Posts Made By: Garry Johnson

OPT called today and said my PST will be shipping today. I ordered mine around the 10th or 14th of January I believe.

I won't be able to view the transit this year since I live in Los Angeles, but I sure am glad to be getting an H-Alpha scope. It should be in my hands tomorrow and you can bet I'll be bringing a camera tripod to work with me.

I left work early today so I could come home and play with my new toy...the PST. I got home about 4:30 and just spent the last 2 hours with the PST mounted on an Orion Paragon tripod which I borrowed from my downstairs neighbor. The tripod was nice and steady but I think I'll be picking up either an EQ1 or AZ3 mount for better slow motion control.

I have never observed in H-Alpha before so I have nothing to compare this to, but I was truly blown away by the amount of surface and prominence detail that was visible, as well as the overall fit/finish and ease of use of this little scope. I am honestly so absolutely amazed right now that I'm almost speechless, I can't believe I've been depriving myself of H-Alpha light for all these years. I was instantly hooked and can't wait until tomorrow to have another look. You should have heard my neighbor and I outside today "Oh my god...look at this", "Oh my god...look at that", "Cool", "Awesome"...we must have sounded like a couple of little school kids out there....LOL.

I would have to say that the best views for me today were at 25x using a 16mm uo konig. My 15mm Highlight Plossl was very nice also but it showed a little more ghosting than the konig. The konig also had a wider fov than the plossl which made tracking a little easier with the paragon tripod.

Does anyone have any advice for me regarding which mount to get for the PST (EQ or Alt-AZ)? I don't want to spend a fortune so I would like to stay in the price range of the AZ3 or EQ1 mounts from Orion ($100 to $150). I don't think I would be interested in the Malta mount because I don't want to lay on the ground or lug a table outside with me to observe.

Thanks for reading and thanks for any advice you can offer on a mount.

I got my Orion AZ3 mount on Tuesday and have had it out several times now with the PST. I love it. The slow motion controls make tracking the sun so much easier compared to the Orion paragon mount I was using previously. The whole setup is very light and super stable, vibrations stop in less than 2 seconds when giving a hard tap on the legs.

After finally getting a decent comfortable mount for the PST I have done some more testing with different power eyepieces (all plossls) and have still come to the same conclusion that my 15mm plossl (26.6x) puts up the best image for my eyes. Based on that I went ahead and ordered a 15mm panoptic because I think my PST deserves the best 15mm eyepiece I can afford.
If the 15mm panoptic doesn't work out for some reason I think I'll try a 14mm radian next.

The sun was putting on quite a show for me today, there were many small prominences visible and at least 8 or 9 dark and well defined filaments. I don't know if today was an exception or if my eye is just becoming more trained but the surface detail was just amazing today.

The website says they have the PST in stock as a package deal only with either an EQ1 ($589) or a mini EQ1 mount ($545). The hard case and stand alone PST are back ordered though.

I couldn't resist the temptation. I ordered one of the 12" Hardin dobs from DBA today and should have it by the end of next week, just in time for my clubs dark sky party. The entire purchase was less than $800 including shipping....unbelievable.

Orion's shipping charges are getting ridiculous.

It cost me $13.95 for standard fedex ground shipping for 2 2" filters from Cupertino or Watsonville, CA to Los Angeles, CA. I checked fedex's website for rates (including $200.00 insurance) and was quoted $5.00. What gives? I honestly wasn't too upset about the shipping charges when I ordered because Orion usually uses oversized boxes with those nice air filled plastic cushion bags for extra protection, but when I saw that 0.69 cent brown padded envelope on my door step yesterday I felt seriously ripped off. No need for anyone to reply I just needed to vent. :C

Can anyone tell me what additional accessories I would need to mount a Celestron C102HD (102mm f/10 refractor) on a televue gibraltar mount with telepod head, or, can anyone recommend another alt-az type mount for my refractor?

From what I understand, some .cab files are encrypted and cannot be expanded by programs such as winzip and winrar. Are you using the executable file on the cd rom for installation or are you double clicking/right clicking on the .cab file to try to extract files? Also you might want to have a look at your file associations in control panel - folder options - file types. If all else fails try google "can't open cab files" and see what comes up.

Can someone please tell me how much money these semi-apo lenses are supposed to be selling for if/when they appear? I've been following this forum for the last couple of days but I can't find a price mentioned anywhere...must have missed it.

Thanks,

I read on the Coronado PST yahoo group that Coronado has a prototype K-Line filter that they let people look through at their hands on the sun conference.

Does anyone have any more info?