Posts Made By: Mike Clemens

Good ideas from everyone here, check out all their suggestions.

You definitely need to look at star images at high power, like 250x. Focus back and forth on a bright star, what does the focused and defocused star look like? Circular concentric rings?

I ask because I've owned 8 TMB lenses over time. Every single one has been a superb performer under the skies, and every TMB100/8 in particular have been perfect beyond any errors my eyes or seeing conditions could ever reveal. So a dramatic problem with your lens would surprise me.

One TMB lens I owned did give me a problem. Something must have happened to this one particular lens in the hands of the "Dreaded UPS Guy" 8O because like you said, images were just kind of fuzzy. Sure, it could magnify an image, but they were never very impressive. Fuzzy.

Under high magnifications, the stars looked like the enclosed picture. Thats about 2 waves of coma error. One of the three glass elements had become decentered. The lens had to go back to be serviced and then it turned into a typical TMB performer.

Good luck with your lens. I'm going to pick up a TMB100/8 or a TMB105/6.2 as soon as the budget permits. I've got to have a little TMB again.

Mike

Hastings? I should try them and see how their tubes look.

I ordered some from Parallax Instruments for a refractor project. The tubing I received was out of round, had a grotesque butt weld down the side. On both sides of the butt weld were angled dug-in clamp marks going down the length of the tube. I assume whatever machine welded the tube together must have grabbed the tube forcibly to pull it through and left those marks. The weld area was humped up as well. I don't know if this what to expect of all re-purposed tubing? or, I wonder if some sizes of tubing, or some distributors have nicer tubes than others? (Not blaming Parallax.. it's not like your ordering a precision piece of tubing.)

I asked my painters to smooth it all out, but I think it was the impossible dream without having them work it for too long to be affordable. If you do body work or have a clue though about it (like me NOT), then the tubes I rcvd could probably be nice looking. As long as you have a rolled end or something shoved in them to force them round.

And here are mine.

http://www.scopenews.com/fs128/moon_mars_12_11.jpg

ISO800, 1/1000th second at f/8.12
in Takahashi FS128

http://www.scopenews.com/fs128/moon_mars_12_11c.jpg

FS128 with Baader FFC barlow, running probably f/32 or so? Not sure!
ISO800 and 1/40th second

Here's a little comparison of the in-focus requirements of the Feathertouch focuser, versus the in-focus requirements of the normal Takahashi 2" Ocular Adapter (TOA0400?). The Feathertouch takes approx. 5/8" inch more in-focus to accomodate.

Nice work!

Gorgeous! I for one wont soon forget it! Look at the clouds over Syrtis Major.

If thats the case, I'd order them from Markus while you can.

If they are not being produced still, then I wonder why Markus told me that more 4mm were arriving around now, and more 16mm arriving sometime in January.

> that they are made in China.

Bummer! I like to spend my dollars in America. I get a warm fuzzy that my TEC160 is to be MADE IN USA, well, even if the glass does come from Japan.

$30 is a steal

Fantastic. You've really brought the surface texture to life, would love to see an even greater scale. Is that Rima Hyginus halfway to sunrise?