Posts Made By: Steven Murphy

Thanks for the picture Ivan. It is excellent and the Wilksboro light dome is not all that bad compared to the Raleigh light dome I contend with nightly (when we used to have cloudless nights) in the Sagittarius region. I really need to escape from the light polluted skies of Raleigh and head up to Doughton Park some day soon.

I am curious about one thing. What are the park's operating hours? I can drive up from my parent's house in Mocksville and it should only be about an hour drive from there, but I was not sure if the gates are locked later at night.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Nico,

Check out the following link regarding cleaning the corrector, particularly the information from Clay Sherrod. Clay updated his cleaning formula due to the UHTC coatings. Just search for UHTC on the website below for this information.

http://www.weasner.com/etx/buyer-newuser-tips/cleaning.html

This is a link to Mike Weasner's ETX site and it is an excellent source for most questions on the Meade ETX telescopes.

My final advice is to be very careful and follow Clay's instructions exactly. Personally, I would only clean the corrector lens as a last resort.

Clear skies,
Steven Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Andre,

As recommended in another reply, I would recommend the focal reducer from Steven Mogg.

http://webcaddy.com.au/astro/adapter.htm

I got his Vesta Pro Webcam adapter (a threaded adapter to replace the one I made out of a film canister) and his 0.66 field flattener for the Venus transit. I have a Meade ETX 90EC and I really needed to reduce the focal length for the transit. You can check out the pictures on my website to see how it performed on my f/13.8 telescope:

http://home.earthlink.net/~steveswebuniverse/venuspictures.htm

I was very impressed by the quality of the items when I received them the day before the transit (nothing like waiting to the last minute). Steven was great to work with and responded to all of my email questions.

I hope this helps in your quest for a focal reducer.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC
http://home.earthlink.net/~steveswebuniverse

Glenn,

I recently built a Dave Ek box to interface US Digital encoders to a Palm III. I use a program on the Palm device to point my scope that was written and is maintained by Doug Braun. The program works great and usually puts the object near the center of my 32mm EP.

The Palm program can be obtained from Doug's website at the following address:

http://palmdsc.dougbraun.com/

The Dave Ek box is not very difficult to build if you have basic soldering skills. I built the interface for less than $45. I would also suggest visiting Dave Ek's website for information on his interface. His website can be found at the following address:

http://home.earthlink.net/~david.ek/digicircles/

I am still working on the description of my setup on my website. If you are interested in seeing mainly pictures of my installation, click on the following link:

http://home.earthlink.net/~steveswebuniverse/dscone.htm

I hope this information helps.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC
http://home.earthlink.net/~steveswebuniverse/index.htm

I use a #21 Orange filter (Celestron) with my 10" Dob and it works really well to bring out the dark areas on the surface. You have to be patient and wait for times of good seeing. Mars is so bright right now, I actually feel like I need a filter to cut some of the brightness back. I have been happy enough with the results from this filter to not worry about getting any other ones.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC