Dammit! I missed the live NASA feed. Still, a fitting pyrotechnic end to a historic mission.

 

I've been grabbing everything I can on Cassini from the JPL/NASA. The file is getting humongous! Great stuff - I suggest doing likewise and preserve this amazing mission for any future-generations. Here's but a tiny drop:











I hope this is working - posting this post - A-C's software is acting up.

Dave

 

Hey Reggie and all others -

Another good place to go to poke around for images and articles is the European Space Agency - ESA - and others you'll find they link with:

http://www.esa.int/ESA

Enjoy!

Dave

 

Yeah, but that ESA has a liberal agenda. I reckon they're in league with pinko Zeta Reticulans.

 

True...der...And with this case of Conjunctivitis, it seems Saturn has Bipolar-Disorder too!





Pinko commie libtards' live there, no doubt.....Uhto! I KNEW it!! They allied with the Martians - the RED PLANET! Commies From Mars!




luaR


p.s. - PROTECT THE STILL!

 

Oh yeah - Just swapped the Orion AZ-4 for the other AZ-4 by Skywatcher/Synta. The Orion AZ-4 that died on everyone that I fixed for cheap:





Well, guess what? It's dead again. It was Jury-Rigged with different control-cables after one of them snapped in half (they really went all-out to make a lousy mount!). I had to root through place to find something in the way of a control-cable to attach to the proprietary post they fit the bloody thing on!

And it just snapped again! Not going to fix it again. A shovel is appropos at this point. Or should I just build a spaceship to take it to Saturn and chuck it in?

SATURN: The Trash-Can Planet!

Anywho - it's now mounted on what Orion is calling the 'VersaGo II' -




Seems rock-steady thus far. Just aligned the scope & 8 X 50mm GSO RACI finder and tuned it to 110X without any issues. Using the new 'Astromania' 58° 9mm EP - looks very good! Now to await the early AM Moon-Rise. Venus is closing in on this show as well! Inthe meanwhile, the Pleiades should keep me entertained with my Filter-Collection!

Alex just announced over in the Dark Lords' Maison a new beta for Stellarium. So I did load same - smooth as silk. Should be a new full version in a week or so. Assuming my computer doesn't explode.....So in honor of our new Astro-Nut of the title of the topic shown on the following screenshot - The Pleiades!






Catch you later, if they don't catch me first!

evaD

 

Yeah, there are pinkos with a liberal agenda everywhere in space. I'm not sure what happened to Beagle II either, or if Damon Albarn had anything to do with it, but it's obviously part of a Zeta Reticulan conspiracy.

It's a pity you can't salvage the tripod from the AZ4 in the top picture. I'm not overly confident in the aluminium tripod legs on many mounts these days. The plastic parts seem to be prone to fracturing where they meet the mount itself.



Meanwhile I can practice flying into Saturn's atmosphere and burning up with Celestia lol

 

I can probably Jury-Rig the AZ-4 Orion-Abortion again. This time it will be duct-tape - and a string of obscenities - that should do the job. Or is that really 'duck-tape' (*< kwak! ?



But I'm rather enjoying using my ST80 on the Skywatcher AZ-4 Orion VersaGo II Whatever-It-Is mount. Had a lovely time last night cruising the star-fields in the vicinity of Altair! Using averted-vision I was merrily 'eeking' out nebulosity that's so very prevalent in this area of 'space & time!' And using my new Astromania 9mm - for 44.44X in this scope - and then attaching my Orion 2X 'Shorty' lens-cell to the 9mm - for a 'devilish' good-time at 66.6X! But I'll describe this eyepiece more fully in another thread I've already hijacked to the story of my endless quest for such an EP.

Have fun crashing into/onto Saturn...

SATURN: The Trash-Can Planet!

Oh yeah - I'd love to be able to find some good & cheap tubular-steel tripod-legs, but such don't seem to exist over here in the Untied Snakes. I don't know why that is. But the pictured aluminum-legs work fine as long as you keep them near to the ground. Not raised-up any higher than absolutely necessary for one's needs. And having a good weight ready to use as a pendulum at the ready.

Onwards & Sideways,

Dave

 

I've always thought duck was a bit greasy. I've lost all faith in aluminium tripod legs now. I blame the ducks lol.

 

Annnnnnnd.............



We'll be back -

evaD

 

Just streamed a really interesting program on the BBC iPlayer ~

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b095vp3p/horizon-2017-goodbye-cassini-hello-saturn

I think you have to be in the UK to stream this though.

 

Nice take, Mak!

Thanks!

Dave

 

Horizon's a long running British TV show, it's always there when anything really interesting in science is happening. The Horizon crew were right there at JPL when Cassini's signal stopped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_(UK_TV_series)

 

I watched it transpire & expire live on NASA-TV at the JPL - sans 'Sportscaster' voice-overs.

We've had several long-ish running science series on what we call 'Public-Television (PBS*)' over the years. This means these are paid for "By Viewers' Like YOU!" By far the most well-known is a series of one-hour shows called NOVA. Which is on a great variety of different science topics. While ostensibly paid for by the people, funding is also augmented through government-funding. But I can predict that will be cut any minute. The Axe-Killer-In-Command don't want "Fake News! Fake News!" that might dare mention that 'Global-Warming' might be real and caused by burning petroleum-distillates. Or that cattle could possibly pass gas and methane - CH4 - is a 'Greenhouse Gas!'

Heresy! Burn 'em at the Stake! Drill! Drill! Drill!

evaD




Average American College-Graduate

 

Yeah, I missed it live on NASA TV ...