Posts Made By: Stacey Thater

Can anyone comment on use of a 20 pound refactor on the EM-10? I would like to mount my WO 100/8 refractor for visual use on this relatively light mount. It weighs just over 20 pounds ready to go for visual use. It worked fine on a Losmandy GM-8, but I found that mount too bulky for easy use. I have seen the stated capacity of this mount to be up to 25 pounds, but I would like to hear about actual experiences with this mount. Thanks,

Stacey

I'm getting ready to make a new tube for my 5" f/15 folded refractor. I will be using a 6" OD Hollowood tube for the main tube, and a 4" tube for after the fold. My question concerns mating the two rounded surfaces together at about a 20 degree angle. I plan on using carefully cut biscuit joiners and wood glue. Does anyone have a better method? The tubes are 1/4" thick. Thanks,

Stacey Thater

I only own the Unistar DX, but my experience with it is quite positive. I have mounted a C-8, C-6, C-102, Tak 78, and MN66 on the mount with Losmandy adapter and both Meade and Losmandy tripods. It has large bearing surfaces and moves very smoothly. It actually works better with at least 12#'s of weight and even with 20 + pounds I didn't feel that tipping over was a concern. Tracking up to 200x was easy with all of the scopes but the MN66. The MN66 takes longer to settle after pushing the scope at powers over 150x(longer tube). The mount is solid once the scope stops moving however.

Experiment #1
Get a color photo or computer print of a planet about 1" square. Show the photo to a friend and ask them if it is better, worse, or the same as the next photo. Put the photo away and pull out THE SAME EXACT PHOTO! See what they think.

Experiment #2
Print out three copies of a photo on the same printer. Label them 1,2 and 3. Ask several different people independently to rank them or if they are all the same.

Similar tests were conducted in the 70's with soda brands(comparing tastes, of course), know the results?


Stacey Thater