Posts Made By: Mike Damato

Thanks Tom,

I've seen your picture before not too long ago, and I was trying to work out which way the rolling hung over, but now that you point it out I guess its obvious.

I think I'll leave the cell end unrolled as you recommend then. The cell itself ought to provide ample stiffening anyway.

Mike

Hi Paul,

Yeah, I'll second what Hugh said, pick out an appropriate forum (Equipment talk?) and post a description of the product. For something interesting you'll probably get all kinds of feedback, maybe even some design/feature suggestions if applicable.

Mike

Stephanie,

Thanks, I've been quite curious about those Baader Hyperions. To me they look like a good replacement (similar specs) for the no-longer-available Pentax XL's.

Mike

PS Your English make more sense than some native speakers I've seen!

What a useful thread, Bill! Thanks everyone for all the information.

Mike

Hi Chuck,

OY, tough call. Too bad the 17 and 20 are too close to buy both without feeling kinda guilty...

Haven't tried the 20, but that 17T4 is one of my most beloved EP's. Comfortable eye relief and less difficult to avoid kidneybeaning than the 12T4, which I also have.

My only gripe with the 17T4 is that it makes me nervous, with that big bubble field lens on the bottom. I always feel like I have to be ultra-careful when handling it.

Mike

Hi Chuck,

Oh, and another thing, if you go by the square-root-of-two magnification step rule, 17mm fits rather nicely between 26 and 12:

26/(2^0.5) ~ 18.41
17/(2^0.5) ~ 12.06

The magnification jump from 26 to 17 is a little large but the jump from 17 to 12 is perfect.

Mike

Hi Jason,

For a long time I think the answer was just automatically "Protostar", but now Antares will quote them down to 0.020 PV, and Protstar only goes down to 0.045. Also it is interesting that Antares puts them on the interferometer after coating; I don't know if Protostar does the same. BUT you can get the Protostar made out of quartz. I don't know if that is meaningful with such a small surface, though.

(But how can Antares claim 0.02 PV when their interferometer is calibrated with an 0.033 PV flat?)

I have to make this same decision sometime soon too, but I'm not finished overanalyzing it yet . Prolly I'll go with Protostar so as to save a phone call and some shipping, since I'm getting the spider from them anyway.

Mike

Jeeeez! You ought to be in charge of an eyepiece forum someplace.

Mike

Entirely true. US Coca-cola is mostly formulated with corn syrup (plus various additives to cover the nasty corn syrup taste) whereas elsewhere it is generally made with cane sugar (sucrose). In most of the world, cane sugar is about the same price as corn syrup but in the USA the cane sugar is much more expensive because of agricultural tariffs / subsidies.

I used to work at Domino Sugar in Brooklyn and every year we would go crazy for a few weeks before passover, because Coke would switch to cane sugar temporarily in order to produce kosher-for-passover Coke. There is some debate about it but apparently most rabbis agree that corn-based products are not kosher during passover. I tried them side-by-side and the difference is noticeable, the cane sugar product has a bit cleaner taste.