Posts Made By: Steve Dexter

Hi John, I nearly always observe with glasses on due to astigmatism. So all the eyepieces I use regularly with non-solar scopes are long ER. But when it comes to the PST, I find I can see the most without the glasses, hence no need for long ER. YMMV. Get the zoom - mine lives in the PST. When the seeing is steady, I can see a little more detail (maybe 10% more) using the 18mm and 12mm Cemax and the 8.8mm UWA eyepieces - all without the glasses. The critical thing for me in seeing detail is to get the highest mag allowed by the seeing, and then to carefully block ALL stray light coming in from the side. For this I use a combination of the eyecup and my hand. It's not enough to use just a sunshade some distance from the eyepiece. I also like to use an eyepatch on the other eye, as has been mentioned by others. Steve D.

Tehcnically, the approach could work. It is similar to the concept of a vibration isolation table in a laboratory. We put a large steel or stone mass on top of an inflated bicycle inner tube. In place of the inner tube, you could use an elastomer with properties similar to the stuff in vibration isolation pads. Before you try this, however, realize first that the inertial mass of the table has to be very large compared to the weight of everything you are going to mount on it. Be sure the floor of your structure can support the weight. Second, you will not be able to stand on, or even touch that table. In order for you to use the scope, you'll probably have to build a "cat walk" around and above it, but not touching it.
Steve

Absolutely. I've had people tell me to take the tuner off because it's not necessary. But my experience matches yours. Steve

Hi Kim, I was hoping that someone with some real knowledge of this subject might answer. I had a similar daytime experience to yours. Al Nagler demonstrated them to me under a tent on a rainy day at the Cherry Springs Star Party earlier this month - Very Impressive. Again, clouds prevented night testing. I have not gotten around to ordering them yet, so I have no data at night to compare to yours. Your experience certainly is food for thought, however. Has anyone asked an optometrist whether astigmatism varries with pupil dilation? Why don't you call TeleVue and talk with Al or David Nagler about it. I would be interested in their response. Steve

Hi David. I have always enjoyed this area. If you enlarge the dotted circle in your picture to the lower left, the cluster looks like the stick figure of a man with an outstretched hand. His legs are to the lower left. The long loop of stars you referred to looks like a fishing line over to the double cluster. I have always referred to this as: "Look Ma, I caught the double cluster." I can see the whole thing in a low power field of view in my TV101 refractor. Steve

Hi David - I have a TV 76 on an alt/az mount as my grab and go scope. Usually I'll take just 3 eyepieces. Meade 40mm SWA for low power, wide field. TV 24-8 zoom for intermediate, and a 4mm Radian for those rare occasions when I want over 100X. Enjoy your scope! 8)
Steve