NASA on The West Wing

Stephen Paul wrote:
Joking aside.........
Not me, I'm still not a fan of spending money to send humans into space any
farther than is necessary to support orbiting equipment. Not for a long time
to come. Let's spend that money on planetary science probes, space
telescopes, environmental science, and alternative fuel development. There's
still lots that can be, and needs to be done from right here on terra firma.

But this is the big mistake. It's not a question of one or the other.
That's a fallacy. If we choose not to spend money on human space
exploration the savings would not go to robotic exploration. It just
doesn't work that way. I have never, ever heard a proponent of manned
space flight claim that robotics exploration should be cut. Why is it
that I can't make the case the other way 'round? It saddens me that I
can't. To all of you who are against manned space flight I have this to
say: we need to support all space efforts, not fight among ourselves.
If you want more robotic space exploration lobby Congress for more
robotic space exploration! Stop being negative. It's hurting all of us.

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

"Littleboy" wrote in message
ews.com...
Well, to me it looked like an 8" Schmidt, maybe 10". Story concept was
OK, maybe. Planetary images sucked. But I did like the sound of the
scope slewing. And talk about a bright optical tube.

The planetary images were cartoonish, but M42 was fairly good: monochrome,
with a good amount of detail and a reasonable field of view.

"Littleboy" wrote in message
ews.com...
Well, to me it looked like an 8" Schmidt, maybe 10". Story concept was
OK, maybe. Planetary images sucked. But I did like the sound of the
scope slewing. And talk about a bright optical tube.

The planetary images were cartoonish, but M42 was fairly good: monochrome,
with a good amount of detail and a reasonable field of view.

Alson Wong wrote:

"Littleboy" wrote in message
ews.com...
Well, to me it looked like an 8" Schmidt, maybe 10". Story concept was
OK, maybe. Planetary images sucked. But I did like the sound of the
scope slewing. And talk about a bright optical tube.

The planetary images were cartoonish, but M42 was fairly good: monochrome,
with a good amount of detail and a reasonable field of view.

The Schmidt she had in the van looked like 8-inches. The one he was
using later was about 4-inches. She was working the remote control box
on the larger scope while he was looking at the objects she chose.
However we didn't see her doing any polar alignment while setting up so
I guess we're to assume she got it very close. She made a reference to
Mars being the closest in 60K years so the scene was supposedly taking
place last fall. Did anyone notice if either scope was set up properly
for viewing in the D.C. area?


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Alson Wong wrote:

"Littleboy" wrote in message
ews.com...
Well, to me it looked like an 8" Schmidt, maybe 10". Story concept was
OK, maybe. Planetary images sucked. But I did like the sound of the
scope slewing. And talk about a bright optical tube.

The planetary images were cartoonish, but M42 was fairly good: monochrome,
with a good amount of detail and a reasonable field of view.

The Schmidt she had in the van looked like 8-inches. The one he was
using later was about 4-inches. She was working the remote control box
on the larger scope while he was looking at the objects she chose.
However we didn't see her doing any polar alignment while setting up so
I guess we're to assume she got it very close. She made a reference to
Mars being the closest in 60K years so the scene was supposedly taking
place last fall. Did anyone notice if either scope was set up properly
for viewing in the D.C. area?


-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----

For those in the U.S., tonight's The West Wing has an interesting side story
where some NASA folks make a presentation to a political lackey and get blown
off. One of these scientists takes this guy outside of DC to a dark site and
sets up an 8" Meade and shows him Jupiter, Mars, and M42. He's blown away and
inspired to support a Mars mission.

_______________________________________________ __

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com







The West Wing is my girlfriends favorite program.....so I caught it as well....

Said girlfriend didnt think it was very funny when I said :

Looks to me like NASA is just one good B.J. away from a well funded mars
exploration progam.....I wonder if she will take one for the team

take care

BLLL

For those in the U.S., tonight's The West Wing has an interesting side story
where some NASA folks make a presentation to a political lackey and get blown
off. One of these scientists takes this guy outside of DC to a dark site and
sets up an 8" Meade and shows him Jupiter, Mars, and M42. He's blown away and
inspired to support a Mars mission.

_______________________________________________ __

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com







The West Wing is my girlfriends favorite program.....so I caught it as well....

Said girlfriend didnt think it was very funny when I said :

Looks to me like NASA is just one good B.J. away from a well funded mars
exploration progam.....I wonder if she will take one for the team

take care

BLLL

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
For those in the U.S., tonight's The West Wing has an interesting side
story
where some NASA folks make a presentation to a political lackey and get
blown
off. One of these scientists takes this guy outside of DC to a dark site
and
sets up an 8" Meade and shows him Jupiter, Mars, and M42. He's blown away
and
inspired to support a Mars mission.

I noticed that Josh mentioned to the NASA chick that he and an x-girlfriend
had a star named after them. NASA chick mentions something like
"International Star Registry". I was waiting ... waiting ... for NASA chick
to tell him that it was crap, but it never happened. VERY disappointing.



_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
For those in the U.S., tonight's The West Wing has an interesting side
story
where some NASA folks make a presentation to a political lackey and get
blown
off. One of these scientists takes this guy outside of DC to a dark site
and
sets up an 8" Meade and shows him Jupiter, Mars, and M42. He's blown away
and
inspired to support a Mars mission.

I noticed that Josh mentioned to the NASA chick that he and an x-girlfriend
had a star named after them. NASA chick mentions something like
"International Star Registry". I was waiting ... waiting ... for NASA chick
to tell him that it was crap, but it never happened. VERY disappointing.



_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote in message . ..
For those in the U.S., tonight's The West Wing has an interesting side story
where some NASA folks make a presentation to a political lackey and get blown
off. One of these scientists takes this guy outside of DC to a dark site and
sets up an 8" Meade and shows him Jupiter, Mars, and M42. He's blown away and
inspired to support a Mars mission.

That part was a bit far-fetched. Notice how they didn't include the two
Shuttle accidents as evidence of NASA screwing up?
-Rich