ASTRO: Mr & Mrs "Obsession" at CSSP

It's nice when a couple have the same hobby. However these two own 'his &
hers' Obsession Dob's and although they observe side-by-side, they only
rarely look thru the other's scope!! Real nice folks who like Cherry Springs
so much that they purchased a cabin nearby.

George N

George Normandin wrote:
It's nice when a couple have the same hobby. However these two own 'his &
hers' Obsession Dob's and although they observe side-by-side, they only
rarely look thru the other's scope!! Real nice folks who like Cherry Springs
so much that they purchased a cabin nearby.

George N

We have a couple Obsessions in our club, none has a light bulb behind
the mirror. What the heck is that for? And what's that white cylinder?
There seems to be a 110 power cord tied to it, ungrounded too.

Rick

i'd guess the lightbulb is meant to keep things dry when the scope is left
in the garage set up?

the PVC pipe looks like a handle for lifting the unit up out of the cradle.

what's the real story George?


"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...


George Normandin wrote:
It's nice when a couple have the same hobby. However these two own 'his &
hers' Obsession Dob's and although they observe side-by-side, they only
rarely look thru the other's scope!! Real nice folks who like Cherry
Springs so much that they purchased a cabin nearby.

George N

We have a couple Obsessions in our club, none has a light bulb behind the
mirror. What the heck is that for? And what's that white cylinder? There
seems to be a 110 power cord tied to it, ungrounded too.

Rick

On Wed, 30 May 2007 01:47:57 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:



George Normandin wrote:
It's nice when a couple have the same hobby. However these two own 'his &
hers' Obsession Dob's and although they observe side-by-side, they only
rarely look thru the other's scope!! Real nice folks who like Cherry Springs
so much that they purchased a cabin nearby.

George N

We have a couple Obsessions in our club, none has a light bulb behind
the mirror. What the heck is that for? And what's that white cylinder?
There seems to be a 110 power cord tied to it, ungrounded too.

It's difficult to get a shock off a glass bulb in a plastic socket.
--
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Peter Hucker wrote:

On Wed, 30 May 2007 01:47:57 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:



George Normandin wrote:

It's nice when a couple have the same hobby. However these two own 'his &
hers' Obsession Dob's and although they observe side-by-side, they only
rarely look thru the other's scope!! Real nice folks who like Cherry Springs
so much that they purchased a cabin nearby.

George N

We have a couple Obsessions in our club, none has a light bulb behind
the mirror. What the heck is that for? And what's that white cylinder?
There seems to be a 110 power cord tied to it, ungrounded too.


It's difficult to get a shock off a glass bulb in a plastic socket.


Difficult but not impossible, Doug Mathers, a good friend of mine died
exactly that way. He picked up one of those plastic AC drills that has
only a polarized two prong plug while working outside. His wife found
him a few hours later still clutching the ungrounded plug he was
plugging in. She nearly died trying to "save" him. I threw out three
such tools I had after that and put in ground fault outlets around the
outside of the house as further protection. All outlets in the
observatory are also ground fault for this reason. After losing Doug I
don't take unneeded chances.

Rick

"Richard Crisp" wrote
...
i'd guess the lightbulb is meant to keep things dry when the scope is left
in the garage set up?

the PVC pipe looks like a handle for lifting the unit up out of the
cradle.

what's the real story George?

I did notice the bulbs that both of these scopes had. I did not ask.
However Dave K recommends (in his "Big Dob" book, and the Obsession users
Yahoo group) using a low wattage lightbulb (on a timer) near the primary for
scopes left in an un-heated shed/observatory to keep morning dew off the
primary. He also recommends leaving a Dob with the back end pointing east so
that the rising sun heats up the primary to prevent dew. It's kinda ironic
that, after fighting all night to get the optics down to air temp, that in
the morning you need to warm them up to prevent 'acid dew' (or frost)
forming. What's next? Active cooling for primary mirrors??

I believe that the PVC pipe is an Obsession optional item. You fill it with
lead shot to balance the scope. The first owner of my scope added a
"Markless Counterweight System", so I don't need the pipe thing. I move a
sliding weight up/down a calibrated scale to balance the scope. The idea is
that you set the weight at the number needed to balance whatever you have on
the scope. I just put it in the same place most of the time and adjust if
needed.

George N

"Rick Johnson" wrote

It's difficult to get a shock off a glass bulb in a plastic socket.


Difficult but not impossible, Doug Mathers, a good friend of mine died
exactly that way. He picked up one of those plastic AC drills that has
only a polarized two prong plug while working outside.......

Sorry to hear about your friend Rick. I've had a friend and an uncle
electrocuted, but both in industrial situations. It's something I think of
at the camp I rent in the Adirondacks: the place has late 40's wiring with
no grounds anywhere. You need a 2/3 prong converter to plug anything in. I'm
not sure about that old cloth covered wiring either......... but the rent's
cheap and the camp just up the lake sold for $750,000 last year, so I don't
complain.....

George N

i like the counterweight idea

your answer on the bulb matched my suspicion but was even more broad than I
had realized

i always wondered how people got things to balance just right on the dob
mount, having never used one myself: always been an imager and never was a
visual guy


"George Normandin" wrote in message
news

"Richard Crisp" wrote
...
i'd guess the lightbulb is meant to keep things dry when the scope is
left in the garage set up?

the PVC pipe looks like a handle for lifting the unit up out of the
cradle.

what's the real story George?

I did notice the bulbs that both of these scopes had. I did not ask.
However Dave K recommends (in his "Big Dob" book, and the Obsession users
Yahoo group) using a low wattage lightbulb (on a timer) near the primary
for scopes left in an un-heated shed/observatory to keep morning dew off
the primary. He also recommends leaving a Dob with the back end pointing
east so that the rising sun heats up the primary to prevent dew. It's
kinda ironic that, after fighting all night to get the optics down to air
temp, that in the morning you need to warm them up to prevent 'acid dew'
(or frost) forming. What's next? Active cooling for primary mirrors??

I believe that the PVC pipe is an Obsession optional item. You fill it
with lead shot to balance the scope. The first owner of my scope added a
"Markless Counterweight System", so I don't need the pipe thing. I move a
sliding weight up/down a calibrated scale to balance the scope. The idea
is that you set the weight at the number needed to balance whatever you
have on the scope. I just put it in the same place most of the time and
adjust if needed.

George N

"George Normandin" wrote in message
...
"Rick Johnson" wrote

It's difficult to get a shock off a glass bulb in a plastic socket.


Difficult but not impossible, Doug Mathers, a good friend of mine died
exactly that way. He picked up one of those plastic AC drills that has
only a polarized two prong plug while working outside.......

Sorry to hear about your friend Rick. I've had a friend and an uncle
electrocuted, but both in industrial situations. It's something I think of
at the camp I rent in the Adirondacks: the place has late 40's wiring with
no grounds anywhere. You need a 2/3 prong converter to plug anything in.
I'm not sure about that old cloth covered wiring either......... but the
rent's cheap and the camp just up the lake sold for $750,000 last year, so
I don't complain.....

you got a heck of a deal up there George: when you can ford the snow to get
to the observatory. home grown tomatoes are great in january out here in
calif, and our cherry trees have bloomed before the end of jan :-)



George N

On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:10:59 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:



Peter Hucker wrote:

On Wed, 30 May 2007 01:47:57 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:



George Normandin wrote:

It's nice when a couple have the same hobby. However these two own 'his &
hers' Obsession Dob's and although they observe side-by-side, they only
rarely look thru the other's scope!! Real nice folks who like Cherry Springs
so much that they purchased a cabin nearby.

George N

We have a couple Obsessions in our club, none has a light bulb behind
the mirror. What the heck is that for? And what's that white cylinder?
There seems to be a 110 power cord tied to it, ungrounded too.


It's difficult to get a shock off a glass bulb in a plastic socket.


Difficult but not impossible, Doug Mathers, a good friend of mine died
exactly that way. He picked up one of those plastic AC drills that has
only a polarized two prong plug while working outside. His wife found
him a few hours later still clutching the ungrounded plug he was
plugging in. She nearly died trying to "save" him. I threw out three
such tools I had after that and put in ground fault outlets around the
outside of the house as further protection. All outlets in the
observatory are also ground fault for this reason. After losing Doug I
don't take unneeded chances.

Most of my power tools are battery operated (but more for convenience
- no cables to get in the way when moving around with them).

Over here we have 240 volts, 110 isn't a real shock! (I've had about
6 240V shocks).
--
This message has been brought to you by solar and wind power. Who needs the national grid?
http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com http://www.petersphotos.com

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