Posts Made By: Bill Byrd

[COLOR="Purple"]Hi all!
Just curious how many here use an EQ Platform as the "mount" for their dob. I've used a platform for many years and find it less enjoyable now to observe without it.

If you use a platform, what type is it?
Any tips or stories about using a platform?

Happy Holidays!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]To kick off some discussion about platforms, I thought I'd throw out my soon-to-be platform upgrade.

Thanks to a very fortunate purchase (Thanks Steve!) here on Astromart, I will soon be the third (or 4th?) owner of a Tom O compact aluminum platform. I've lusted after a Tom O platform of any kind ever since he started making them. Hopefully I will pick up the platform next Monday.

The Tom O platform will replace a decent E.T. platform that I've had for many years, also purchased used through Astromart. The E.T. platform is very solidly constructed out of good grade plywood and it works pretty well. It has a raised south bearing and weighs about 30 pounds. Those two facts and the relatively large size make it a little hard to transport in my PT Cruiser named "Scope Hauler". No, I didn't name the platform...or my scope.

The Tom O platform is a "flat" design so there is no south bearing sticking up. It's also more "minimalist" than the E.T. platform so should be a little smaller. The Tom O platform is also only about 18 pounds! That's an incredible feat in my opinion.

I'll do a side by side comparison between the two platforms before I sell the E.T. platform. I'll post some pics next week, weather permitting.

Any users of Tom O platforms? Care to comment on anything I should know about the aluminum compact platform specifically?
Happy Holidays!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Anyone have a 2008 Scion xB for hauling their scopes and stuff around? I currently have a PT Cruiser which is a great car but a little tight on space for scopes and camping equipment for a week. The newly upgraded xB seems to be a nice vehicle for hauling stuff around. Sooo...was just curious if anyone had one and what you think about it?
Thanks!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Nice looks but probably too small for carrying a decent sized scope. Shown with a full glass roof...a killer in S TX.

Might be a 2010 or 2011 model. Details at Detroit Auto Show.

Cost? If you have to ask....
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]With all of the glorious objects demanding attention in the Orion area, I guess it's not too surprising that I haven't ever observed
NGC 1999. From what I can tell, the background nebula is pretty dim but I'm interested in the area around the 10th magnitude star. That's the area where there is a dark patch in the brighter nebula around the star.

Has anyone observed this area? I would think higher magnification would be good for seeing the small bright nebula near the star with the dark patch.
Just curious...HNY!
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]HNY Everyone!
I have a very nice Photon 80mm refractor. It doesn't get used much but it's such a good performer that I haven't brought myself to part with it even though it's often just sitting in the garage.

Over this past spring and summer, we had a tremendous amount of wet weather here in S Texas, USA. Great for our water source (an aquifer) but bad in other ways. The mold has been rampant everywhere due to the prolonged period of wetness. We've had mold in our air ducts. In the garage, where the Photon resides, the was mildew on several camping items which should never have mildew on them. Kinda freaky, actually.

Anyway, I noticed a week ago that there were two small (<4mm) hazy spots on the objective of the Photon. Not good. I figured it was fungus. Never having been one to shy away from taking something apart, I removed the lenses from the objective cell and had a closer look.

The "crud", for lack of a better term, was on the inside surfaces of the air spaced objective. With a 12X magnifier, the spots had tendrils spreading out from their centers. They looked kinda spider-like.

Sooo...what to do?? Again, never being shy to try radical procedures when it comes to telescopes, I grabbed the acetone and some Kim-Wipes. Gently rubbing the spots with the acetone wetted Kim-Wipes removed most of the spots. So far, so good. A little breath on the lenses and soft wiping removed the last traces of anything on the glass. Success!! I re-assembled the objective and installed it back in the cell. Once that was done, I had to tweak the collimation which I knew was off. After all that, the Photon was performing splendidly again!

Now, this is an objective that is single-coated only on the front side of the first element so I was using acetone only on uncoated surfaces. Not sure if acetone is a good thing on any coated piece of glass. I'm just sharing what worked in my case.

In any case, where there is something growing in/on an objective, the goal is to take care of it ASAP so permanent damage isn't done to the glass by the "crud" etching into the surface of the lens. Once that happens, it's there forever.

Let's see, what else needs to be taken apart?
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Listings today on AM:
8" $2150.00
12.5" $3500.00

Granted, they are very well executed specialty scopes but I can't see spending over $2K for only 8" of aperture. Maybe that's just me.

Portaball is under new management and says they will be producing new scopes this year. Wiil prices for used Portaballs drop when the new ones become available?

No real point here...just musing.
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]I've had a 5" refractor objective mounted in a square wooden tube for a while. It worked but the cell moved around too much for my tastes. Not critical since this is a 5" f/5 low power, sweep the MW kinda scope.

I finally got around to doing a quick fix to more securely mount the cell and keep it from moving around as much. It's still not perfect but hey, the scope was working pretty well even as loose as it was so this fix should make it mucho better.
Bill[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]Was out lat night at the semi-dark site and comet Holmes was still seen with the naked eye. I had to know where to look but it was there for sure. Looked great in the 63mm binocs!
Bill [/COLOR]

[COLOR="Purple"]In a fit of nostalgia, I dug out the 16mm Brandon while observing last night.

First the pros:
Small
Light weight - next to nothing
Very contrasty - Trapezium area was nice

Then the cons:
Little eye relief - had to remove glasses
Very narrow FOV (50°?) if you are used to Naglers 8O

I think the views were only slighty better than through a 17mm Nagler. Maybe a little better contrast but really, hard to tell. And giving up so much FOV is hard to get used to.

I sold my other Brandons as I made the leap to newer EP designs. I kept the 16mm kinda to remind me of what things were like in high end EPs as I got started in buying quality glass. Still fun to use it once in a while, even though I could never go back to such a narrow FOV.
Bill[/COLOR]