Posts Made By: Donald Durbin

I recently had a nut come loose in a SCT. I used a vacuum cleaner and a soda straw to get it out.

Later I noticed some debris in one of my lenses and since I had the vacuum soda straw setup ready I decided to give it a try. It worked like a champ. It is great for sucking dust and debris off of lenses.

You use masking tape to seal the soda straw to the end of the vacuum hose. I do not think a soda straw will ever scratch coatings but use care anyway. I found this works much better than your normal lens brush and for stuborn stuff it can be used after a good lens brushing.

Don Durbin

Jean,

I was happy with mine. When I first got it I saw some flare on bright objects. I put a laser (normally used on reflectors) and a really good 2" 1 1/4" adapter into the focuser. I noticed that the beam was not in the center of the objective. I removed and reinstalled the focuser which corrected the position of the beam. This helped the image quite a bit. I found I could get 200 to 250 power without image breakdown on most clear nights.

One night my nephew brought over his TAK FS102. I set up on Mars and then I looked through my nephews TAK FS102. The difference in clarity and contrast was remarkable. The 4 inch TAK could easily take more power than the AR5. I added a Orion 2" MV1 filter. It helped a little but I was still not happy with the image.

I have had a Meade ED127 on order for 2 months now. The lead time on them is supposed to be three months.

If you have one and you are happy with it, do not look through a good APO Refractor. :>)

Don Durbin

Sure,

As long as your scope is mounted on an LXD55 mount. :>)

Actually it is a pretty good question. I am sure you would need some computer software to adapt meades protocol to Celestrons protocol. There is some talk of a network connection in the online documentation.

Anyway.. The short answer out of the box is no.

Don Durbin

Michael,

I think Harry spends a lot of his time on this forum because he truly wants to help people.

I do not believe that referrals from this forum make up the majority of his sales.

As far as the Black Night Binoviewers go, I personally have compared my Black nights head to head with a pair of televue binoviewers. I have said before that the televue had a slightly better image, but, the difference was very very slight.

I was also at a star party with the public invited were I put my black nights into a C11. The public came down a line of 30 or more telescopes and looked through the black nights. This is the general public not real astronomy buffs, at least 100 or so, and not one person had a problem merging the image. Many stated that this was the best image of Mars they had seen in the line up. I am pretty sure I had a pair of 21mm televue plossls in the unit and we had a yellow filter screwed into the base of the black nights.

When the general public can come down a line and merge images with no problem, and when these same binoviewers can go head to head against a unit costing twice the price, then I have to say that is a very good unit that does not have collimation problems.

Don Durbin

Has your mount been hypertuned. If not check out lxd55.com. You can get a kit with a dvd to show you how to do it yourself.

Don Durbin

Ivan,

I think the Black night binoviewers are the best buy on the market.

Since you are going to be using them on an SCT you do not need anything additional to achieve focus.

You can get the binoviewers with a case and a pair of nice 21mm SWA EPs for just $388. The black Nights are so light you will not have to worry about throwing your balance out too much.

Don Durbin

Chad,

How did you know when you got the focus point right? Did you just duplicate the same point of focus? Did you mark the lower element of your OCA so you get it back in the same place? I know to ask this question since I did not mark mine just now :<(

Don

Harry,

How critical is the distance between the upper and lower elements on your 1.8x OCA and what negative results will you see if that distance is not correct?

Don

Don,

He can get the Black Nights and the focal reducer for less than the cost of the Denk std. Why spend more than you need to?

I have a C9.25 Gray tube with a WO focuser and a WO diagonal that I use with my Black Nights and a .5 focal reducer from Siebert Optics. I have plenty of focus.

Don Durbin

Tom,

My nephew has 15mm pans that he uses with his Televue unit. I have looked through them and I was happy with the view. Of course I am also happy with the view through my 15mm TV Plossls. I have compared the two and I have found that the pans have a much wider field of view, but I did not see any real difference in the contrast of the images.

If you are not using a tracking mount the Panoptic's wide views are a great advantage. The reason my nephew uses the Panoptics is that he is viewing with the XT10 and with a TAK FS-102 mounted on an Alt/Az mount. He likes the wide view since neither of those units will track.

Don