Uncle Rod's Astro Blog

I did take a look or two through an eyepiece, and my general impression was that the thing seemed a little larger and a little dimmer than it had on the two previous evenings. That could, however, simply be due to me using larger aperture and (much) higher magnification than before—in the 15x70s he looked about the same. Tonight? I dunno. I'll be headed for the shipyard at 4 blasted 30 in the a.m., so I probably won't get more ambitious than dragging out the StarBlast. I'll let y'all know...

What’s the story with Holmes? This comet, discovered in 1892 by, natch, Edwin Holmes, is normally a sedate little thing, quietly minding its own business in an orbit that lies between Mars and Jupiter. Far away, that is. “Quiet and dim,” are the watchwords for this sprite whose brightness normally hovers around a discouraging 16 - 17. Normally.

On October 23 something happened. A gas eruption, perhaps, caused wee little Holmes to suddenly brighten from magnitude 17 to magnitude 2.8 (or brighter) in a matter of hours. As of this writing, it’s a naked eye “star” lying not far from Mirfak in Perseus and drifting slowly northward. How long will this event last? Who knows? If you have clear skies, I advise you to get out and check it out tonight. What sort of optical aid do you need? None. As above, Holmes is easily visible as a point-source-like "star," perhaps looking a little fuzzy, in Perseus.

I arrived home last night after a long evening at the University, determined to have a look at what I had been told was a marvel. While the skies had finally cleared, there was a fat and satisfied lookin’ full Moon hanging in the east. A quick sweep of my Burgess 15x70 binocs in the area where I thought the comet ort-ta be didn’t reveal squat. That would have been the time, usually, when I’d say to myself, “Self, we ain’t gonna see nuttin'. Where’s the Rebel Yell?” This time, though, something told me to take one more look.

I popped inside and fired up TheSky 6 Pro, which downloaded the comet’s elements and drew me a finder chart quicker than you can say “Jack Daniels.” One of the reasons I love this program is that it’s not only insanely full-featured, it’s (reasonably) easy to use, which is a very good thing for those times when you need a chart NOW. 

Outside again, I pointed the Burgesses in the proper direction: “Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! Is that IT or has Ol’ Jupe wandered over to the wrong side of the sky?” I spent several minutes focusing and refocusing, unable to believe this “minor” comet could be so big and bright, and convinced I was looking at a defocused Mirfak. In the binoculars, Holmes looked like a perfectly round, slightly yellowish, madly bright planet.

As amazing as Holmes was in the binoculars, I couldn’t help wondering, in typical amateur astronomer fashion, what it would look like with a little more aperture. Didn’t feel like wrestling with a C8 or even the ETX-125, but luckily I always have my Comet Scope, an Orion StarBlast, standing by for instant use. This little thing brings 4-inches of fast optics to bear, and is so easy and convenient to get going that it’s become my usual end-of-the-workday-quick-look telescope. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s allowed me to see many minor comets I’d otherwise have missed from my urban digs (“Never see that from here, anyway, and I ain't gonna mess with no SCT tonight”).

Before long I had the little green guy on the front porch and pointed to Holmes. With more magnification and more light, the comet was, if anything, even more wondrous, presenting a bright not quite round nucleus surrounded by a perfectly round not-quite-centered “coma.” I stood out there and just stared for at least half an hour until the chilly temps (upper FORTIES, y'all) finally drove me inside in search of the ‘Yell.

I’ll be back out there tonight gazing in wonder at this unlooked-for visitor. Maybe I’ll even set up a bigger gun. Might even try to take some pictures.  Never know. I urge y’all to get out there with me. Take a good long look and let me know what you think.

s.a.a. always had trolls, spammers, and nutcases, but there was such a large, mature, and dedicated population of serious amateur astronomers that the group withstood these attacks easily. That began to change as Internet astronomy matured and there began, inevitably, to be many more good places for amateurs to hang out—Yahoogroups, Astromart, Cloudy Nights, and all the many astro email groups. That diluted the population of “real” amateurs, and made the group often look a lot like its poor, debased parent group, sci.astro: “Newton was wrong,” “Planet X will destroy earth SOON,” "UFOs kidnapped my mama," etc. Even so, the group managed to struggle on, somehow.

Unfortunately, due to almost unrelenting “sporge attacks” (computer-generated faux posts that have clogged up the group for days and weeks on end), and the efforts of one insane person and several others, the group’s usefulness is over.

Sporge can be lived with. These attacks always end, and it’s possible to filter out the posts. Not so easy for the already damaged group to survive was the effort of a group of folks apparently determined to bring s.a.a. down. Foremost was a person, sadistic or merely disturbed, who took it upon himself/herself to drive off one of the group’s long-term members, Dennis Bishop (aka, “Starlord”), by means of cyberstalking.

Dennis, a disabled Vietnam vet, as you may know billed himself as the “Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond (California),” and posted endlessly on his adventures bringing astronomy to his small town, his travails with his junk-mobile car, his devotion to his Atari ST computer, his love for his cats, and the realities of life in a trailer park. Now, not all the s.a.a. regulars exactly looked forward to Dennis’ frequent posts, but he was nevertheless a friendly presence and part of a core of amateurs who kept s.a.a. alive. And the normal folks who didn't care for Dennis' posts just scrolled on past them.

To make a long and painful story short, Dennis was subjected to endless obscene replies to his articles and the posting of similarly obscene new articles about him. These articles basically purported to solicit Dennis for homosexual activities in the most obscene and graphic and violent terms. It wasn’t long before Dennis disappeared from the group, and it wasn’t long after that that we learned that he’d apparently suffered a stroke and been moved from his beloved trailer and into a “home.”

Right now? The psychopath, apparently completely consumed by whatever consumes him or her, is still there posting about Dennis, and often posting his screeds under the spoofed names of group regulars and under article titles that look legit. And he’s been joined by at least one person posting under a variety of names who's apparently just as anxious to destroy the group (my guess is he’s a disgruntled former “member”). This person’s M.O./obsession doesn’t focus on Dennis, but on other s.a.a. regulars.

What eventually became of Dennis? It pains me to tell you this, but I want you to know why it is my firm and fondest hope the moron who is in large part responsible burns in freaking Hell. As above, after Dennis' stroke, he was taken to a veteran's facility where he eventually passed away after having been in a vegetative state for some time. His beloved cats were euthanized and his wonderful telescope and computers were thrown into a dumpster.

Bottom line? s.a.a. is no longer useable. Because of the tactics of the current group of trolls, fools,  and nutjobs, there’s no easy way to filter the bad stuff out. I’ll continue to look in occasionally, but I fear this is it. Couple the idiocy with the fact that the amateur community is much more spread out Internet-wise, and that many ISPs are discontinuing their Usenet feeds, and I think this is, if not the end, real close to it. Yes, the current crazies will probably wander off after a while, but I'm guessing there are plenty more on-deck to replace 'em. That seems to be the nature of Usenet in this latter age. Shame.

Believe it or not, s.a.a. still exists, and is accessible on the web as a "Google Group." What is it like? It mostly consists of posts about astronomy news, space/space travel, etc. (like what its parent group was originally intended to be), with only the occasional post an amateur astronomy. The good part? Some of the old-timers are still around, and while I didn't do a lot of looking, it appears the morons who caused all the trouble years ago grew bored and wandered off. I still hope they did or eventually will get their just deserts, though. 

Meade in trouble? What the h-e-double-L is your Silly Ol’ Uncle talking about now? If’n you don’t follow such things closely, let me fill you in. If you’re a Big Blue fan, mebbe you’d better sit down first, though.

There’d been concern developing about Meade’s financial health over at least the last year. That seemed to come to a head last summer when it became obvious—to folks in the biz, anyway—that Meade was operating its California plant on a skeleton crew. It also became apparent that Meade had stopped shipping its RCX400 scopes. Not only had the flashy ads for these innovative scopes disappeared, the scopes themselves, save for some being shipped from inventory, were gone. The fork-mount 16 RCX? Don’t even ask. Mostly this was just rumor passed around amongst the amateur astronomy chattering classes--writers, vendors, manufacturers—you know, the usual suspects.

Mostly that was rumor, yeah, until word got around the larger amateur community recently about a Meade conference call posted on the Net and about a written statement also found online. The gist of this information?

—Meade RCX production was halted to correct engineering deficiencies.—The company is still posting losses.—Layoffs have taken place and will continue.—All Production will be moved offshore as soon as possible.—The company is considering/beginning the process of looking for a buyer.
Shocked? You prob’ly are. Fearful that this wonderful source of gear will go away? Or that support for your Meade scope is going to dry up? I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Meade’s name, despite the travails of the last couple of years, is still worth a lot. Even if worse comes to worst and the company is sold, you can bet “Meade” will continue on in some form. All their product lines might not survive, of course, but I would bet support for existing owners will continue—and might even improve.

Worst case scenario? Somebody buys the company just for its Bresser (Europe), Simmons (binoculars and rifle scopes), and Wal-Mart (department store junk-o-scopes) components and is not interested in keeping the “Advanced Products” (amateur scopes and other gear) going. Even in that case, it’s likely Meade amateur scopes would survive, since the breaker-upper would probably want to sell that end of the biz to a third party ASAP.

Make no mistake about it, I’m rooting for Meade. I’ve used and loved their products for several decades. And I still don’t have the RCX of my dreams. They have GOT to survive so Unk’s gigantic aplantic SCT dreams can be fulfilled

UPDATE:

On Monday, October 22, Herb York of Anacortes posted an "ad" on Astromart containing a Meade letter to their dealers. This letter has since been removed at Meade's request ("Other dealers complained," said Meade), though, strangely, it was openly available on one of the company's (Meade's) web pages for all to see for a couple of days. Apparently they finally got wind of this and decided MAYBE there's something to that "password" bidness.

The gist of it? The RCX 400 is not going to be reintroduced in a few weeks as implied in the conference call; instead it is going to be unavailable for an "indefinite" period. Larger scopes like the 14-inch R will be back in "the second half of 2008" (except the 14-inch OTA sans mount, which will apparently not be available at all—"suspended indefinitely"). Many of Coronado's scopes including the calcium K scopes are outright discontinued. The Max Mount and the 16 and 20-inch RCX OTAs are apparently gone too.

Meade implies that the "temporarily suspended" products like the large R scopes (not the "indefinitely suspended" scopes like the RCXes) will be back after they finish "moving" their manufacturing facilities. One has to wonder, however, why they couldn't keep manufacturing while the move was made, ensuring continuing product availability for Christmas. Finally, their stock is now going for about $1.43 a share, not a good sign, in my opinion.

STILL...I'm still hoping, and have both my fingers and toes crossed for good, old Blue.

What was Starry Messenger? I'm not talking about Galileo's candle against the darkness (even Unk ain't old enough to remember when that came out). The Starry Messenger I'm talking about is what we had before there was an Astromart.