Posts Made By: James Tooman

Hello!

Well, I wanted a travel camera a couple of years ago that took hi-res (3+mp) pics but I needed it to be small. My budget was a little higher than yours so I ended up with a Sony DSC-1 which I still use quite a bit to this day.

In order to make my decision tho, I really used the heck out of this web site:

http://www.dpreview.com/

It has one of the most comprehensive set of reviews and forums of actual users.

Hope this helps!

James

I have similar eyepiece brands as you do, Tom, only in differnt focal lengths:
(1500mm 6" MakCas)
26mm Sirius Plossl
17mm Sirius Plossl
12.5mm Ultima
10mm Sirius Plossl
5mm UO

My experience is that the UO has great clarity and sharpnes but REALLY tight eye-relief (don't blink or you'll get eye-lash oil on the optics!)

My favorite is the 12.5mm Ultima - yes, I agree that it may give up a *tiny* amount to the UO's, but is more comfortable and easier to use with the additional FOV, IMHO.

I really believe that the Sirius plossl's are substandard but, like you, I am working on my eyepiece collection on a budget. They may not be fancy, but they get the job done.

I think that unless you are REALLY discriminating about that last 2-3% the UO's would give you, the wider FOV and more comfortable eye-relief of the Ultima series is worth the money.

That being said, BUY THE UO's!!!!!

The price is right, the opportunity is here and you can still replace them slowly when you find more comfortable (read: more expensive) eyepieces. There will ALWAYS be a market for the UO's as they are great little eyepieces for a price too hard to pass up.

So what are my eyepiece plans? Well, I just bought (on astromart) a 35mm Ultima plossl, and ordered a 16mm Konig, and a 40mm Konig from UO. I am looking for a 7.5-8mm ultima and maybe a ~25mm ultima.

Hope this helps!

James

Thanks for the responses, guys...

It brings up another quesiton about mounting though. Assuming I go with the Borg 76ED, how little tripod can I get away with? I will probably stick with the bogen tripods and I will be using that little Borg alt/az mount with slow-mo controls.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated

I owned the UO 8x50 finder for a while and was quite happy with it. Its quite reasonably priced new and availible with both a 1.25" star diagonal or a 1.25" amici correct angle prism.

Watch the Finders section of the classifieds as these do come up from time to time at decent discount.

One thing to note with 1.25" finders is that they do not have focusers so you will have to offset the eyepieces to bring them into focus with other eyepieces that what is supplied.

Hope this helps!

James

3. Electoral Math
If this is just a repeat of last election Bush has already gained quite a few electoral votes based on the 2000 census. The Dems are still reeling from the loss of the mid-west in '00 (mainly due to record contributions to the NRA and the avowedly anti-gun stance of the Gore campaign). Can Kerry get those votes back? Doubtful... While Dean, as a pro-gun dem might have had a shot at it, Kerry is a blue-blood yankee with a record of voting for gun control... there goes that constituency. So Kerry has to try and turn states with the joblessness issue, especially states like Ohio and West Virginia, both of which Bush carried last time around. See above for why this will likely not work either.

4. Florida
Florida has enough electoral votes to nearly guarantee a win for Kerry if he has the political gumption to take it. Unfortunatly for the Dems, this is not a state they are going to win. 2 years after the stinging loss, courtesy of the Supreme Court, with everyone up in arms in Florida, Bush's less charismatic baby bro cruised to reelection. And worse yet, now the former Democrat Lt. Gov. of the state has joind "Democrats for Bush"???** Sorry John, but Florida isnt going dem this time around
(continued)

** edited, the former democratic lt. governer is Wayne Mixson

Just remember to take what Clarke says with the proverbial gain of salt...

Its easy to be right in hind-sight, and a book deal always seems to firm up ones own convictions, especially after you are no longer serving an administration. No publisher is interested in an ex-politico expose that says "yep, they did what they say they did for the reasons they said they did."

Clinton had plenty of his own issues with that as well, see Primary Colors.

James