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Posts Made By: Joplin Motisher-Chittenden

June 30, 2008 11:44 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

Auction question

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I had an auction for a Vixen ED103S refractor that officially ended at 8:18pm EDT I got a message at 7:20pm EDT that my auction had ended along with the winning bidder's contact info. I certainly hope that nobody tried to bid on it in the last hour since it looks like the system wouldn't let them. Note that I watched the notification message pop up in my email program 58 minutes before the auction ended so this is not an issue with email time stamps. I know Herb gripes about the lack of supporters all the time (I have supported several times in the past) I was planning to support soon but it would be nice if some of these glitches would get fixed.

Joplin

July 1, 2008 02:43 AM Forum: After Dark

BK - Discovery Commercial

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
My money says it's a Parks Optical 10" Superior series. At least someone is buying Parks scopes new !

Joplin

July 3, 2008 07:23 PM Forum: Eyepieces

11, 12, or 13mm Nagler: Which one?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I have an 13mm T6 and My observing buddy has an 11mm T6. Other than the maginification difference there isn't an easy way to tell which one you are using. The 13mm would be usuable more often with a longer f.l scope. The 11mm would yield a darker sky background and would probably be a better fit if you have a fast f-ratio dob.

Joplin

July 6, 2008 11:40 PM Forum: Mounts

CI-700 - D and RA locks don't work

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The ball bearings that bear on the clutches can be replaced, which might improve the locking action. It sounds like the friction clutch material in your clutches may be worn down and need replacement though. I would contact Michael Downing - just search for his user profile here on Astromart and send him a private message. He used to offer a rebuild service for these mounts and he may still be doing it. This yahoo group is also a good source for info on these mounts:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ci700_user/

Joplin

July 11, 2008 01:16 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

RSS feed disabled

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Jackie,

I think the RSS feed was disabled a while back -see this post:

http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=567560&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

Joplin

July 15, 2008 03:24 AM Forum: ASTRONOMY

Single Purpose Astro Clubs

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
I used to be a member of a local club that did pretty much all outreach events and activities. In fact I was the observing coordinator of that club for a couple years. I finally got tired of the lack of interest in any serious observing among the 100+ members. We would have a dark sky observing session and even on a nice night only 2 or 3 people might show up. The local club basically exists for the sole purpose of supporting a local public school run science center. Opportunities for observing with the 23" Clark refractor at that center were limited to showing it to the public on Friday nights, club meetings some Saturday mornings (solar) and maybe 4 club events each year. I joined a smaller, less formal group of serious observers instead. We still do some outreach at a state park - which happens to be very dark unlike the official observatory that is surrounded by car dealerships and often has mag 3 or 4 skies as opposed to 6.5 The nice thing about that arrangement is that we generally camp for free and still get plenty of serious observing time to ourselves.

Joplin

July 27, 2008 06:35 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Equitorial Mount for 8" f/5 Reflector

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The atlas mount is a bit large for portable visual use with one of the import 8" F5 newtonians. I would consider one of Sirius mount on a portable pier rather than the stock tripod. For simple visual use one of the Meade Starfinder 1" shaft mounts would be fine as long as it's in good shape and the drive works well (only available used). I use a CI-700 and a heavy duty Gibraltar for my 8" F6 25lb homebuilt newtonian which is rock solid but that's over 100lbs of mount and counterweights - hardly very portable.

Joplin

July 29, 2008 07:33 PM Forum: Eyepieces

What would you suggest?

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
The 24mm Stratus/ Hyperion is best described as not up to the quality of the others in the series when used in a fast dob. I have a 28mm UWAN and it is a great eyepiece but it is quite heavy at a full kilo (2.2 lbs). If you can swing it a 20mm T-5 Nagler would be great (only weighs a pound). The 27mm Panoptic or 24mm Panoptic would be nice as well. Either way I would buy on Astromart to save some money. I would also consider a higher power eyepiece for the refractor and for the 10" when the seeing is excellent. Something in the 5 or 4mm range would be good, the TMB Planetary series eyepieces would probably fit the bill at that size.

Joplin

July 29, 2008 10:38 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

uploading images for add

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
Larry,

On the first classified page don't click on "insert image". Click continue and on the next page you have the option to upload an image from your computer. You can also ad photos to an existing ad by clicking on "change photos".

Joplin

August 3, 2008 06:27 PM Forum: Refractors

Objective refiguring(?)

Posted By Joplin Motisher-Chittenden
From the D&G site:

"Does D & G offer refiguring services?

We did offer a refiguring service for lenses and mirrors for many years. Since repair work needed on many components sent to us was so extensive, it was not cost effective for the customer nor time effective for us to continue this service. We will continue to offer repair service for optical components and/or telescopes, which are historical or antique in nature."

So I guess if you have a antique scope he may be able to do it.

Joplin

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