Posts Made By: Malc Shedden

I believe if you send it back to Celestron, they will fix it for you.

Somewhere on the web I saw a guy who was using a Fastar lens assy on his C8 (replaces the secondary) and he hit it on (I think) a wooden beam in his observator and smashed the corrector - Celestron fixed that for him, no problem.

Good luck

Well, there's wrinkles and there's wrinkles!

I don't think you could make a more wrinkly filter than his first attempt if you had a chimp making them. No offense!

Obviously one tries to have as few wrinkles as possible.

The trouble is that they tout so many numbers, and statistics in their advertising that nobody can figure out exactly what they are saying.

It would appear that the once 'great' standard coatings are now just terribly hopeless judging by the graphs printed in their advertising. It just depends on what they are trying to prove at the time.

I read somewhere that MEADE optics incorprate a thick layer of balonium as standard on all their scopes

What changed between the time you weren't getting these reflections, and now (lately)? Did you start using a teleconverter? Put a skylight filter on the lens (or some other filter)? Change camera bodies?

Malcolm.

>> lately i've been getting internal reflections from bright stars on all my astrophotos

There is a well known large dealer who has Celestron CI-700 mounts (much like a G11 in capacity etc) at the non ASTROMOMICal price of $1295.00. Might we worth a look...

I use a JMI NGFS, which is motor driven, and works well.

Any of the ones you mention should work well too, and will need an adapter for 1.25" if one is not already supplied.

The advantage of electrically driven ones like the JMI NGFS is that you do not have to touch the scope to focus, so avoiding a dancing image while you try to focus.

Do you need one of these focussers? What is the problem you are trying to solve? If you are using the scope for astrophotography or if you have excessive image/mirror shift in your SCT when focussing normally, they are very useful.

For visual use, a regular JMI 'MOTOFOCUS' which is a motor attached to your SCT focusser with a hand control may be all you need for focussing without the jiggles. (The motor just turns the focussing knob as you would with your hand). The JMI Motofocus is considerably less expensive than the NGFS, but will not cure image/mirror shift problems.

Just my $.02

I think you may not be comparing like with like.

Is the Thousand Oaks a *prominence* filter?

All the true h-alpha filters I've heard of cost thousands, which is why the 40mm Coronado solar max was something of a breakthrough at around $1000 or so.

Anyway, why not get a Solar max 40mm and a pronto for less than half?

I GM8 may not be big enough, a G11 would be though.

You need a Lonsmandy DSBS (Side by Side). If you had a GM8 you would need to get a G11 saddle for it (GM8 does not take the regular dovetails without this).

For the main scope you would want a Losmandy universal dovetail plate (DUP), for the guide scope you would need a losmandy male to male (DMM) plate and a pair of guidescope rings of the appropriate size, maybe DR-125s. Only about $450(?) worth of bits and bobs...

Alternatively, get 2 DUP plates and some regular rigs for the 101, mount each plate top and bottom, put the 85 on top with a pair of DR-125s. More economical.

Barry,

Can't help with your question, but I too have a FCT-76 and have a SolarMax 40 on order. Can you describe (or post a picture) of the adapter for your FCT-76? I'm having a difficult time figuring out if it attaches to the dewshield, or screws on in place of it.

Thanks,


Malcolm.

This might be worth a try:

http://www201.pair.com/resource/astro.html/teletrade/