Re: [APML] Number of APML members?

["Bradley" <bhope@thorngarden.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Cook" <ccook@cape.com>
To: "Discussion of Film Astrophotography" <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [APML] Number of APML members?

> Something seems whacked here.  I read it that most people are not shooting
> film anymore and have nothing to show or talk about.  If people are still
> crazy about shooting film and it is alive and well, then why aren't there
> any posts?.... (please don't take offense... but single digit postings a
day
> don't make for an active lively group).

I can't answer for anyone else but myself...but I do have a good reason for
only posting one photo in the last 5 months. My LX90 died and I could not
justify paying the rather steep price Meade wanted to fix it..when, likely
as not, it would only die again. I'd had nothing but problems with it right
out of the box. It took me 4 months to come up with the money to buy another
scope...4 months of scrimping and watching every penny spent on top of the
several months I'd already been saving for an autoguider, guide scope and
the needed accessories as a present to my sore back. (I know, I'm whining)

Two weeks after receiving my new scope (the best I could afford without
considerable extension of the time involved saving up and continuing to be
without a scope at all) I posted the first photo with the new scope. Since
then I've had one halfway decent night (night before last) where I could
actually see stars....unfortunately the seeing was, at best, only 2/5 and
not worth trying to take any pictures. I had recently received the true
knife edge adapter for my Stiletto so I really wanted to run a series of
calibration frames to make sure it was set properly...but I couldn't even do
that because of the poor seeing.

Why did it take two weeks for me to get the first photo? Why won't I be that
active in posting images in the future? I live right on the Strait of Juan
de Fuca on the Olympic Peninsula sandwiched up against the Olympic
Mountains. Quite frankly, I don't get many nights of decent seeing and
transparancy (and no moon) throughout the entire year, let alone over the
winter. (Yeah, I know..I'm still whining)

Someone else mentioned this, but I want to bring it up again. I am not
well-to-do financially. We have a decent income and don't have to worry
about making ends meet, but I think I've done pretty well just to get the
equipment I "have" managed to acquire. With a 35mm camera I can obtain, once
I get a little further up the learning curve, pretty decent images. To
obtain the same quality of images via ccd, or cmos, would substantially up
the ante for spending...and I, honestly, can't afford it. The cmos cameras
take some pretty nice pictures indeed..but are they really, honestly, as
good as 35mm film yet? And how much does a ccd camera cost that can compare
to 35mm film? And, last but not least, just how often am I going to be able
to put that rather expensive ccd camera to use considering where I live
(that I would have to save up towards for a couple of years)?

I'm not jealous of, nor do I begrudge, those who can afford to get into the
high end of astroimaging..but as far as I know (as has been mentioned
already by someone else) this is the only place devoted to film. As has also
been previously mentioned, there are any number of ccd/cmos specific forums
out there already in existence.

I have to ask. So this isn't that active a list as compared to what it was
like in the past...but, so what? Does it really need to turn into yet one
more ccd/cmos list...just like all the rest of the ccd/cmos lists? Why?

One more point and then I'm finished (sorry for rambling so long, but I
needed to get it off my chest). Gene is the list owner. As far as I know
this list was not formed as a democracy. I've been on the internet more than
a few years, going back to when all there was were bbs's, usenet..irc
started coming along...etc. More than a few times I've watched as people
would join an existing list/forum/channel (what have you) and then decide
they didn't like the way things were being run..and either pushed for a
takeover vote..or simply went to war to wrest control away from the owner so
they could turn it into what "they" wanted. Either of those methods weren't
really appropriate then because they both involved taking it away from the
owner...and they aren't now. Quite simply, people are free to move around
the internet as they please. If they don't like it someplace..they can go
elsewhere better suited to their tastes/needs/desires etc...or they can
start up their own.

Bottom line is, and always will be, this list belongs to Gene..he, and he
alone, sets the policies of this group.

Bradley


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