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Posts Made By: Judson Mitchell

December 1, 2005 01:49 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Quality Secondary Adjustment

Posted By Judson Mitchell
Is there a better way/equipment to adjust the secondary than loosening one or more of the three screws and twisting it by hand. There seems to be too much room for error in setting the secondary angle. I have a 12" HOC dob. I envision a setscrew setup forward of the spider with a rotating sleeve through the spider assembly. Guess I haven't bothered to look at enough telescopes to know any better. Any help?

December 7, 2005 01:36 PM Forum: Reflectors

Collimation Knobs/Screws for HOC Dob

Posted By Judson Mitchell
Last Friday at our Star Party I noticed that two people with HOC Newts had adjustment knobs on their scopes for collimation; an 8" F/4 Equatorial and 10" Dob. My 12" HOC dob has screws requiring a screwdriver which is disappointing to me and quite frustrating in the dark. Are there any suggestions for a fix, i.e., a source of knobs to fit a 12" HOC?

December 14, 2005 11:47 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Cannot Focus all Eye Pieces- Help!!!

Posted By Judson Mitchell
So I had to move my mirror forward in my 12" HOC Dob to bring EPs in focus with my 1.5 barlow. Now my newly acquired 40mm TV plossl will not focus. Seems I need some kind of extender. Is there a 2" to 1.25" adapter that is longer than the standard ones supplied so that I can move the 40mm EP further out?

January 11, 2006 04:49 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Re: Deciding on a new telescope

Posted By Judson Mitchell
If the price is not too much a problem, then a truss dob will likely give you more portability for a given aperture. Albei
t it will take longer to set up. I have a 12" HOC Dob and would not recommend it to anyone who is not reasonably fit and willing to cart it around. Unless you have some slave labor to assist a 10" non-truss dob is likely your limit and then marginally. However, if as indicated, you can keep it in the garage then move it outside, the idea of rollers makes a lot of sense.

January 16, 2006 12:38 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Visitor Needs Observing Site Near Montgomery Al

Posted By Judson Mitchell
I will be in the Montgomery Alabama area Tues and Wed evenings. Can anyone recommend an observing site in the area?

January 28, 2006 07:50 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Apodizing Screen Revisited

Posted By Judson Mitchell
Herb Highstone requested that I post this item in the equipment forum and suggested that I am in line for some criticism (oh well, here goes).

Tonight (Jan 26)I had my best view of Saturn yet. Jet black Cassini ring with the outer ring clearly more transparent. The surface had multiple banding with subtle variations of pastel colors. My view was improved by use of an apodizing screen. It is possible that the effect was a reduction of light making the detection of detail easier. Viewing was excellent up to 286X. At 381X there was no improvement in detection of detail. My limiting magnitude was less than +4.5. I have ordered a polarizing filter to evaluate the effect of reduced light which may be the benefit of the screen. We will see, my jury is out, but the screen will see further use. As a footnote, I tried a 4-hole mask as an alternative to reducing light, but it did not have any positive effect on image quality that I could discern.

February 2, 2006 02:07 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Lost Link to NGCs

Posted By Judson Mitchell
Help! The below link for NGC objects, etc., appears to no longer be available. Is there anyone who can redirect me or provide an adequate substitute. This was an excellent resource, the loss of which is serious.

http://www.ngcic.org/default.htm

February 22, 2006 09:38 PM Forum: After Dark

Saturn Moons Software

Posted By Judson Mitchell
I am looking for software that shows the correct position of Saturn's moons. I have software that does an excellent job on star positions, etc., but it seems to be getting the moon positions for Saturn Wrong. Any help?

February 23, 2006 01:57 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Keyboard Problem and Undo Message Issue

Posted By Judson Mitchell
Commonly during typing a comment in the forum posts I accidently hit the escape key (got happy fingers) which deletes my entire message without recourse for recovery. This has just happened with a long comment that I have already typed twice. Am I out of luck, or is there some undo function that will allow me to recover the lost text. If not I will in the future compose my comments on word and clip copy them.

February 28, 2006 04:20 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Baader Hyperion 13mm

Posted By Judson Mitchell
First light on my Baader Hyperion. Star test suggest Pickering 3 to 4 so not a great time to do much testing. I used Saturn for my first evaluation. Excellent on axis focus. Focus began to deteriorate at about 80% which was mostly correctable by refocussing. With a 2X UO 2" barlow the focus improved to about 90%. At the edge some chromatic aberation was evident with blue violet at the outer edge and a faint green tinge on the inner. A little minor distortion at the edges of the field was noticed. Had some difficulty with kidney bean especially with the barlow, causing some head movement to find an image. In fact a few times the field was totally black until eye position over the EP was found. When tracking Saturn to the edge of the field some improvement of focus was possible with head movement but the result was a field of view shaped like an elongated football with minor axis about 10% of the diameter of the FOV, the rest black. Have not noticed this in other EPs. Did not have the opportunity to compare the EP to a Stratus 13mm or use it on another scope. Hopefully in a few days. Friend has both the Stratus 13mm and an orion 12" Dob. Observations of a rookie, YMMV.

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