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Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)

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Posts Made By: Tom Hole

September 1, 2003 07:44 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

wide-field 1.25 eyepiece?

Posted By Tom Hole
The best I have seen is the 24mm Televue Panoptic. I have a pair for binoviewing and they are nearly perfect for me. Good eye relief, very sharp 68 deg AFOV and just a hint of color at the very edge.

But, if you have a slower scope, the 20mm Astrosystems KK Widescan III with a 29.5mm field stop might be worth a look. Reports indicate it has severe aberrations in faster scopes.

A good 32mm plossl or similar will have a 27mm or so field stop and give the same TFOV as the 24 Pan, just at 32mm instead of 24mm.

Harry Siebert has a 24.5mm Ultra ep with a 27mm field stop. It does not perform well at f.5 but looks pretty good at f/10.

That's all I know of. Others will help fill in the holes.

Tom

September 2, 2003 02:29 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Dual Rate Focusers on a DOB

Posted By Tom Hole
Floyd,

I think you should consider the Moonlight dual speed crayford as well:

http://www.focuser.com/cgi-bin/dstore.cgi?category=Crayford+Focusers

I have tried the JMI, Moonlight and Feathertouch on other people's scopes (I have a William Optic crayford) and the Moonlight and Feathertouch are the two I preferred with no clear winner between those two. You can get fancy colors on the Moonlight. That might match the blue relfectors they are selling on Ebay wink If I were buying one, I'd get the Moonlight, but I don't think you'll go wrong with the Feathertouch.

Clear skies,

Tom

September 2, 2003 06:07 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

astro newbee LOST in Space

Posted By Tom Hole
Fred,

The other replies have mentioned the best places to start.

The Autostar will ask you for the current time as it reads on your watch and then ask if it is daylight savings time or not. Then it will figure out the correction to UTC for you. If you enter the correct current time for your time zone (don't do any math) but get the daylight savings time wrong, you will be off by 15 degrees in RA for everything. If you try to outwit the Autostar, it will win.

Clear skies,

Tom

September 6, 2003 04:21 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Quality EP's

Posted By Tom Hole
Can you join a club nearby? Using an ep before you guy it can be sxtremely enlightening. Eyepieces are much more subjective than I had ever thought. Figured I could just buy it on the specs. Not. Also, what one guy likes, another may hate. UO orthos are always near the top of many planetary observers list, so I snagged a pair for my binoviewers. I never thought that the 45 deg AFOV could be so clinical. I feel as though I am completely detached from the object. For me, that is a show stopper.

So, try before you buy will save you a lot money.

Clear skies,

Tom

September 7, 2003 10:52 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

magnitude versus aperature

Posted By Tom Hole
http://www.rocketroberts.com/astro/astrodat.htm

September 8, 2003 07:34 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Trading guidelines

Posted By Tom Hole
Ted,

If funds are available, just do two sales. He sells you his stuff while you sell him your stuff. You are both afforded the safeguards (if any) that are available for any transaction here on Astromart.

You can do all the stuff mentioned in the other replies in addition to the dual sales.

If you think about it, buying a $1000 telescope is really a blind faith trade, especially if done with money orders. I am sending someone $1000 and expecting to get some goods in return. If he wants to take my $1000 and run that is essentially the same as if I had sent him a $1000 telescope. Well, not really. The telescope won't fit in his wallet.

Clear skies,

Tom

September 8, 2003 03:53 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

This is NOT s.a.a.

Posted By Tom Hole
The signal to noise ratio has gotten rather s.a.a esque on the Days of Our Lives, uh, I mean equipment talk forum. Sure makes it hard to search the archives for useful information.

Too bad we can't act our age and police ourselves. Not positive, but I'm fairly sure you have other things you'd rather be doing than baby sitting the children. 2% of the people cause 99% of the problems.

Clear skies,

Tom

September 9, 2003 02:38 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Where to buy a 10" short fl. reflector?

Posted By Tom Hole
Vin,

Is f/4.7 fast enough? Orion has a 10" f/4.7 OTA for $489.

http://tinyurl.com/monl

Clear skies,

Tom

September 9, 2003 12:43 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Best telescope ever?

Posted By Tom Hole
The one currently sitting in my garage wink

Clear skies,

Tom

September 10, 2003 06:09 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Best improvements in performance

Posted By Tom Hole
Floyd,

Great discussion item. I'm going to put my list in order of bang for the buck. XT10 10" dob.

1. Shower caps (Wal Mart)
2. Observing chair (home built)
3. Unit power finder (Rigel for me)
4. Barlowed laser collimation
5. Flocking (Protostar)
6. EQ Platform (home built)
7. Barlow / powermate (Televue)
8. Accessory shelf (home built)
9. Premium ep's
10. Active cooling system (proprietary)
11. Crayford focuser (William Optics)
12. Focusing aid (like TV focus arm, home built)
13. Ebony star laminate
14. Neutral Density filter
15. Binoviewers (TV and Denkmeier)
16. ST80 refractor as a finder (Celestron)

What would you have to pry from my cold dead hands? The observing chair, eq platform and binoviewers. I'll let you have all the rest.

I have a description of all the homebuilt stuff here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~tomhole/Astronomy.htm

Clear skies,

TOm

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