Posts Made By: Tom Hole

Harry,

Have you considered the Televue binovues as well? I used mine in our club's CGE 1400 a couple weeks ago and was floored by the view of the moon and Mars. The other folks wouldn't let us slew to anything else until they had their turn to "fly" over the moon. Who woulda thought that a group of serious astronomers would spend valuable CGE1400 time surfing over the moon? It was magical. Whatever you end up with, you will have a marvelous time with them.

Clear skies,

TOm

I had another nice morning with Saturn and Luna today. This won't be an observation report. I did some aberrator work on a Saturn image to try and convey what I saw last week on Saturn. XT10 10" f/4.7 dob on eq platform, Televue binoviewers, 25mm Sirius plossls, 2x corrector, 2x ad 3x barlow, 240x and 360x, seeing 9 of 10, transparency good. Here's what I came up with:

http://home.earthlink.net/~tomhole/Saturn13aug03.jpg

Maybe just a tad less depth of color and a bit more definition in the rings. I know it seems ridiculous, but that is what I saw at the ep. Actually, it was much more 3-D than that through the binoviewers. The rings had a definite thickness to them. Definitely a new standard by which to judge all of my future observations of Saturn.

Clear skies,

Tom

Herb,

I was curious if you keep a wall of shame for folks that have the most ads without supporting Astromart. I don't want to see it, just curious.

Clear skies,

Tom

I tried out the 9mm Antares orthos from Hands on Optics tonight on Mars.

Short answer: the 24 Pans @ 250x were much better than the 9mm orthos @ 267x

Long answer:

Equipment:

Orion XT10, 9.4", f/5 dob
Televue binovues, 2x corrector
24 Pans
9mm Antares orthos
2x tv barlow
3x tv barlow

Seeing: 4-5/10, transparency: thin haze

First up was the 9mm orthos. Just the binovues and the 2x corrector for 267x. Kinda nice not having 8" of bino train hanging there at high power. Mars was washed out and pale. My benchmark for detail was the double fingers at the end of Sinus Meridiani. Not visible in the orthos. The 45 deg AFOV is very clinical. Blah.

Switched to the 24 Pans, 2x corrector stacked on the 2x TV barlow for 250x. Much more color and detail than in the orthos. Much, much more. I could easily see the 2 fingers of Sinus Meridiani and the overall contrast had much greater depth. The 68 deg AFOV made me feel much more involved with Mars.

I cannot explain this. I switched back and forth many times to try and figure out if the orthos were just much brighter than the 24 Pans and that is why they were so washed out, but I couldn't determine that for sure. They looked pretty close to me. I thought it might be the seeing, although 17x difference in magnification
shouldn't be that big of a difference. I tried 360x in the 24 Pans (3x tv barlow) and the seeing was holding up.

I'm going to get up for Saturn and see how it looks between the two. This initial look certainly is disappointing. These ortho planet killers were supposed to save me a great deal of money. I'm rooting pretty hard for them, but they need to make a strong comeback on Saturn. That darn 45 deg AFOV is killer, though. Not
sure how anyone could use these in a non tracking telescope. Big handicap, IMHO.

More to follow,

Tom

Any reports on this mount? And the drives? Looking to put a 127mm f/8 refractor on it until my big daddy mount arrives.

Clear skies,

Tom

Anyone using one of these? I would like to here your comments on its quality and usability. I will be using it as an off axis polar finder for my Gemini Mount.

Many thanks in advance.

Tom

Hello,

I received my new EQ4/CG5 with the Autostar goto installed today. Setting up the GEM was a snap. Setting up the Autostar, well, it was too! Thanks to all the info that is on the roboscope group, it was straightforward. Just followed the directions in the retrofit document and had everything up and running without a hitch.

I've figured out a few things that have proven very helpful to me.

1. GEMs are different, but not difficult. As a dob user, it takes a little getting used to, but becomes intuitive very quickly. I carried the mount out with the ST80 on it and plopped it down facing generally towards Polaris. Didn't bother leveling it. No looking through the incredibly crappy polar scope. Just turned on the
Autostar, entered the date and time and was on my way. I just used the clutches and slewed with them engaged, then let the Autostar track in RA (no high mag work with the ST80). I was having a lot of fun. I am going to build some wheely bars for it this weekend so I can roll it around the street.

2. Goto is not going to be a player in my driveway. While I did try an alignment and it pointed in the right general direction, I couldn't see the alignment stars through the trees. Then when I did a two star alignment and picked my own, the clouds picked the same stars. I didn't waste a lot of time on it because the clouds were
getting thicker and the trees were hiding too many stars with the scope stationery. If I line the scope up to see Polaris, I see very little of the rest of the sky. I told myself going into this goto thing that I will not ever let it get in the way of looking at stuff. As soon as I'm spending more time setting up than viewing, I'll throw my batteris in the river and use it manually.
That being said, I am very excited to get to know the Autostar goto this weekend. I have a park that is wide open in all directions about 1500' down the road. I'll take the roboscope down there after Isabelle passes on and give it a try. It looks like it could be fun.

The tripod is too wobbly. Every time you touch the mount, it departs from level. The plastic connectors to the tubular steel legs are at fault. That makes adjusting the lat/az on the mount impossible without knocking it off level.

So there you have it, my first GEM. Overall, I couldn't be more pleased. Just slewing around and not worrying about the Autostar was as simple as I had hoped. That was a big unknown for me: Could you use an Autostar equipped GEM without getting bogged down with all the goto stuff. You sure can.

Now I am really looking forward to my custom uber GEM on the portable pier . Much apprehension has been lifted by spending an hour with this GEM.

Clear skies (and no hurricanes),

Tom

http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=217603

I wonder if he got the EM10 fixed or if he just forgot to mention it doesn't work?

TOm

"Hi Guys

As most of you know we have lens problems with the 1026. The problem
is
surface 2 was incorrectly generated. There is no problem with the coatings or
polish of the lenses. The factory is already making 200 new lenses and should
finish in two-
three weeks. In defense of the company that is making my scopes the glass was
delivered to them with the wrong curves on side two.
The other problem is the 2.0" diagonals ( This affects both scopes)
new castings were made late in the manufacturing to improve the cosmetics of
the diagonal. They also recessed the diagonal in to the back plate to help
maintain better collimation. When they did this it threw the aliment out of the
diagonal. All 400 diagonals have been air freighted back ( At the factories
expense $2,800.00) They have been working nonstop since to make new back plates.
This problem also will only take 2-3 weeks to correct. The new lenses and
diagonals will then be FedExed
back to me.
One interesting note to the diagonal problem, this problem
has accidentally solved the problem we had in making a collimatable diagonal. I
kept two of the diagonals and modified them for user collimation. They work
wonderful. We will put this diagonal into production later.

Thanks,
Bill
Burgess Optical
865-769-8777"

Oh my, I shouldn't have made that phone call.

I just talked to Tammy and asked about the status of shipping the 1278's. She said that Bill had decided that since the folks who are waiting on the 1026's ordered theirs first, they should get them first. Even though the 1278's are fine, (except for the diagonal), Bill has decided to let them sit there and they will be shipped after the 1026's are fixed and shipped. YGTBSM! I am so hot right now I want to jump through the computer and slap Bill up side the head and tell him to 'snap out of it!" I wonder when Bill was going to tell everyone about that little gem?

Wow.

Gotto go play CandyLand with my 5 year old daughter so I can get my mind straight again.

Tom