Posts Made By: Mark Mittlesteadt

I own the Orion Astroview 120ST.

You can read my review of it at Cloudy Nights...

http://www.cloudynights.com/reviews3/Astroview120.htm

If you have any questions at all that are not answered in the review, I'd be happy to answer them for you here or via e-mail.

I'm guilty of doing that...but only because I did not know which category to place my ad in so I posted the same ad in three different categories as some of my accessories fell into distinctly different categories.

I would have had to write a ton of unique ads for almost each accessory. Didn't seem feasible to keep track of especially when I had, on average, 50 replies per day.

But I understand completely. I've never posted a new ad just to "bump" mine up to the top. I have re-written an ad, added pictures, dropped the price, etc. and then reposted the new ad, after I removed my old one when there was only a day or so left on my current ad.

You might want to try out Weasner's ETX site.

http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html

It has evertything you could ever want to know about modifying the ETX.

I've been observing for almost 15 years...albeit just casually.

If it were a competition, you'd be kickin' my butt. But alas, it's not. Sometimes I go out with a plan, sometimes not. The main thing for me is just to get out and relieve the stress of the day.

No matter what I'm looking for, or at, it never fails to remind me just how insignificant my troubles are. When I see the Andromeda galaxy, I don't look at it from a scientific point of view, but rather a philosophical one...I'm seeing something that has already undergone millions of years of change since it's light got to my eyes.

Humbling.

Tell me about it...I live in northcentral Wisconsin...we've had clear skies...but the cold! Geez, as I'm writing this at 3:15 in the afternoon (CST) it is 12 degrees below zero...not including the windchill.

I like the winter constellations...but not that much! It's been below zero every night for the past week and a half!!! I go out, look at the sky...I notice the stars aren't even twinkling much at all and think to myself..."This would be a perfect night for observing...but I can't feel my hands or my toes and my breath has frozen to my face...I'm going in!" And that's just after being outside for about 30 seconds!!!

What I wouldn't give for a home on a warm beach somewhere!

I can't comment on the Antares, but I do own the Astroview 120 ST from Orion.

I wouldn't say its' great for planetary viewing though it does handle some detail on Jupiter and Saturn. You can read my review on Cloudy Nights...

http://www.cloudynights.com/reviews3/Astroview120.htm

I have since built a new tripod for it and added a 2" diagonal. For it's intended purpose (wide field) it does remarkably well on planets and the moon.

I would think that it's longer focal length cousin (the f/8.3 model) would do even better. I wouldn't think that either are what one would describe as "planet killers" though.

A model something along the line of Meade's or Celestron's achromats in the longer focal lengths would do much better (for the price). But regardless of which refractor you go with, if it's a long focal length one, be sure to replace the stock tripod (why they still sell those cheap, flimsy, sorry-excuse aluminum tripods with these scopes, I will never understand).

If you keep the stock tripod, be prepared for alot of kneeling and images that bounce all over the place, even at lower mags.

You guys are having the exact same weather as I am in Wisconsin.

This winter sucks for viewing. Thank God for a few equipment projects, books and magazines to keep me occupied indoors.

What do you do with your "down-time"?

Yeah, ditch the 2 year old and the 80 lb. dog. That should give you room enough for the really important things.

I'm kidding, of course. Maybe you could use a roof-top carrier (the enclosed variety) or find a way to tie down your mount and or tripod to the roof rack?

Actually Equatorials are almost identical to fork mounted scopes in operation.

The biggest problem, I think, is almost all photos of EQ setup show the scope pointing up in a polar view.

In reality once the mount is polar aligned you will very seldom see the scope pointing in the manner shown in photos.

The scope swings about the RA axis left to right (and visa versa) just like a fork mounted scope.

The scope swings about the DEC axis, up and down, similar to a fork mounted scope.

Just think of the scope being mounted to a fork mount, only it is just attached to one side of the fork (near the base) as opposed to in between the forks. Otherwise it is really almost the same.

I own the Astroview 120ST. I gave a review of it on Cloudy Nights...http://www.cloudynights.com/reviews3/Astroview120.htm

I don't know anything about the SkyView Pro mount, but I do know that the Astroview mount is very solid if you can get it off that cheap aluminum tripod. The Astroview mount does not have a dovetail fitting although one can be made for it.

I made a solid tripod out of oak and a short pier mounted to the top of that. The mount now has absolutely no vibrations whatsoever and I assume the entire vibration problems with the Astroview (and similar) mounts comes from the cheap aluminum tripods. The Astroview is very solid and smooth in operation. I do think the setting circles are not worth the effort, but with the electronic drives it works very smooth and easy.

Now that I have a new, stable platform for the mount itself, I am going to try and mount my 8" SCT to it and see exactly how stable this mount really is.