Posts Made By: Mark D'Ambrosio

Roland, Very awesome set-up indeed! Just beautiful. I'm surprised at how compact this set-up appears, so I'd assume the FL on the Primary is quite fast. Kind of like a "Fastmax" on Steroids. Seeing Marj with the scope, I thinking Marj is about 1", or so taller than me, I'm figuring she's about 5"-9", correct? (I'm about 5"-8") Nice that you got to test/play with this awesome toy before you had to part with it! Mark D.

Hi Brian, Probably, any fresh grease you would use, regardless of brand-make-type would be much better than what's probably on-in that mount right now. Full synthetics should be of a better quality, and have a better temperature range to boot. Solvents to use would be mineral spirits as another has mentioned, and naptha, paint thinner, turpentine, and even gasoline will work. Small brushes, and clean rags should be used. Upon dis-assembly, note how all parts come apart, so you won't have any trouble on re-assembly, and all should go well. Mark

Hi Bill, I wasn't aware that Stew had a site, and if you could, can you please post a link to it? (As long as it's permissible here) I've known Stew for a number of years, he's a fellow Apomax owner, and has in the past been a Questar, Pentax, and losmandy Dealer. If memory serves me correctly, I even bought a SMC Ortho, or two from him in the past, and me, and my friend went through him, when my friend wished to purchase a new G-11 Mount. Though I've never heard of this particular eyepiece you mention, it sounds very likely that Pentax has come out with a new one. I'm sure Stew will get back to you as soon as he can. When you get more info about these, please give us a follow up Bill, Thanks. Mark D'Ambrosio

Hi Jean, Since you now already have eyepieces in 32mm and 40mm (I'm assuming both are 1-1/4" eyepieces, correct?) perhaps some eyepieces in the 10-16mm range would be nice for higher power views of the Moon-Planets. While going into TV Naglers, or say Radians woud be very nice, generally for high power observation wide field views aren't so important to have. Since the C-11 has a relatively long focal length, Orthos, and Plossls will work just fine with this scope giving prefectly corrected views right to the very edge of the apparent field of view. Wide fields of view (68 or 82 degrees) aren't really called for, for high mag planetary observing. Most serious planetary observers generally prefer an eyepiece that has the least amount of glass elements, such as the 4 element Orthos/Plossls, or three element monocentrics. These generally have a 30-40 degree apparent field of view, and are ample for planets. Having a driven scope is a plus, as the narrower field of views are not a problem when the scope will track an object accurately. The cost of Naglers, Panoptics, and Radians can add quite quickly. One way to perhaps save a bit of money if you should decide in the future to buy some of these more costlier eyepieces, would be to find them second hand on AstroMart. I've bought a number of mint examles this way myself. A good brand eyepiece that will work very good with your scope, and are an extremely good buy, would be something like the University Optics Ortho eyepieces in a range from say 7mm 9mm 12mm 18mm. A good barlow is a definite plus to have too, and it essentially doubles the amount of eyepieces you have. Mark

Hi Paul, I'm very sorry, and saddened to hear of your experiences. I've attended quite a few star parties over the years, mostly Chicago Astrofests, where upwards near 1000 people are in attendence at these star parties. While yes, I've encountered a "classless" few over the years, in general, the parties have always been great fun, and have been great memories that will last a lifetime. Naturally sure, everyone gets impressed by the "Big Guns" at a star party, huge 20"-36" Dobs, Gigantic refractors, particularly AP,Tak, TEC, TMB, or the big Schmidts like Celestron C-14's, It's always a nice mix IMO to have the more "normal" scopes such as yours to view through-check out. There's no reason at all why a Meade 125ETX won't give up very admirable views of Planets, the moon, the sun, and other objects when the seeing conditions are right. Does this Club have a website, or yahoo group? I'd definitely write a letter to either this, or the club president explaining how you were treated by its members, and are reluctant to be a member due to ill treatment to you, and your family by its club members. To be honest with you, the current club I belong to here in southern New Mexico, I have felt very uncomfortable myself many times at club meetings, and star parties. I neither like being given cold shoulders, and this is not the way it is supposed to be. Are there snobs, and big headed idiots in this hobby? Yes there are, but it usually is the exception, not the norm. You should NEVER EVER feel out of place when requesting to view through another's scope provided you have excersized good sensibility, are not smoking or drinking-eating near, or at another member's scope. If this is the case, that other members are that rude, or worried about their instruments, they shouldn't have brought them in the first place! Mark D'Ambrosio

Hi Emanuel, Congrats on the new scope purchase! Best bang for the buck with your scope would be the University Optics Ortho eyepieces. They are a very good eyepiece, reasonably priced new, and at times see them pop up on astromart by sellers. In fact, thought I seen a few today on there. Eyepieces within the 7mm-18mm would be good for planetary use, but remember too, due to the longer focal length of your Mak, that a nice low power eyepiece will also be a good thing to have for scanning the heavens, finding objects easier, and for also attaining the widest permittable field of view with your scope, so that you can enjoy still seeing many nice galaxies, and open star clusters. The UO Orthos are available to 25mm, and the widest attainable true field of view in an 1-1/4" eyepiece will be at about 32-35mm. Hope this helps, and best of luck, and enjoyment with the new scope! Mark D.

I have also experienced this problem to a degree lately during the last few weeks, or so, and being a web-tv user, thought that maybe this was some sort of web-tv glitch with cookies? I will somtimes go to A-Mart, and have to log in. At times, I won't log in just to view the classifieds, and then at some point later in the day go to the site, and I'm automatically logged back in again. Wierd huh? But I haven't yet experienced the degree you mention that every new page you go to, you have to log in again. Hopefully Herb can maybe look into this, and shed some light? Mark D.

Hi Steve, I myself waited exactly 23-1/2 months for my 1200GTO back in 2000. While AP has expanded their facilities, and I believe Roland has stated that he's doing all he can to ramp up Mount production with more equipment, I don't think anyone, not even Roland himself can honestly predict total wait time down to days, or weeks. As I'm sure everyone will agree, the AP1200GTO is a highly desireable mount. The backlog will never end no matter what. Optimistically, AP "Might" get their wait lists down to just over a year in the future. I guess one can say "never say never". Certainly not a cheap mount, but plenty of bang for the buck in my opinion. The quality is virtually incomparable, and this truly "work of art" mount is worth the wait. The good news is, I'm quite certain that AP has no plans of discontinuing the 1200GTO anytime soon. In fact, I personally see this mount going to new levels in the future. Roland, and Co never seem to rest. My one personal prediction in the future of all AP Mounts, will be cordless GOTO control. Mark

Hi Emanuel. Definitely get yourself a dew heater system. Kendrick makes them, and there are others. With a high quality unit such as the kendrick, you'll not only be able to keep dew at bay on your corrector, but there are additional outlets that will permit you to use more than one dew strap. (Eyepieces-Finderscope, etc) It's funny that dew always seems to have the uncanny ability to rear its ugly head just when observing conditions are the finest you've ever seen! :-) One bigger problem you surely don't want to experience with your Mak, and that's dew forming on the inside of your corrector. This can have a more damaging affect on optics versus dew on just the outside. The trick with all dew heaters, is providing just enough heat to keep dew at bay. Placement of the dew strap will be important (Usually on the Corrector Cell itself) Mark

Hi Chuck, Outstanding eyepieces for the C-14 (I own one myself) would definitely be the 27mm, and 35mm Televue Panoptics. The 31mm Nagler, which I don't own myself, but have used through a friends Compustar C-14 gave just awesome views too, but as you know, is a quite costly eyepiece, even on the used market (Typically around $550 used) A less expensive eyepiece I once owned, and thought was a very darn good performer, but I had traded straight up for a badly needed mint 35mm Clave plossl in 1-1/4: to help fill out my Clave collection, was the 2" University Optics 40mm Konig Mk-70. This was a very nicely built eyepiece, that exhibited pin-point stars to the edge with my 5" F-12 Apomax Refractor, and I would assume should also works quite nicely with the C-14 at F-11. this is an eyepiece that can usually be gotten for around $20o, or less off A-Mart. With eyepieces such as I mention above, they would not necassarily need a FL reducer to utilize/enjoy. The less glass in the path, the better. Hope this helps, Mark D.