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Posts Made By: Joplin Motisher-Chittenden

February 4, 2007 10:22 PM Forum: Refractors

Travel Scope

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
If you are interested in a really small and portable 80mm scope I would consider a Vixen A80SS. Vixen North America has it listed for $310 which includes a red dot finder and flip mirror. Here is a review of one:
http://www.barrie-tao.com/vixen80ss.html
If you want a scope with apo quality optics then it would be hard to go wrong with an Orion 80ED/ Vixen ED80sf or similar. It is quite a bit larger than the Vixen though and you might have to purchase used to stay in budget.

Joplin


February 6, 2007 12:09 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Google Earth Where are the planes???

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Having lived nearby Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta I remembered that there's a lot of air traffic there. Found a chain of 4 aircraft taking off on Google Earth in a couple minutes. I tried predicting where the 5th would be but the trail went cold :-)

February 25, 2007 11:28 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

What happened to the Paypal option for support

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
There is no linked PayPal payment option. Just look up the price for the level of support you want then use PayPal to send it to:

[email protected]

Joplin

February 25, 2007 11:32 PM Forum: Celestron

Question on dovetails??

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Yes, the CGE type dovetail is 3" wide like other Losmandy G11 style dovetails. The CG5 ASGT/ Vixen style dovetail is 1.75" wide.

Joplin

February 28, 2007 08:19 PM Forum: Refractors

As long as it's not EQ!

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Larry, check out my review of the Vixen Porta mount here:
http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=509
I use this mount a lot with scopes up to about 10lbs. I've attached a photo showing my Porta mount on a Samson tripod (easier to use and more stable than the original).

March 3, 2007 02:27 PM Forum: Telescope Making

turning an old telephoto lens into a small scope

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Does your telephoto lens have threads for a T-mount or does it have M42 threads (used by Pentax and some other makers). If it is a T-mount lens then #TAMF from Scopestuff should do the trick:
http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_tamf.htm
You would be limited to 1.25" eyepieces and it is very likely that there will not be enough backfocus to use a 1.25" diagonal so it would be straight through viewing only.

Joplin

March 9, 2007 08:12 PM Forum: Eyepieces

eyepieces for afocal photography

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The Pentax XW series eyepieces are another good choice for afocal photography. They have an integrated filter thread so you just need the appropriate stepping ring to fit one to your camera. The Baader Hyperion eyepieces are also well suited to afocal work (also have an integrated filter thread) and are lot less expensive than the Radians or XW's. Both the XW's and the Hyperions have the advantage of a very large eyelens which will minimize vignetting with most cameras.

Joplin

March 9, 2007 08:21 PM Forum: Digital SLR AstroPhotography

Pentax

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I was hoping that someone with firsthand experience with these cameras would answer your question, I'll offer my opinion though. Looking at the noise data on dpreview.com it looks like the pentax cameras have a bit more noise than the Canon cameras. I'm not aware of any third party options for controling the Pentax cameras from a laptop. In general, the small 10MP chips have more noise and are less disireable for astrophotography than the smaller 6 & 8 MP ones.

Joplin

March 10, 2007 09:40 PM Forum: Mounts

Pentax Equatorial Mount

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Other side

March 15, 2007 01:26 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

Insurance

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
It is the shipper/ seller's responsibility to file a claim if an item is damaged or lost. If an item arrives with significant box damage or it sounds like there are broken pieces inside then the buyer should notify the delivery person if possible then the seller asap. Depending on the item I will include all shipping costs in the price of the item or calculate the actual cost when someone responds to the ad. Of course fragile items should always be packed so that no damage will occur even if the box is dropped onto concrete from a truck, etc. I don't think UPS or FedEx are allowing claims on glass anymore so that is all the more reason to pack really well.

Joplin

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