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Posts Made By: Tom Hole

April 3, 2004 01:55 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Beginner EP question

Posted By Tom Hole
Bart,

I put together a primer that is geared towards new dob owners, but might get you started:

http://www.tomhole.com/Oculars%20Filters%20Etc.htm

Not all inclusive, but hopefully it will stimulate more questions which are truely the bane of all ignorance.

Clear skies,

Tom

April 3, 2004 02:23 PM Forum: Binoviewers

2" Barlow or Powermate with 2" OCS

Posted By Tom Hole
I just snagged a 2x Powermate from a right nice Astromarter. I want to see how a 2" OCS slid into a 2" Powermate works. I didn't get any inputs from this the last time, so I just bought one to see how it works. That will give me 5x with my OCS in 2.5x mode.

Clear skies,

Tom

April 4, 2004 04:48 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

To all you experts!!!!!!!

Posted By Tom Hole
Ricardo,

Local seeing conditions were probably not helping. Did it look like the 2 images here?:

http://www.tomhole.com/What%20will%20it%20Look%20Like.htm

This illustrates the effect that mother nature can have on your views. Even a $50,000 telescope is governed by mother nature more than the mighty dollar.

Clear skies,

Tom

April 7, 2004 07:23 PM Forum: Binoviewers

Anybody Home???

Posted By Tom Hole
Yup.

Made some mods to my bino light shield. Learned it's not an original idea. Saw GRS transit last night in 7 of 10 seeing and binoviewers. Bought a binocular mount and tripod. Looking for a pair of binocs for them now. Maybe some Fujinon 16x70's. Want to go outside and play.

Tom




April 9, 2004 11:05 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Software

Posted By Tom Hole
I have a tag along question. I would really like to get a plnetarium program into which I can program a custom obstacle template. Lots of trees and such to see around and it seems like it would be a fairly simple task to account for them in the program. Any such beast around?

Thanks,

TOm

April 15, 2004 12:24 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Fan on Dob

Posted By Tom Hole
Ron,

This may be a better solution:

http://www.tomhole.com/Active%20Cooling.htm

Clear skies,

Tom

April 18, 2004 10:24 PM Forum: Binoviewers

"X" Switch At NEAF

Posted By Tom Hole
Jeff,

So you have a PowerX in your possession right now? I gotta write Russ and send my part O in.

Tom

April 21, 2004 10:44 PM Forum: Binoviewers

Binoviewing's Dark Secret?

Posted By Tom Hole
Milton,

I'll bite.

What I see with two eyes makes me much happier than what I see with one eye.

Tom

April 23, 2004 07:05 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

See this pic....

Posted By Tom Hole
Ron,

That's probably the atmospheric turbulanece you are seeing.

Here is what convinced me that the fans helped.

Setup the scope with the fans off. Wire up a remote switch that allows you to look in the ep while turning the fans on. Point at a star, defocus (preferably inside of focus) and then flip the fans on. What results in my XT10 and Starmaster is a sort of chaos for 30 seconds or so and then I'm just down to the atmospheric turbulence. No fan is gonna get rid of that.

Is this turbulence you are seeing fast moving and somewhat organized or slow moving and lazy? The slow moving and lazy is a sign of tube currents. Fast and organized is the atmosphere. The boundary layer removal will have only a subtle improvement and if you're not watching as it's washed off, you might not even notice a difference.

So, the fan is probably working just fine, you just have a crappy atmosphere.

Tom

April 24, 2004 02:15 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

JMI dx-2 CRAYFORD STYLE FOCUSER

Posted By Tom Hole
Richard,

You have run into the problem that occurs when you replace a high profile focuser (3.5" tall) with a low profile one (1.5" tall). You need to make up that 2" somewhere. There are 3 options:

1. Longer draw tube
2. A custom base under the focuser to make it 2" higher
3. A 2" extension tube

3 is the easiest since the focuser is installed.

Tom

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