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TeleVue Binoviewer Purchase

Started by glen scott, 03/23/2004 07:30PM
Posted 03/23/2004 07:30PM Opening Post
I never thought that I would have to defend the decision to
purchase a TeleVue binoviewer but Jim Gutman has put me on the spot. Hopefully no one else will have to defend their decision to purchase a binoviewer other than Jim's preferred unit. http://www.astromart.com/messages.asp?message_id=161819
It finally happened,I received an astronomical accessory
and I beat the odds. My 1.3 OCA arrived on Sat. and I was able to go out the next night and use the TV 1.3OCA combo
for the first time. The temp was 18degrees and humidity was 30%. Transparency was very good,so good that it was hard to believe I was in a suburban location with bad light pollution. This sort of condition is very rare. The fly in
the ointment was winds aloft that kept the maximum useable
mag to about 100x.I spent most of the observing session at 77x. Leo and Virgo were well positioned as was M51.
This was my first time this year to revisit an old friend,
M51 actually showed the spiral structure which gave rise to to the Whirlpool appellation. No connecting bridge was seen.
M65,M66,95,96,and M105 in Leo were the next targets and once again
structure was evident as well as the extended nature of the target. Usually if galaxies are glimpsed from my location
it is a case knowing what you are looking at from past experience rather than being easily able to recognize the object. The Virgo cluster was next and I got lost in the maze of galaxies. Those pesky NGC objects were part of the problem. M35 in Auriga was very nice, the cluster filled the field of view and had a pronounced 3D effect.Yes I looked at Jupiter, and four bands were seen with possible festooning in the south equatorial band,but with only 100x possible what are you going to do.
This was an auspicious beginning to the Spring observing season. I used a 15in.F5 Discovery truss dob.No balance issues were present and the TV/1.3 OCA combo performed very well. It required 10mm of intravel to reach focus and focus travel remained to accomodate eps which require more infocus than 32mm,and 22.5mm I used for the bulk of my observing. 15mm Ultra,s were easily accomodated with some room to spare. Clear skies,Scotty
Posted 03/23/2004 09:35PM #1
So ... it took over two months of waiting to get the OCA ?! How come you didn't at least take the TV out in the mean time? Seems like a waste as the TV really is a nice unit (Jim, btw, owns and uses one too).