Posts Made By: Doug Culbertson

Of all of my binoviewing pairs, the 24mm Pans are the ones that you would have to pry from my cold dead fingers. They are lightweight, beautiful field of view, sharp across the entire field, and excellent contrast. OK, the contrast thing is subjective I suppose, but suffice it to say that I am *very* happy with them.

Doug
Midway, FL

Pair of 24mm Panoptics.

Doug
Midway, FL

"Are they really light years ahead of other DSC's?"

Yes and no, IMHO. I had one for awhile and my first thought when I pulled it out of the box is "This thing is HUGE!". It is much much bigger than the Sky Commander, and a lot heavier. If you run it off of the internal AA batteries, it will gobble them up about three times as fast as the Sky Commander goes through the 9v battery.

What I liked about the AN:
*The scoll wheel is really nice, and makes it easier to run through catalogs.
* It has a much larger database than the Sky Commander
* It has a thermometer that tells the ambient temperature.
* Scrolling feature that tells some info about each object.
* Flash memory that can be updated via Internet.

What I didn't like:
* The size. Did I mention that it is HUGE?
* The fact that it ate up batteries so quickly.
* It requires leveling, and achieving a very low Warp factor just like the Tangent boxes. I can't tell you how much I disliked this part of it. I know some people that this doesn't bother at all, but having used an SC for years, I couldn't get used to that.

In the end, the negatives outweighed the positives for my purposes but, in retrospect, I may have been hasty. Either way, I am back to happily using a Sky Commander for the time being. IMHO, the AN would be light years ahead of the Sky Commander if it could accomplish all the things it does now, but in a package about the size of the SC.

Doug
Midway, FL

I use my MN66 on a Unistar Heavy Deluxe alt/az mounted on the tripod for my (now former) Atlas mount. Works really well, and it only weighs about 8 lbs., is rock steady and no counterweight needed. I also like the Giro for its slightly more compact design. They are both about the same price, and you can't go wrong either way. FWIW, I am now searching for a suitable surveyor's tripod as I just sold the Atlas mount.

Doug
Midway, FL

http://www.skyeng.com

Doug
Midway, FL

I use an MN66 on a Unistar Deluxe and it works like a champ. You would definitely have no trouble with an MN56 on the same mount. I don't know what tripod you intend to use, but that will probably be the weakest link. I used to use the tripod for my Atlas mount, but since I traded up to a G11, I had an adapter plate made so I can use it on the G11 tripod. Probably overkill, and it cuts down the grab and go aspect, but an MN66 with rotating rings isn't really grab and go anyway.

Doug
Midway, FL

Here is one that allows you to calculate the transit times for any given date:
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_107_1.asp

Doug
Midway, FL

Stu,
I also use the Unistar Deluxe with my MN66 and find it to be very steady on a G11 tripod. May end up with a different tripod down the road, as the one for the G11 kind of takes away from the portability a bit. Still, I find that with the 25 pounds or so that my OTA and rotating rings weigh, that the mount is just right for those nights I don't want to mess with the GEM.

Doug
Midway, FL

You up for a trip to Iowa?
http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=264132

Doug
Midway, FL

Sky Engineering, the maker of Sky Commander, does not manufacture an encoder kit for anything but dobs. Unless you can find a used kit for the Celestron Advanced Astromaster DSCs, your best bet may be to get the encoder and cable kit from JMI, and then buy the Sky Commander module alone. The JMI encoders and cables are compatable with the Sky Commander and they come with pretty easy to read instructions...at least, the ones for my G11 were pretty clear.

Doug
Midway, FL