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Posts Made By: William Paolini

October 22, 2006 02:27 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Best Current Production High Power EP

Posted By William Paolini
Philip,

I think your post was un-called for and very unprofessional. And also has no merit in terms of argument and logic. The comment did not address the point of the poster but instead attacked the person. Bad form overall. I'm sure all of us would appreciate it if we could stick to the point of the thread and discuss eyepieces and not people or personalities.

Appreciate your understanding,
-Bill

November 1, 2006 09:53 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Suggestions please??

Posted By William Paolini
Brandon,

Well, I think the surprise is a must, so I would not ask her 1st. But I think you can have the best of both worlds. So I'd get her one really nice eyepiece - that's the surprise #1, maybe even in a small foam padded case like you can get from Ritz Camera that will fit just the one nice EP - make it extra special even though not practical - but presentation sure matters.

Next I would do the gift certificate for the balance you want to spend at a place like others already recommended. You can put that in the case too. Or perhaps just a check so she can go anywhere and you can include a hard catalog from Orion, Anacortes, and others...fun to look thru all the pics smile

As for the eyepiece, well, I'd say a 9mmT6 or a 13mmT6 Nagler. It's premium and more reasonable that other premium EPs. If you think she is more a high power lunar or planetary observer, then go with the 9mm. The 13mm is kind of middle of the road, not high power, not low - assuming a typical fast f-ratio scope design as are most popular today.

If you want to be a bit more practical, and frugal, they you could put and entire set of 5 Edmund RKE eyepieces in that case for $250. These are middle of the road, not the best, nor the worst, and for the price perfom well. But if me, I'd like the one 9mmT6 Nagler.

-Bill

November 2, 2006 05:28 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Cleaning Kits?

Posted By William Paolini
I called Pentax yesterday and spoke to their telescope expert, wanting advice for cleaning their eyepieces. He told me to never use Isopropyl alcohol (I didn't ask why). He said to use denatured alcohol at full strength. 1st blowing and brushing dust away, then use coton covered with lens tissue to apply the alcohol, then use the same to wipe off. He said to then follow that treatment with standard lens cleaning fluid.

Anyway, quick trip to local well stocked drug store (not CVS) and the bottles were there on the shelf - I believe it was ethyl alcohol, as opposed to methanol or isopropyl. In any event, it worked extremely well when I used it on the eyepieces. ...then did all my eyepieces with it. No streaking problems at all as long as you swab it dry before it evaporates.

-Bill

November 3, 2006 10:40 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Burgess/TMB 4mm Planetary -- superb in refractors

Posted By William Paolini
John,
Very interesting. Maybe it's something peculiar to the 4mm? I have the 5mm and 7mm and both of these perform excellently to the edge. Actually impressively so in my 10" f/4.7. Stars did not even bloat right to edge - no ca, coma, or astigmatism - but I rarely get that at these short FLs. So I'm getting some different performace than you in my fast newt.
-Bill

November 5, 2006 06:38 AM Forum: Eyepieces

8 inch dobsonian

Posted By William Paolini
I'd go with the Stratus (or Hyperion is basically the same or close) over the Plossl design. In addition to the wider apparent field of view (Plossl = 50-55deg, Stratus = 68deg), and you also get lots more eye relief from the Stratus making them easier to use - very important factor. Eye relief means you don't have to put your eye so close to the eyepiece.

Performance wise, even in a fast newtonian (F/5) they perform very well. Not as good as a Nagler, but close, especially considering the price differential.

I would get the 21mm and the 8mm, then a fairly good 1.5x barlow so you'd have 21, 14, 8, 5 when you add the barlow. If your scope accepts a 2" eyepiece, then later you can add a good longer focal length eyepiece for scanning the stars, something in the 30-40mm range.

FYI, I've personally compared the 13mm Hyperion to the Nagler 12mmT4 in my f/4.7 10" Dob and they perform closely, the Nagler having a much larger field of view of course, byt I find anything near 70deg extremely pleasing.

Good luck.

November 8, 2006 05:59 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Meade DS line

Posted By William Paolini
The Orion 4.5" dob is $229 while the 6" is $259. Given the significant aperature increase, I would recommend the 6 over the 4.5 every time. It will take you a much longer time to outgrow a 6" scope. Plus Orion offers the 6" with Inteliscope which is a Push-To computer system. It is a joy to use, very easy and works great!

November 9, 2006 03:48 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Effectiveness of Televue eyepieces with long f/l t

Posted By William Paolini
I'd skip the UOs and go with the TMB/BO Planetaries. Yes $99 vs $59 retail, but well worth the difference in price.

November 10, 2006 10:21 PM Forum: Eyepieces

best wide angle

Posted By William Paolini
Paulo martin said:
...which is the "best" wide angle eyepiece (best performance and WOW! impact)

Paul,
I consider, performance and WoW, two completely different animals. But since you grouped them, the WoW factor pretty much dominates the selection. In any observing I've done over the past 40 years, the Wowometer has one necessary component, AFOV. Small AFOV, no WoW. Big AFOV, WoW! Of course the edge performance must be under "some" control of course, but in the end it's AFOV. That being the case, there is only one EP that fit's that bill very nicely, Nagler of course. You just have to be careful if you are a eyeglass wearer as some Naglers have rather short eyerelief for that.
-Bill

November 12, 2006 08:55 PM Forum: Eyepieces

5mm Radian v. 5mm Pentax XW

Posted By William Paolini
Floyd did a nice review of the TMB/BO Planetaries where both the Radian and the XL (not XW) were in the mix. See that for impressions of the Radian vs XLs.

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=464

November 13, 2006 10:22 PM Forum: Eyepieces

EP recomendation please

Posted By William Paolini
Osvaldo Quintero said:
... i purchased a Zhummell 10" f/4.9 Dob which I expect to arrive this week... I surely want to buy some EPs for it... which ones do u recommend me? ... About my budget.. well its not very high.. about $200 max for an EP.

Is that $200 per EP or a total budget of $200 for the rest of your EPs to compliment the 2 you currently have?

If you have $200 total to try and round out the collection, then I'd go for a 32mm Televue Plossl ($85 used) and a 20mm Televue Plossl ($60 used) and an Untima 2x Barlow ($50 used). Using the barlow with the other two gets you:

32mm, 20mm, 16mm, 10mm + 6mm, 5mm with your existing 2.

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