Posts Made By: Milton Wilcox

I ended up posting my results as an AM article under hardware. It's a keeper.

Clear Skies, Milt

Our digital snapshot camera doesn't do a very good job on the tiny subjects so stunningly captured on this forum, but every once in awhile a proper-sized subject comes along. This gal posed for me on the wall outside our patio door last week.

They are quite common in the neighborhood, curious and very easy going. Although capable of moving quite fast when scared, not too much seems to perturb them. My conclusion is that they must not be menu items for many other species.

Milt

This has been a most interesting thread because of the striking parallels I have seen to the industry I worked in. Man, announcing something as early as Mr. Burgess was something we learned the hard way never to do. (This lesson appears to have been learned here much in the same way).

Let me suggest the following: It's not what Mr. Christen, Mr. Petrunin and Mr. Back are willing to tell us about their optics that makes them great; it's what they're not.

IMO even if the Chinese have the glass, their success in producing high quality optics in the nearterm must depend on how much an optical craftsman - in this case Mr. Back - is willing to spill on the nuances of figuring, coating, spacing, assembling, etc. This intellectual property (our CEO used to call it the "family jewels") cannot be learned just by disassembling someone else's telescope; it has to be learned either through trial and error or by being taught.

How can it be in the best interest of any of these gentlemen to instruct a potential lower cost competitor how to make a scope approaching AP, TEC or TMB quality? They did not get to where they are by being stupid.

Milt Wilcox
ex-guarder of family jewels

There has been a web about 0.5m in dia. in the corner of our patio for the past month and my wife has enjoyed watching the spider that tends it. It hides during the day and takes up position in the center of the web at night. It has visibly grown with a current body length of about 1cm.

I's sorry if one has been posted already but I didn't go back through previous spider pix.

Thanks, Milt

The B&H link that Stu posted earlier may not take you to the correct lens cover for the Canon 15x50 and 18x50. On my Mozilla browser, it took me to the Canon E-52mm lens caps, which I ordered. When I received them yesterday I discovered to my dismay that they fell into the tube openings on my 18x50's.

I got out my digital calipers (which I should have done in the first place) and it appears that the correct covers are the E-58mm. Stu, if you are reading, can you please check the P/N on the inside of your covers?

BTW, B&H has a terrific finder for lens covers for a wide range of sizes and manufacturers if anyone needs others.

Thanks,
Milt

With the dawn of 2005, I am inspired to reflect on the amazing progress in apochromatic refractors. Jusy when you thought it couldn't get any better:

In 2004 Orion brought us the very affordable 80ED and 100ED, and hopefully will continue this aperture trend in 2005. With little fanfare Stellarvue extended their line of apo's all the way to 152/7.9, many of which have a waiting list. Speaking of which, the wait for the rich-field TeleVue NP127/5.2 is reported to be at least a year.

Also in 2004 William Optics introduced their highly rated FLT110/6.5 (with optics by TEC) and hopefully have larger apertures in the pipeline. Borg also updated their very popular modular series with the new 101ED.

On a somewhat sad note, Roland Christen announced the end of the legendary Astro-Physics oil-spaced triplet family (can you say "collector"?) but is starting to ship just-as-high quality AP160's with smaller versions coming soon. Takahashi is also set to ship their TOA150, and can the TOA170 be far behind? And if you are in the market for an observatory class scope, TMB will be more than happy to build you a 254/9 - or larger!!!

Telescope Engineering continues to sell every 140/7 they can build and Yuri Petrunin quietly announced on New Year's eve that TEC will ship 3 oil-spaced fluorite 200/8 triplets this month that (my conjecture) could set a new benchmark for optical quality. It's nice to see TEC following in the footsteps of the famous Zeiss APQ series.

Oh, and not to forget Feather Touch, who is cornering the market on focusers for high-end apo's. I apologize if I have left out any manufacturers! These are exciting times for refractor fanatics and I wish you all the refractor of your dreams in 2005.

May you waiting time be short,
Milt

Last night AZ skies were finally clear with less than gail force winds. After working on my list of open clusters using a Panoptic that gave me about 1.1° TFOV, I swung over to Saturn and what should I see, but another OC practically next door. It was 2420, one of Dave Mitsky's February objects. If you are observing Saturn over the next few nights, try a lower power ep and put a DSO in the field. Kind of cool realizing that distant Saturn is actually way in the foreground!

Clear skies, Milt

I am posting this as a favor to the elder statesman of our astronomy club (I believe he is 89) who is hoping to find good homes for some early-1980's R.E. Brandt telescopes that he acquired from the estate of a friend here in Northern Arizona. I believe there are two folded achromats, one 6" and one 10" both around f/16, and two Maksutov's, one 6" and one 8". The 10" achro probably needs an observatory while the rest would be portable.

If anyone is interested or knows someone who might be, please private message me and I will put you in touch with him. This is one of those cases where finding the right home for these optics might be more important than getting their full value. They really should be out capturing photons.

Thanks,
Milt

Hi Greg,

Doing a daytime setup to set your G-11 RA safety limits is definitely the best way to go. Every combination of tripod and scope will be a little different. I regularly track past meridian with my G-11 on an 8" ATS pier. Occasionally being able to go just a little past allows me to avoid a meridian flip altogether. It sounds like a nice setup you are putting together.

Clear skies,
Milt

William Green said: Truly, I think all of this fussing is a type of neurosis. If the scope looks well-made and gives me great views, that's all I care about.

Hi Bill,

'Worry Too Much' happens to be a great Buddy Miller song. From his lyrics:

it's these sandpaper eyes
it's the way they rub the luster from what is seen
it's the way we tell ourselves that all these things are normal

Sound like a star party at 3am?

Clear skies,
Milt