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Posts Made By: Lorne Johnson

October 8, 2003 01:13 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Eye Piece

Posted By Lorne Johnson
The TMB Monocentric does (but have a 30% AFOV). The Zeiss Abbe have traditionally had the reputation for the highest, along with the Pentax orthos. UO or KK orthos (same manufacturer) are the standard for resonable prices (about $50 used) in very high transmission. Some people really like the RKE's.

October 9, 2003 07:13 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Siebert U/UW vs. Panoptics

Posted By Lorne Johnson
Siebert's 22mm ultra plus has gotten some very high praise, and I would certainly be curious to try one.

I have a Siebert 36mm Observatory eyepiece which I love. I chose it over the B&W 30 mm (which is also a good eyepiece) because significantly more of the field would really stay in focus in my scopes (f/5.7 and 6). Pupil placement, blackout, and panning are also very comfortable with this eyepiece. Constrast and on axis sharpness are excellent, and Harry is a pleasure to deal with.

I have done a brief comparison with the 35mm panoptic, and have no plans to upgrade.

October 12, 2003 09:29 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Telrad vs. Rigel

Posted By Lorne Johnson
They are both good finders. The Telrad should hold it's collimation better (as others have noted). But, I take mine off the scope and put it in my eyepiece box to keep it clean, and to keep from banging it, so it doesn't really make a difference to me. Peersonally I like the Rigel, but as I said, yo can't go too far wrong with either.

October 15, 2003 05:23 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Orion 80ED eyepiece choices

Posted By Lorne Johnson
That's an awful lot of money to start out spending on eyepieces. Personally I would recommend start with something more like a 32mm plossl, and an 11mm plossl and a 2x barlow (plain old), televue, siebert, or celestron for example (not a "shorty" barlow). That gives you 18x (and almost 3 degrees), 36 x, 55x, and 110 x. All for about $150 (or less)if you get them used on Astromart. (And you can sell them for about what you paid for them if you chose.) Those other eyepieces won't give you sharper more contrasty views (probably less so), they will only give you wider views.

Then, find out where your frustrations lie, and purchase to (try and) alleviate those frustrations. If you reall want the powermate, get the 32 and a 15 mm plossl.

October 21, 2003 04:05 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Is there a U.S. source for the Giro alt.az. mount?

Posted By Lorne Johnson
ITE also carries them.

October 25, 2003 05:35 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

MK 67 vs 6" F-8 Achromat

Posted By Lorne Johnson
I've done some fairly close comparisons of my MN 56 with a 5" D&G f/12 refractor. The MN 56 was just as sharp, and I suspect sharper than the D&G. The D&G is observably brighter.

I should note that at f/12 the D&G will have considerably less color than the 6" f/8 which is approaches being a short tube.

Depending on your climate, my biggest concern with the MK 67 would be cool down.

October 30, 2003 07:50 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Discovery -- "Standard" vs. "Premium"

Posted By Lorne Johnson
The full answers are diretcly available on the discovery web site. I believe that the difference is substrate material and coating.

October 31, 2003 03:59 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Let's try this again....

Posted By Lorne Johnson
Try putting a wanted ad on this forum, if those others don't work out. Quite a few people wind up with leftovers.

October 31, 2003 04:02 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Aurora from 42 N (Boxford, MA)

Posted By Lorne Johnson
One of the (few) joys of working at a boarding school (Putney VT) is having the whole chool right there to go out and watch the aurora after supper. And what a display!

October 31, 2003 06:48 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Full field of view?

Posted By Lorne Johnson
I certainly have seen nothing on this forum suggesting that there is anything wrong with the 26mm nagler. It is a relatively new product for Televue, intended for fast scopes (large dobsonians) where the exit pupil of the 35 panoptic or the 31 mm Nagler gets rather large (it is also considerably lighter than the 2 pound 31mm). I suspect that people buying the 26 tend to be trading in a 31 mm nagler or 35 mm panopitc for it. This puts the latter on the market. It also means that the buyers are making a fine-tuning decision based on considerable knowledge and are less likely to wind up selling the eyepiece.

They do come up, though not recently.

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