Posts Made By: Doug Scobel

Matthew, if it were me I would just mix up some fine sawdust with Titebond II (waterproof) carpenter's wood glue. Cheap, and would bond with the Sonotube fiber very well.

Doug

Matt, I would think that simply mixing fine sawdust with Titebond II (waterproof) carpenter's wood glue would do the trick and would be very inexpensive. Certainly not dangerous to work with, either.

Doug

1st choice if you have the $$$ is a Feathertouch.

Moonlite dual rate is a close second for less money. (I own one and love it).

My $.02
Doug

I don't think the projected reticle size changes with distance. Your eye is focused at infinity, so there's no foreshortening.

Try it yourself. Put the bulls eye onto a star field and move your head foreward and back - the reticle will not change size relative to the stars.

Doug

If you're anywhere near SE MI try Rider's Hobby in Livonia. They have a real good astro department, they say the largest in the area (probably true). I know that they sell Celestron. Real brick-and-mortar store, so to the best of my knowledge no online ordering, tho. I've bought from them, they're good guys.

Visit their web site for store location, phone numbers, etc.:

http://www.riders.com/location.asp?loc=Livonia,%20Michigan

Ask for John Kirchhoff.

Whereabouts are you?

Doug

Could it be lens flare? It seems congruent with the brightly lit portion of the crescent.

Doug

Cool!

Looks like it could be NASA's scale prototype for a Mars lander.

Congrats, Jeff! Many folks (myself included) have gone several years seeing only four stars in the Trapezium.

Next time you're out, look for the "F" star. It's about the same brightness as the E star, but a little harder to see. Should be well within the grasp of your C9.25 with decent seeing, tho. Here's a link you may find useful:

http://www.laughton.com/paul/rfo/trap/trap.html

Regards,
Doug

Yeah, I saw that too. I'll be in my backyard looking at the moon and planets tonight also. Hope the 1Q moon doesn't mess you up much. I'm just south of Ann Arbor. Where you at?

Doug Scobel

Tom, if 1.5 watt and up feels hot, then I would think that that's too much to run all the time, but if you run it only when needed then it might not be a problem. OTOH, I would be a little leery of putting something HOT against the back of my secondary mirror, Pyrex or not.

I added one watt to the back of my 2.6" (probably around 1/2" thick also) secondary this winter. I taped nichrome heater rope against the back of the mirror, which resides in a Novak holder. My strategy is not to run it unless it starts to fog up, and then run it only long enough to clear it off.

To run the electricity to the secondary I used doll house wiring tape. It consists of two copper foil conductors about a quarter inch wide, side-by-side on a self-adhesive plastic substrate. I ran a section along one of the spider vanes. It's so thin it adds very little thickness to the vane. Since the conductors are copper, you can solder thin connecting wires to the surface of each conductor at each end.

I haven't needed it yet though. When I do I'll report on how well it works.

Years ago I added homebrew dew heaters to my 8x50 finder objective and Telrad window using the same heater rope. I use one watt each and they work great. When they're on I can feel just a little warmth from them. Normally I just turn them on when I start observing. If I forget, then if things start to dew up I can turn them on and be dew free in about ten minutes. One watt seems just right.

I don't use anything on the eyepiece. I change eyepieces often and found it to be a hassle having to replace the heater all the time. I just keep the eyepieces covered in a wooden box when not in use.

Clear skies (and mirrors)!
Doug Scobel