Posts Made By: Gary Davis

I have an 90mm Meade Refractor and airy disks are easy to see. I have an Orion XT-4.5 and the airy disk is easy to see and is the best(for me)for splitting doubles and what have you. I have a homebuilt 6 inch reflector and the airy disk is easy to see and works very well for doubles too. I have an Orion XT-10 that works very well for planets (450X easy sometimes 700X) but airy disks and double stars look like crap. For the life of me I cannot get the scope to produce an airy disk, none, nada. Instead, the best I can do is a blob or large smear when additional magnifaction is used. Its pretty pitiful when the XT 4.5 splits doubles and the XT-10 cannot even tell there doubles. Maybe this is to much aperture for my location? But yet planets are stunning. I also have a 10 inch refractor(killer on planets and doubles)but its f/10 so I can't really compare with it. Does the atmosphere play a big role with this large of a scope ? OR, is there something wrong with this scope ?

Three nights ago at about 8 pm while setting up my scopes I seen a very bright object passing overhead. I "as fast as I could" got an image of it in my six inch. Note, that I have seen this before but never through a scope. It was moving from the northwest to the southeast, I thought it would be an airplane or jet but as far as I could tell this was not to be. It was hard to keep it in the field of view and get a focus at the same time. Finally, I was able to see it. A single, very bright, round disk with a checkerboard or window screen as the detail, about the size of jupiter at 120X "there were no clearance lights". With my naked eye it was at least as bright as mars and perhaps a little brighter. There was no "beam" of light as though it were shining straight down just blueish white light with the same intensity throught-out the time I could see it. I caught a glimpse of this same thing about a month ago with no scope nearby. It traveled west to east but varied in brightness almost on/off. Thats my story, wish I had more but maybe someone else can add to it or seen it too.......

Its a must see. Get out your scope and have a look, its the best I have ever seen. Huge, in your face sunspots. Lots of them. Very active and all are visible at this moment. An incredible view in my 10 inch refractor, with full aperture solar filter. Don,t miss it !

Not real bright from my burbs location but I nailed it on the first try. Found it not to far from NGC-6709 a small but bright open cluster. Used the 6 inch f/8 at 32X homemade reflector for this observation. Hard for me to guess but if I had to I would say about 7 to 7.5 in magnitude. Kind of dispersed with a fairly wide tail. This is a good night so, out I go......

I wonder if what I see through my 102 Orion StarMax Mak is normal. I bought this awhile back and I like it because it's portable. It seems to have good views except for one thing, ring around the planet. It's a ring of fuzz and its on everything. The star test reveals a very nice airy disk with one faint ring during times of good seeing. There is a ring of fuzzy light around all objects including the planets. Looking at the scopes mirrors, I see no dust nor anything else that might cause this. The sky background is very black. It's not the EP's cause I've tried several. The edges "can't think of the proper word for this" of planets are fuzzy while the center of the disc reveals good detail. With my 4.5 inch Orion XT along side, the 102 looks very sick. Any Ideas would be helpful. BTW, the collimation appears to be as dead on as would be attainable and like I mentioned, it has a very nice airy disk. No other problems have been noted, just seems the images are "soft" and not as I would expect. Thanks for reading this and for your input....

I wonder if what I see through my 102 Orion StarMax Mak is normal. I bought this awhile back and I like it because it's portable. It seems to have good views except for one thing, ring around the planet. It's a ring of fuzz and its on everything. The star test reveals a very nice airy disk with one faint ring during times of good seeing. There is a ring of fuzzy light around all objects including the planets. Looking at the scopes mirrors, I see no dust nor anything else that might cause this. The sky background is very black. It's not the EP's cause I've tried several. The edges "can't think of the proper word for this" of planets are fuzzy while the center of the disc reveals good detail. With my 4.5 inch Orion XT along side, the 102 looks very sick. Any Ideas would be helpful. BTW, the collimation appears to be as dead on as would be attainable and like I mentioned, it has a very nice airy disk. No other problems have been noted, just seems the images are "soft" and not as I would expect. Thanks for reading this and for your input....

I have a concern ! I was told by someone that The Baader solar filter is not safe, can someone tell me what the problem is ? Here is the exact words written in an email to me.

"In the last 3 years, we have sold about 10,000 square feet and never had a complaint that it is to dark. I believe you, I just have no explanation.

About resolution, the Baader has higher resolution, but it is not safe. Sorry it isn't but no one wants to talk about it."

In his reply to my question about the other solar film being to dark with little or no resolution he wrote that reply. So, no one wants to talk about it ! What is he saying here ? Is there a problem with this Baader solar film ? The stuff I purchased renders the sun as a yellow sphere, very dark and hard to see anything even with full aperture and low magnifications "28X". At higher mags 75X or more the image is so dim I can't even find it with this yellow stuff. Yet he says 10000 square feet with no complaints !! I find this hard to believe....

Herb,

I wasn't paying enough attention while posting two ratings. Could you help me fix them ? Both were perfect in everyway but I messed up and selected a zero star instead of a five star. Dang, I didn't catch it until I had posted the second one. These fellows deserve the best of ratings. Their gonna hate me when they see those, please help !

Regards,
Gary

The transit has begun. At 11:10am PST. I hope you all have clear skies....

A most interesting sight, the ISS being followed by the space shuttle. It occurred this evening at 9:45PM PDT and lasted until 9:47PM PDT. The ISS appeared about 34 degrees above the north west horizon, followed by the space shuttle one minute later. They passed directly overhead and exited at about 41 degrees above the southeast horizon. The ISS appeared goldish in color, almost the color of Saturn, and the shuttle was dimmer but more blueish white in color. I've waited a long time for this event as it only can occur at precise times over a given area. I was very lucky tonight in that the shuttle didn't land as planned. Totally the best yet. I hope others were able to see it too.