Posts Made By: David McGough

Jeff,

That's the most horrible thing I've heard! I hate slugs. You could always buy a big can of Morton salt and sprinkle a defensive ring around your scopes. The poison bait sometimes works well too, but there might be a holdout or two for a while...

Dave

Hi Alan,

I've used both. I used the 18x belonging to someone else at one time and it seemed difficult to find targets with it and the IS was strectched a bit much for the magnification. The Moon was very nice but sweeping the Milky Way wasn't enjoyable.

I bought the 15x50 and it is a very different impression, very sharp, shows the North American and Veil Nebs very nicely, does great on the star clouds in Sagittarius, etc and is a great all around bino. All the help the IS needs even for perfect views of the Moon and close doubles is to sit in a camping chair. Generic deep sky sweeping is fantastic even standing (how I used them in New Zealand for the Magellanic Clouds and Southern Milky Way). I'd strongly recommend trying the 15x50s and only getting the 18s if the 15s don't work with your eyes. For batteries I tried the rechargables for a while and found they self discharge too quickly in between uses. I'm using Energizer lithium AAs now and they are by far the best power source for these out there.

I wonder if it might be possible to adapt Dioptrix lenses from TeleVue to the eyecups?

Dave

You can also pick up sheets of gasket material (rubber, rubber impregnated cork, cork, fiber, etc)at auto parts stores and cut your own.

Dave

Hi Vladimir,

I used a C11 on my 900 some years back and think you want something shorter than 48" pier. I used that and frequently needed a stepstool to get to the finderscope or to collimate and I'm 6 feet tall. If you need total height under 5 foot, I think a 3 foot pier would be necessary, although low for standing use.

Dave

Hi Gil,

That is the guide scope that was offered for the Celestron C10. The tanget coupler attaches to points on the top and rear of the rear cell of the larger scope and allowed fine aiming to select a guide star after the main scope was aligned for a photo.

I have a C10 from 1965 down here in San Diego that is missing the guidescope so PM me if you want to part with it.

Dave

Hi Peter,

The Dow High Vacuum Grease has been recommended on the old MAPUG numerous times. I've had some success with it on my 1965 Celestron 10 to help control image shift when focusing, although I finally ended up with a spring loaded mirror stabilizer (Scopestuff sold these) and a Crayford.

The grease isn't inexpensive but McMaster (www.mcmaster.com) sells smaller tubes. Their part number is 2966K52.

Dave

Hi Bruce,

Getting the mirror off will I think be harder. The RTV used typically runs up into the bore in the mirror and around the baffle tube. I have no idea what would fit in there to cut through that other than a custom tool (cylinder with sharpened edge that just fits around the baffle tube and smaller than the mirror hole).

To reattach if you can do that part you'd just need some centering shims and spacers to keep the mirror centered on the tube and squared on while the new adhesive cures.

Don't forget the secondary though. sometimes it is possible to leave it attached to the aluminum backing plate and recoat without separating.

I used to jsut suggest people ship to Celestron, but with the way UPS and others have been handling packages these days, it might be lower risk to try what you want to do. Best of luck!

Dave

Hi Ed,

I have the 2.8x Klee also and love it for high mag with short fl eyepieces on my APOs, but the Klee really vignettes eyepieces over 15mm Fl, I recall the TV2.5x was much better in that regard. If you have a variety of scopes you might find that you prefer different barlows in each depending on the eyepiece range you use with each.

Dave

I had tried to install one of these but found TeleVue loc-tited or otherwise overtorqued the pinion block screws on my TV85 and the heads on two rounded out on me. Rather than try for a repeat on the other two screws and be stuck with a focusmate which I think is horribly bulky, I scrapped the entire TV focuser with a Feathertouch 2025BCR and used the TeleVue adaptor that screws on to the tube in place of the stock focuser. To do this, the epoxied over set screw on the bottom of the focuser body had to be carefully dug out with small jewelers screwdrivers and picks until I could back it out.

The FT replacement is gorgeous and makes the scope so much more usable! Collimation is perfect and precision is a dream and I can set it for no creep when looking overhead. Here is where the brake is a must have as you can eliminate any tendancy for the focuser to rack itself out but keep the fine focus extremely light in required force to allow precise focusing even on a lightweight mount. The config shown here allowed me to just focus with a 22mm Pan on a AP Maxbright. Eyepieces requiring more out travel caused e to add a 0.65" riser block between the focsuer and tapered adaptor, or to use an extension tube in the focuser or diagonal.

I think the only thing you'd potentially screw up on a TV by removing the pinion is if you removed the draw tube from the focsuer and dropped the shims that set the drawtube in position. It is a red herring issue. After adding the FT, I realized I'd never been able to really get critical focus at high power with the stock focuser and it behaves and balances like a whole bunch nicer scope!

Dave

Check out this link for old Tinsley and other catalogs:

http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/classics/

Dave