Gulf Island Building.

gma2rjc

............. did he end up building it upside down?

"Honey! Why's the toilet on the ceiling?!"

BigJim

I remember that sloping roof addition, I kept thinking that I was just looking at it wrong. That has to hurt working that hard and watching all your hard work go down the tubes.

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Jim

cocobolo

They have an outhouse...

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gma2rjc

Now we know why.

Was that from a kit?

cocobolo

....dunno...I'll ask him when I see him next spring.

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cocobolo

Coco's astronomy tip of the day (No. 21)

The Messier numbers...what are they all about?

A French astronomer by the name of Charles Messier is credited with what is now known as the Messier catalogue.

Messier was born 280 years ago in Lorraine, France, the 10th of 12 children.

Much of his astronomical career was given to searching for comets, and it was during one such search that he noticed other objects in the sky which might have been mistaken for comets by other observers. So he set about taking positions for these and making up what has become the Messier catalogue.

Item number 1 is the crab nebula and he noted this while he was searching for the predicted return of Halley's comet which he finally located on January 21, 1759.

There are now over 100 items in his catalogue, many of them well known nebulae and star clusters.

Messier himself was to either discover or co-discover some 20 comets during his observing career. This is a feat of truly biblical proportions given the nature of the telescopes of the day.

His search for Halley's comet was conducted with a metal reflector of about 8". Today we would consider something like that to be of such poor quality as to be nearly useless - such is the progress made with optics since that time. Any 6" reflector made today would out perform that telescope easily. And yet Messier was able to find and pinpoint the location of dozens of night sky objects with it.

Some of the objects are visible without optical aid, given a moonless sky and excellent seeing:

The magnificent nebula in Orion, M42 is the first that comes to mind. The Hercules cluster, M13 is another. The Pleiades, the Beehive cluster, and Andromeda are others also visible. Binoculars help immensely, and a good scope even more.

So, get yourself a copy of the Messier catalogue and start hunting. You'll have a great time and learn lots along the way.

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cocobolo

About two or three years ago I ran across what I thought might be a nice light to hang in the middle of the circular stairs which go all the way up to the roof.

Today it got installed...perhaps you've noticed that I don't like to rush into these things.

The only drawback right now is that it has high consumption lights installed. They will have to go and be replaced with LED's.

Attached Images

 

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jlhaslip

nice lamp.
it'll look great up there.

how did you keep out of the 2nd wife's studio?

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gma2rjc

Nice lamp!

Do the circular stairs start from a door outside at ground level? I don't think you've talked about this yet.

cocobolo

Well, let's see...I found it, paid for it, brought it over here and hid it!

Put it up when she wasn't looking!

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cocobolo

If I ever get enough of the excess woodpiles moved out of the way I could show you a pic or two.

If you come in through the front door, which is the thick curved cedar door, into the entry, you are greeted by two steps to your left which is the main dining, kitchen level. About 6 feet ahead of that the curved stairs start...17 of them to the masterbed/guest level.

These steps are just over 40" wide, a little wider than most.

The next curved stairs go up to the roof, that's 14 more steps which gets you to a very small landing which has the final three (straight) steps that puts you out onto the roof.

Please note that you do NOT land on a skylight, and that there is a level platform to step onto.

From there you go up a short ladder to the upper part of the roof where the solar panels are located.

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BigJim

Now I see, I didn't know what the M stood for on the charts. Another question, is there a chart for the planets? Or do the planets move so much they can't be charted?

Another question, just full of um, among other things. Is a dew shield necessary?

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Jim

BigJim

Pretty light Keith, we have one similar above our kitchen table only it isn't as elegant, ours is the rust and sealed type. We are into kinda rustic things since we are both country folks. I am so rough back home they call me corn cobb.

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Jim

BigJim

Keith, is there a picture of your curved door back a ways in your thread? You know how my mind is, memory it's another thing I am short on.

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Jim

cocobolo

Indeed there is. Every month the major astronomy magazines will tell you where to look for any of our planets. Some of them have a two page spread with a pic of the night sky listing all sorts of objects. Once you get used to using it - like anything else it becomes second nature.

A dew shield is helpful to prevent dew building up on your objective lens or mirror.

If you take a look at most refractors (that's the one with the lens in front of the telescope) you will usually see a hood which projects out several inches beyond the lens. This helps to keep the dew away.

If you have a reflector, that's the one with a mirror at the bottom of the tube, the whole tube length is doing that job for you.

If you have Cassegrain type, they have the mirror at the back of the (usually short) scope, and a correcting lens in front. There is often no hood over the front. Frequently, these scopes will be fitted with a dew removal accessory system.

If you are in an area which experiences very little dew, in a dry desert for example, then the dew shield may not be necessary.

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