Posts Made By: Mark Holden

The PAF term seems to be used by some companies and not by others.

When I was insured by Chubb, they called it a PAF. OneBeacon doesn't.

A more generic term is "inland marine schedule". Both companies categorized my Astro stuff as "photographic equipment".

If your equipment includes desirable items that are out of production or with collector or historical value, you should probably make sure the company you're using will cover it at an "agreed value" instead of at a "stated amount".

Stated amount means if your item is stolen, they can shop around for something they think is comparable at a lower price. They won't pay more than the stated amount, but they could pay less.

Agreed value means if your item is stolen, they send you a check for the amount of coverage you had.

There is a group of people who observe in a reasonably dark unobstructed site in Monroe. PM me if you'd like details.

I think you'll find the AP1200 is much more portable.

That's from 2003.

It was around last year too.

I'd do a reply to all, and let them know it's old information in the hopes it doesn't get spread.

This August 27th, Mars will be up in daylight.

If you're planning to ship your equipment frequently, you might want to pick up something like a scopeguard case for it.

A more generic term would be an ATA case.

These are designed so you can check equipment on airplanes as luggage.

But you'll pay several hundred dollars for one large enough to hold a medium sized refractor.

I suspect it's less expensive and safer to use throw away craft than to have to tear them apart and recertify them for launch every time.

Jeffrey Kurtz said:

BO is offering 3 of their Planetary eyepieces for the price of 2 which makes me wonder if this product is having a problem finding a market...I may be a bit cynical here but if this were selling well why would they need to give away an eyepiece...could this be the first nail in the coffin of the TMB BO collaboration.

They want more people to try them because people who do tend to buy more.

They're a good deal at full price.

So folks who supported the candidate who used the "F" word in an interview are concerned because the President used the "S" word in a conversation he thought was private with another world leader?

I'd expect the Rain-X would damage the coatings on your eyepieces.

I've heard the new lenses are coming from Japan.

The cost savings is in the tube, and the focuser.

Burgess probably is not involved in the production of this product.

I don't know where the tubes are coming from, but a while back I heard it would be less expensive to make them in the USA than in Germany.

While the focuser is a 4" one with 10:1 reduction, it's not a Feathertouch.

Personally, I'd rather see the Feathertouch on there, but perhaps this will be an option.

I expect Thomas and Markus will continue to work together.

Markus sells the Planetary eyepieces in Europe. The "Signature Series" scopes may or may not be cost effective to sell there because the shipping costs and import duties would be on the other end.

I expect the large scopes will continue to use TMB LZOS lenses.

Another point is while the "normal" APM tubes are relatively expensive to make, it doesn't seem to be a big deal for Markus to get a custom tube done to meet a customers request. He's done some beautiful folded refractors.

We'll know more in 3 or 4 months. Hopefully they'll be world class scopes. Looking at the specs, if they decide to make a 6" one, it might be within my weight limit.