Posts Made By: Duane Jacobson

Royce is certainly a good alternative. There are some advantages to his conical mirrors. The mounting technique is simple but secure, and they are lighter than a traditional 6:1 thickness mirror (and even lighter than many "thin" mirrors).

http://www.rfroyce.com

Stevens Optical is another good supplier of small mirrors.

http://www.stevensoptical.com

Regards,

Duane

Here's one inexpensive alternative:

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.aspx?p_id=12143&store_id=2&did=1

These show up pretty frequently on Astromart classifieds.

FYI... astro scopes are generally not waterproof, so be sure to keep the scope well-protected from moisture.

Regards,

Duane

I can't imagine a 10" will be all that satisfying after using a 14" .

I thought Discovery was a bit of a step up from the low end stuff... it's a step up in price for sure.

Parks sells mirrors and OTAs that are a little cheaper than the "high zoot" names you mention. I've never seen one, but they seem to have a good reputation.

I think 10" is a good compromise size for views, lugging weight, car portability, reasonable f-ratio with feet still on the ground, cooldown time, etc. A premium 10" mirror is not much more in cost than a premium 8" mirror, and the tube will weigh about 30 lbs instead of 20lbs. For these small concessions, the 10" goes about half a magnitude deeper than an 8".

Have fun. Can't see selling the 14" unless you don't like lugging it around.

Duane

Hi,

First, thanks for all of the comments and suggestions. They're greatly appreciated!

I'm certainly going to get a good widefield eyepiece (not necessarily the "finder" eyepiece). For this I was thinking along the lines of a 27mm Panoptic, which would give close to 3 degrees TFOV at 22x. I figure 3 degrees is enough to frame the great majority of objects. The great thing about Astromart is that one can try out equipment at little cost (buy used and resell if needed). I'll likely buy several of these over time and end up hanging on the ones that I like the most.

I see most folks put a Starbeam, Rigel, or something similar on their short refractors. However, I really like the clean look of these small tubes without other gadgets attatched. I've been hoping to buy an eyepiece that gives the max TFOV (4.4 degrees), and simply use the scope itself to find objects. I'll just see how well that works out, and re-evaluate if necessary.

Thanks again,

Duane

I don't know for certain that the DUPS will work on the TV85, but Tom confirms that it's okay on the TV76. Seems like a reasonable bet for me.

Thanks Alex and Tom!

Duane

Hi,

Just posting a followup...

I recently bought a 35mm Panoptic from a local seller. The Vixen Paramount has enough resistance in azimuth that I can find a tube position (with the TV85) that works with all of my eyepieces.

Of course the combination of scope and eyepiece leaves nothing to be desired, optically speaking. I never had any doubts about that. I was able to use the TFOV of 3.7 degrees to easily find several Messier objects in 4th-magnitude suburban skies, with no supplementary finder. I hope to make it to dark skies this coming weekend.

Thanks again,

Duane

It might have been an Iridium flare. Heaven Above gives the time/location of flares. You could look for another daytime flare to see if it looks like what you observed.

http://www.heavens-above.com


Regards,

Duane

Hi Ivan,

Starmaster and Obsession are certainly well known.

There's also AstroSystems. They sell components, kits, and fully-assembled scopes.

http://www.astrosystems.biz/

Duane

Here are a couple...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=panama+canal&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.978077,109.775391&ie=UTF8&ll=9.01704,-79.610152&spn=0.015343,0.026801&t=h&z=16

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=sphinx&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.978077,109.775391&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=15

Duane

For camping, one other thought is a suitcase dob. Unfortunately, I don't know of any company that makes a moderately-priced instrument of this sort. There is the Uti, which is quite nice, but also quite expensive. I have seen some nice homemade 6" and 8" travel dobs, but it takes tools and time to make that happen.

I guess there's not a very big market for such a item?

Duane