Posts Made By: Ben Kokes

hey,

If I wanted to get a motorized mount (anything that has a motors on 2 axis, I can do the stepper logic if needed), what would you guys sugguest? I have an 8" Cas. I would have this hooked up to a computer to do all the goto function, so portability isn't too much of a concern..

Thanks!
-Ben

I was wondering today: Why are primary mirrors ONLY made out of glass? ( at least the ones in the non-research scopes)

I would figure that one could make a mirror out of and aluminum blank, or if weight want a problem, steel...

-B

I was wondering if there is enough business to build a giant reflector and basically rent the time out to recover the cost. It seems that the current online availability is topping out at 30" and was thinking if I were able to build/house a 40" and put an imager on it, maybe there might be a higer demand for scope time?
I figure something like this could cost well over $30K, for the scope and parts (the enclosure is not a problem).

What do you think? What are my hurdles to overcome?

I posted this in the beginners forum, but was instructed to post here instead..

The lowdown is that I have some land in Bend/Redmond, Oregon that I can put a sizeable structure on. (parents place has 30+ acres outside of town, dark skies)

So I am just wondering if there would be a market for renting time out on a 40" reflector if I were to build and house such a beast. Right now, I am looking at feasability scenarios to determine weather or not to continue along this though process. I would just like input if people have done this before and if there are many 40"+ scopes out for rent..


Since I already posted this in the 'beginners' forum, I got come responses, shown below:
Ben,

It would have to be located someplace with 200+ nights of clear skys.

Case Western Reserve has a 36 reflector we considered selling time on, but it's located in northeastern Ohio - last winter/early spring we had over 90 days WITHOUT a clear night!!!!

Let me know if you decide to go forward with this.

Russ

Hey all,

I was wondering what the cheapest way to get GOTO capability on my 8" cass. its got a fork-mount, clock-drive unit now, and would like to just point-n-shoot.

any help would be appreciated,

Clear Skies,
-Ben

Sometimes I wish I were a tetrachromat. But then I would have to deal with the whole pregnancy thing ( women can only be tetrachromats)..

aahh..

So then the Horsehead Nebulae is red in pictures, should I expect it to be grey in my eyepiece? I have a LPF, will that help to bring out reds? It seems to enhance blues very well...

I thought you would never ask!
Being the rediculous newbie, I needed people to explain the magnification factor to me and why the theroretical limit is the way it is (use pictures). An explanation of RA and DEC is very useful. Explain collimation and why its useful (and how to do it).
Explain the F-ratio and what it means. The points of having a fast scope over a slow scope and visa versa.
Put all things in terms of seeing objects ( why you can see some objects but not others)
Talk about why they can't see colors, and what it takes to SEE the colors.

Assuming that these people know nothign, I would also go over points of the 3 scopes and thier plusses and minuses keeping in mind size, cost, and what they can see with them ( to this day I am unsure why a 4" achromatic refractor can beat my 8" SCT. I thought apperature was nearly everything)

Making references to the planets,moon, and more famous nebula will keep them interested. Now, dont get me wrong, I love a good planeterium show, but the canter always seems to go into a lot of depth about the constellations and some of thier history, and it never fails to almost put me to sleep. I think that too much of the constellation talk is a bit of a distractor (but then again, thats my opinion)

My $0.02, workin up to $1.00...
-Ben

The ad has it in the picture
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=335205

Look at the Top Left picture , the Dual Saddle Bracket thingie. In the right side mount is a black bar. I am wondering what THAT is for..

thanks,
Ben

Damn... the only thing thats holding me up is trying to figure out how to make the declanation axis a GOTO.. the one I have has limited motor movement, but not full motion.

I think I could speed up the clockdrive(R.A.) to do what I want, but the DEC motion is the problem...