hes not well again

Didn't Lowell have a eye condition that accounts for him seeing what isn't there?

I think its more likely that it self seeded, they are very agressive, the weed of the tree world. A friend of mine who is a tree surgeon said he makes most of his money taking down sycamores that have self seeded in peoples back gardens. the bad news is that cutting them down will not kill them, in fact it will grow even faster now. tell your neighbour to keep cutting the shoots back while they are small and this will eventually kill it as it runs out of energy. i'm assuming that the stump is still there.

I have had a TAL for years, I have an 8" dob but i still use the TAL much more. The stand is better than much more expensive scopes and the opticks are more than adequate. Good solid Russian engineering.

Seems to be going away now but what a show, use the rewind on cliffcam 3 set to 23.50 and watch the best bits

That is going straight on my favourites bar. Nice one

Nice shot, glad the scope meets your expectations.

I was reading a Patrick O'brian book from Napoleonic times and the same thing was described as a wind gall, they believed it heralded bad weather. Always a safe prediction in Britain.

I found this moderately cool. http://www.theskepticsguide.org/the-ballet-of-solar-systems

hopefully this link will work, DownloadEpisode #542 - November 28th, 2015

The item was on The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, the No542 Nov 28 about 10 mins 30 secs in not sure how to post a link but google should do it. I am just listening to it again, they say the problem is at the Planck scale and is from a report by the International Astronomical Union.

I want it, I need a paper weight

I was listening to a podcast the other day in which it was postulated that the next generation of scopes, including space bourn. Will be up against the fundamental 'grainyness' of the universe due to the tiny amounts of gravity from quantum effects. Have we finally come to the end of optical scopes? Are there any voluntary organisations that can help us rehabilitate?

Its clearly some sort of God. We must worship it.

Amazing to think how close it came to just spinning off into space

Actually I think clouds are like a Glasgow massage, which is being hit with a pick axe handle. Not very relaxing but its brilliant when it stops.