of the Brazilians was 45 years. Now it is 67+ and climbing. My wife solved Brazil's single worst medical problem and 29 worst famine problems. Starting as a Field Project Expert of the FAO, working closely with the WHO, those being the two arms of the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP), she ended as Officer-in-Charge of the UNDP. That was before she went to medical school, on the basis of her Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Now she's a Geriatric Internist. > > (The trip home from Brazil via Patagonia by Land Rover was interesting. . . .The trip was 19,000 miles in four months, crossing the Andes Mountains seven times, the Sierra Madres four times, and the Rockies once. I lecture on that trip, mostly to gem and mineral societies, along with lectures such as "My Experiences Hunting Diamonds in Brazil and the USA," "The Extinction of the Dinosaurs," etc. The latter is from the viewpoint of an astronomer.) > > Writing my dissertation on planetarium curriculum development at the Universidade de São Paulo I was allowed to use the 8" Clark refractor at the Universidade's observatory every clear night I wanted it for three years. Side-by-side with the Clark, the Questar was far sharper; however the Clark had greater resolving power due to its diameter. > >Vote: 10 Stay off the back roads. Stick to the highways.... Page 1 of 1 | ||||||||
