Computer upgrades

I was gonna swap computers with the family since they actually play games on it so except for video work (which I hardly do anymore) they have more need of a fast computer than I do. They do have issues where it slows down badly from time to time.

I was doing some groundwork for the swap when I re-discovered that the thing only has 1GB of RAM. Well, there's your problem. I had been wondering how a 2GHz dual core machine manages to be as slow as I've seen it be.

Even if I do the swap, I can't live with 1GB given the VM that I have to run for work. So I'm kicking it up to 4GB first to see how that goes. I bet it becomes acceptable at that point.

I may put Windows 7 on it too. At least that would just be one fresh install instead of two. I really have better things to do than do fresh Windows installs. Like watching snow fall, or paint dry, or anything really.

Astronomy close-out

I've sold every bit of astronomy equipment that I own other than the telescope itself, and I've dropped the price on that to $2000, which is honestly less than I paid for the parts. If it doesn't go at that price, I may start to part it out. The mirror itself ran $1600 10 years ago and there's a 4 month backorder time, so if anyone is in the market for that mirror it should go, especially if I throw in the mirror cell for free - it's an 18 point stainless steel flotation cell that I built myself.

What it comes down to is, I feel like I've seen all the easy and medium stuff like 80 times already, and the size of scope that I have kind of calls for looking for faint stuff, and I'm kind of sick of searching for faint stuff, especially as the light pollution here at home gets steadily worse. And even when I find it, it's not particularly inspiring, and I've proven to myself that I can find anything that's findable in these skies, so there's not any thrill left in that either.

Interestingly enough, when I admitted all this to my friend at work who I've thought of as a real astronomy hard-core, he said he feels exactly the same way. He's seen it all and the effort isn't worth the payoff anymore, and he's about ready to sell all his stuff too.

I've decided to clear everything out, give it a few months or a year or two, and see how my feelings go. Right now I think that even if I do get back in, a simple 4.5 or 6" reflector with a modest $250 or so set of matched, parfocal eyepieces would be just fine. Really I like looking at planets and the moon as well as anything, and I've gotten nice views out of a $200, 4.5" "beginner's" dob with simple, inexpensive eyepieces. I think for < $500 I can get a scope and eyepieces that will give me just as much enjoyment, and have a scope I can carry under one arm.