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Posts Made By: Joplin Motisher-Chittenden

June 24, 2004 12:30 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Your longest owned scope?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The scope I've had the longest is a circa 1982 Criterion Dynascope RV6 newtonian that I purchased used about 10 years ago. The mount wore out and the good parts were sold off on Astromart. It now rides on a circa 1979 RV6 mount - also purchased on Astromart . wink

Joplin

June 25, 2004 08:37 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

orion shorty with pental xl 7mm

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
That combination would yield too much magnification to be useful with the Burgess 1278 ( which has a 990mm F.L. ) since it yields 283 X. I know because I own a 1278 and have tried it with the XL7 and my Orion 2x Shorty Plus Barlow. The practical magnification limit for the 1278 is about 200X unless you are looking at double stars. On an average evening I don't use more than 160X with my 1278. Actually the Pentax XL7 is a really nice eyepiece for the 1278 without a barlow since 141X is plenty for most objects even on a night of exceptional seeing.

Joplin

Photo Attached: Burgess 1278 w/ Pentax XL7

July 30, 2004 02:29 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

canon 300d adapter for use of other lens?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
http://www.cameraquest.com/frames/4saleReos.htm

results of 5 seconds of searching on google wink

Joplin

August 30, 2004 01:13 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

c11 as mount with goto vs. 8gps

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The C11 on the Celestron Advanced series goto mount is very undermounted. The largest SC I'd even consider putting on that mount is a C 9.25, even with the newer steel tripod. Given the choice between a smaller scope properly mounted and a larger scope that is undermounted, I'd pick the smaller one every time.

Joplin

January 11, 2005 04:35 AM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

Machholz and the Pleiades from Saturday night.

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
With the Hyades and California nebula tossed in for fun :-) Used a 50mm at F2 for about 10 minutes on the polaris mount

March 4, 2005 11:23 PM Forum: Digital SLR AstroPhotography

Canon EOS Digital rebel

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I think the original digital rebel is a good camera for someone who just wants an entry level camera to experiment with. The Digital Rebel XT / 350D won't really cost that much more though (899 new body only, 999 as a kit w/ lens) and will most likely offer better astrophotography and all around performance. The improvement in resolution from 6 to 8 Mp won't make as much difference as the likely improvements in noise reduction will. The new model will be released around the end of March, but I would expect at least a month or two wait after that before the preorders are filled and the camera is widely available.

Joplin

March 17, 2005 09:25 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

RA drive gear ratio

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The CG-4 has 144 teeth on the RA main gear so your motor should turn at 1/6 RPH (1 revolution every ten minutes). You can verify if your Meade 395 mount has the same number of teeth on the RA gear by seeing how many turns the RA slow motion knob takes to move the mount 1 hour in RA. If it's a number other than 6, you'll need a different motor.

Joplin

September 21, 2005 01:49 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

First images with PST

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
A close-up of the solar limb.

October 26, 2005 12:04 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Filling the gaps

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
When I'm using my C9.25 I tend to use a 19mm panoptic for deep sky objects (compact gallaxies and planetary nebulae) Unless the seeing is really terrible I generally will start with a 15mm Televue plossl for the planets, if the seeing is good enough I'll switch to a 12.5mm University Optics ortho, then my Pentax XW 10mm. I'd say go for good Plossl or ortho in the 14/15mm range then see about a widefield in the 18 to 24mm range.

Joplin

November 29, 2005 12:25 AM Forum: Eyepieces

3x Barlow for my new 80mm Apo?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I use a Vixen FL80S quite a bit (it's an 80mm F8 fluorite doublet). You would be surprised at just how good the planetary views through these little scopes can be. I would stick with shorty type barlows or the TeleVue Powermates since the longer type has a tendency to hit the diagonal mirror. I use an Orion Shorty Plus 2x which works quite well. If you can stand the short eye relief I would just get a standard U.O. 7mm ortho to fill out the high powers. Another option is to get an Apogee Super Easy-View 3.6mm eyepiece. I have one and it works great (it has a built in barlow at the bottom of the eyepiece).
The 13mm T6 is a superb eyepiece, my favorite for widefield/ deep sky views with the 80mm F8. Highly recommended but keep in mind that you may need a TeleVue Powermate to keep it from vignetting. I use mine witn the Shorty Plus but it does vignett the edge of the field just a bit.

Joplin

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