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Lawrence Parchman

Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)

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Posts Made By: Mark Holden

January 10, 2007 05:09 PM Forum: APM

LW Modell Deluxe , now available :-)

Posted By Mark Holden
Looks good.

I can't imagine anyone not going for this upgrade if they know about it.


January 17, 2007 12:52 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Keeping warm

Posted By Mark Holden
I recently picked up a trans Alaska extreme suit from Cabela's. They're currently on sale.

http://www.cabelas.com/hprod-1/0005216.shtml

The nice thing about buying new warm clothes is the "new equipment curse". It's been unusually warm here for weeks. Unfortunately, it's wearing off.

January 28, 2007 05:46 AM Forum: Chinese Optics Imports

TMB Announces SS 92MM...So?

Posted By Mark Holden
Jeffrey Kurtz said:

Is it possible the BO 91/92MM (??) will be actually an offshoot of this product or are these totally separate.

They're entirely different scopes.

The BO 91mm is am f7.7 fluorite doublet, and while Thomas Back is quoted as very impressed with the design, it's not one of his.

The TMB 92SS is an f5.5 FPL 53 triplet, and it'll come with a 2" Feathertouch focuser for "under $2000".


January 29, 2007 12:45 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

Question about transaction

Posted By Mark Holden
By offering it for sale at a profit, he's said he thinks the scope is worth more than what he paid.

Hopefully he paid your asking price.

February 8, 2007 03:32 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Is GOTO worth it?

Posted By Mark Holden
These days, if you're going to buy a premium mount, you'll get goto anyway.

What I like the most about goto is using it for public outreach. You can tell the scope to find the next object and then tell your visitors a little about what they'll be looking at next while the scope moves to the object for you. Much better than having folks stand around getting bored watching you star hop to the next object.

My wife isn't very interested in astronomy, but when she ventures out to take a quick look I can show her several things in a few minutes.

Otherwise it's handy for astro photography, and folks who pay attention to where the mount is pointing will learn their way around the sky.


February 13, 2007 01:34 PM Forum: Refractors

Planetary Observers, How about a 7" F/10 APO?

Posted By Mark Holden
I think TMB will eventually bring out a Signature Series scope in the range of 7", but it's likely to be faster than F10, and I wouldn't expect it for at least a year.

February 13, 2007 08:47 PM Forum: Chinese Optics Imports

Burgess Backpacker Coming Soon?????

Posted By Mark Holden
Bill mentioned he's working on an 82 mm Triplet F5.8 Backpacker. Color correction is supposed to be 1/8000.

I don't know if TMB is involved in this project, or when it's supposed to be available, but the introductory offer is buy any 4 planetary eyepieces and you can buy the scope when it's available for $200.




February 15, 2007 07:20 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Burgess/TMB 3.2mm performance

Posted By Mark Holden
Last Saturday was the first night with seeing conditions good enough to use the 2.5 on Saturn, and I also checked out the 3.2.

In refractors with a focal length of F7 and F8, we didn't notice any problems with either eyepiece.

Were you using it with a Paracor?

It might be that your scope is "too fast" for the design - but you might also have gotten a dud.

I notice you have some slower scopes - you might set up this scope and a slower one next time and see how it compares from one to the other. That would help isolate the problem.

March 1, 2007 01:01 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Loose TMB EP Innards-New Twist!

Posted By Mark Holden
I think I've read of two other people having a similar problem. IIRC, if you contact BO, you'll have the option of sending it back for repair, or getting directions for fixing it yourself. At least one of them fixed it themselves, but I don't recall the process, and while my impression was he thought it was easy, different people have different comfort levels for this sort of thing.

March 5, 2007 08:40 PM Forum: Astro-Physics

AP900GTO Goto Accuracy

Posted By Mark Holden
A friend generally gets three stars where they belong in the polar alignment scope reticle, and he uses a 5mm reticle when he syncs on a star. That's good enough for visual use with moderate power eyepieces.

I do the three star polar scope alignment, and then aim at a bright star, change to a very short eyepiece (something in the range of 2.5-4mm) and adjust the focus so the star is covering more than 80% of the field of view and then center that before syncing.

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