Posts Made By: Tom Ifft

Put a wanted to buy request online. I imagine alot of those sct owners that upgraded to a 2" may part with the 1.25 that came with their scope, cheap.
Good luck.
Tom

I agree with more aperature. You can always add a light pollution filter and get more contrast due to a larger scope. True, a big scope does so much better in dark skies, but is still outperforms smaller ones in poor skies.
I overlook the car dealers from h*ll at night to the south.
My 12" sct is an improvement over my 10" that I traded, even with the skyglow that almost allows me to read a book.

Besides, why do we buy Corvettes when the speed limit is only 65MPH?
Tom

I am an insurance professional, in the business 17 years with extensive insurance education and I'm on your side. There is a door open to you in alleging "Bad Faith" against the insurance operations of UPS. In part, the various statutes protect you when an insurance carrier routinely denies claims knowing they should be paid, forcing lawsuits to recover payments, etc.

I offer that you go get a good lawyer who sues insurance companies. Class action "Bad Faith" allegations should send a chill through Brown's spine! With punitive damages, you could end up buying a telescope company!
You might even end up on 60 Minutes!
Don't get mad, get even.
Tom

John,
I am making the following assumptions: the walls are regular framing behind the stucco, the floor is framed and is above ground, and the roof rolls off.
I have considered this, though on my smaller stick built obsevatory of 8x8, as I will be moving at some point. I will have a flat bed tow truck come and winch it up and go, if I am moving a very short distance and no low bridges., wires, etc. However, if it is too big then cutting the side walls apart at the corners and removing from the floor is not that much of a deal. It is incredibly easy with a sawzall. I think any ok carpenter could do it relatively cheaply and you may never know upon reassembly. Stucco is easy enough to patch also. Speaking from experience in the homebuilding field, that breed likes unusual jobs to break up the monotony of basic carpentry. All 4 sides, the floor (if wood and framed) and roof could be loaded flat onto a flatbed. AS a bonus, the flatbeds are high enough you may be able to roll the roof right off the walls onto it using some 2x6's for tracks.
Let me know.
Best of luck
Tom

But what happens when the thing gets a cataract?

One key is to prevent air circulation, another is moisture absorption.
I had a shed with a ridge vent and eaves vents. Things rusted quickly, as more air circulating just dragged the moisture over everything. When I closed up the shed tightly and sealed up the vents, my rust problem ended. As for moisture absorption, a cheap bag of charcoal should work in one of those Home Depot plastic sheds if you could get the shed nearly airtight. Also, things like unpainted wood also absorb moisture and slows items inside from rusting. But ask anyone with with a metal storage shed about rust. I would think the plastic would be somewhere in between due to its more insulative thermal properties than metal.
You may need to towel wipe the inside of the plastic shed after your observing session.

I have a bunch of Meade series 4000, both regular plossls and superwide. They are good eyepieces. Not the best and certainly not the worst, and a decent value. Some will be better than others in your scope. You will need to try them out for brightness, field of view, "tunnel vision", etc. If you are getting the full set for less that $300, it is a good deal, and an ok starting point.
You will probably end up with only a few of them, and other brands in your bag.
However, if you want to get only 1-2 really top of the line eyepieces now, someone else will need to advise you that has your scope.
Clear skies,
Tom

Jay,
I had the 14", and was impressed with the size & brightness using low power views. It was noticably brighter than my 12" LX200. Also, it seemed to offer a little bit more color on stars. I never did get small enough eyepieces to really crank up the power, but my skies never really would allow it anyway.
The finish on the tube was very good and the focuser was great also.
It was a bit difficult to carry down the deck steps, but still managed it.
Give us a report after a dark site session. How far south are you?
Clear skies, warm nights.
Tom

Walter,
I have used both from Meade (series 3000 and series 4000). IMHO, the main difference is the edge blackening. It noticibly cut down on ghosting from internal reflections. Also, the sky seemed a little more washed out (gray) without the edge blackening in the series 3000. How much improvement due to the fully multicoatings and maybe better glass is impossible to say. But a side by side comparison had me impressed.
Tom