Posts Made By: Greg Nowell

Recently purchased a Canon A580 for the missus who wanted a camera that could run on regular batteries as well as rechargeable. This is to be delivered mother's day. Too late to cancel purchase. This is an 8 mp camera.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the build quality and capabilities of this 8 mp camera will be significantly inferior to the Coolpix 995 I bought off ebay for $200 for my own use. A bit of a clunker by today's standards (pretty big). My wife didn't want something that big. I don't really know much about these cameras. The coolpix 995 was my first digital.

But I don't really know enough about it. I'm wondering whether the cheap consumer camera will have more hot pixels or break faster or what. Or maybe these things have just gotten better and my clunker 995 is obsolete? Hard to believe. Works very well....

I ordered an extra set of batteries and a decent charger as well as some 2 GB flash memory cards for the new camera. When I traveled in Ireland with the coolpix, I changed the memory card every two days, on the theory that if the card went bad or something happened only one card, not the whole trip, would be lost. Figured I'd do the same for this new camera.

thanks for any wisdom y'all may share.
Greg N

Every now and again I get an urge to post a pic of this thing. This scope is my "home away from home" (the other being a c14 on a different mount). The FS128 is modified with the Moonlite focuser, mainly.

The G11 has accumulated the following mods since I acquired it in Dec 00:

--third bearings in RA and Dec
--new stepper motors (SAIA replacing Hurst; this is a huge performance improvement)
--new worm gear on order from Ovision - don't really need it, but I hate to feel left out of the latest and greatest
--upgraded the encoders from 4096 to 8192 tic resolution
--dumped the NGC Max, got an Argo Navis
--Berlebach wood tripod with G8/G11 adapter (this is actually the first one in EL MUNDO! but I'm not sure it matters, except that now they are selling pretty well, according to Mark at Teton. I persuaded Berlebach to undertake the task and helped them develop it.)
--polar scope is the one that "expires" in 2030 (round about when I will, maybe) instead of 2010

I'm quite fond of the G11 and the FS128 seems to do very well on it.

regards
Greg N

When I purchased my Tak FS128 there were a whole bunch of things that I did not need, became redundant when I converted to moonlite, and which I just plain don't know what they do. I am posting three pictures.

I need help with:

1. Part name and function.
2. Part number.
3. Part's new price.

I will be listing them on Astromart at about 75% of new value once I have figured out what they are and how to sell them. Some of these things I actually know what they are but I still don't know their new values or technically correct names.

thanks
Greg N

(PART 2)

When I purchased my Tak FS128 there were a whole bunch of things that I did not need, became redundant when I converted to moonlite, and which I just plain don't know what they do. I am posting three pictures.

I need help with:

1. Part name and function.
2. Part number.
3. Part's new price.

I will be listing them on Astromart at about 75% of new value once I have figured out what they are and how to sell them. Some of these things I actually know what they are but I still don't know their new values or technically correct names.

thanks
Greg N

Part III. (this is obvously a 5" clamshell but don't know if it fits TOA etc., nor do I know what they cost new).

When I purchased my Tak FS128 there were a whole bunch of things that I did not need, became redundant when I converted to moonlite, and which I just plain don't know what they do. I am posting three pictures.

I need help with:

1. Part name and function.
2. Part number.
3. Part's new price.

I will be listing them on Astromart at about 75% of new value once I have figured out what they are and how to sell them. Some of these things I actually know what they are but I still don't know their new values or technically correct names.

thanks
Greg N

I posted to the refractors section, not far above this one, three posts. I need help identifying about nine parts from an fS128 and estimating their new value. I can't find a 5" Tak clamshell on TNR or Anacortes, for example.

Any help would be appreciated. Just north of this list on the Refractors group.

thank you,

Greg N

I'm currently running an auction--no problem with it, I will see it through just like any other auction--but I'd like to get some questions answered. I did a search in the terms of service file on the word "auction" but didn't see any answers. I also read a blurb about auctions in an astromart post in the refractors auction site, but I'd still like to be clear on procedures. This is my FIRST auction, I have a good sense of how the classifieds work, but not the auctions.

1. Why is there no "seller pays shipping" option? (I didn't see one.)

2. What if one decides to cancel the auction and keep the item?

3. What if one cancels the auction and re-sells the item on the 'mart?

4. I have seen ads in the relevant sections for an AUCTION (I have two, one in refractors, another in focusers). So I take it we're allowed to do that, would be nice if there was a click-thru to the auction.

5. In my case, the two ads announcing the auction are paid-for ads, and it seems that I have one auction credited to me, I'm not sure why, so I'm using the free auction. I trust it is OK, if one buys a set of auctions, to use the free ad choice to announce the auction in progress?

6. Moving away from the auctions topic, I guess there isn't a whole lot of rules on the pay-for-ad option, some of us do it and some of us don't, I buy sets of ads and use them, typically, for the first listing of an item but not if I re-post it later (usually at a lower price). Also tend to punt the payment on low value items. I think $2.00 is a good deal but on items under $50.00 the margin is disappearing fast...

thanks
Greg N

Bought these off the going-out-of-biz Vixen site where there is still some residual inventory.

It was an impulse thing. The devil made me do it.

Now that I have done it, I'd like to know if these are running dog awful woof prism binocs or what. Found only one (negative) review on the entire Internet, saying the usual thing about chinese stuff that I myself have been known to say from time to time. I thought they had potential at the price ($145) and so now I guess I'll find out. Maybe it's one of those things where I'm ignorant enough to be happy with whatever comes. But the main motivating factor was that I've had good luck with many Vixen products over the years so I wondered how these would turn out, and my 8x30s aren't really as bright as I would like on the stars.

Guy at TV said maybe get the 8x42s easier to hand hold but I dunno, wanted the magnification.

In a kinda-just-did-it mode,

Greg N

Well it's here and I checked it out. Seems to be nice, smooth focuser.

Here's some things I've noticed:

Not as much detail on the edges as if the object is centered. Perhaps a focus issue. A bit of a pincushion effect as one sweeps side to side, reminds me of my Pan 24. I noticed the same thing in my Leupold 6x30s, but not as pronounced. Could be this problem increases with magnification.

For some reason the Swarovski 8x30s don't have these problems....

I'm a little unclear about the warranty. Material in the box says 5 years, Vixen NA says lifetime on its web site, TV said 5 years. So I guess this will show me some stars in a 42mm lens but I feel kinda disappointed that I know enough to notice these things that i wouldn't have noticed before I got into astronomy.


regards
Greg N

Well even though I posted some "concerns" about pin cushion and focus here, which I saw in the daytime, I now have had the 10x42 Vixens out under the sky and all I can say is "wow." Some of the folks I were with were binocular hounds and everyone commented on the clarity and luminance of the views. I caught a whole bunch of Messiers, including M101, M51, M81-82 (all galaxies; M57 (ring), M27 (dumbell), M71 (glob in Sagitta, on the fainter side), M56 (glob); and then a whole bunch of really easy globs including M13, M3, M5, M92, M22. I had a hard time with M108 and M97 (galaxy and owl) and finally swung the 102mm on them. At 17x in the refractor, held very steadily, they were not easy to see; the night had by then lost some transparency. So it's not a wonder I couldn't see them in the binoculars. Double cluster also looked great and was easily picked up even when it was too low in the murk to be seen naked eye. I also caught the open cluster NGC 7789.

Craters on the moon were sharp and clear; some CA visible around the edge of the moon.

These appear to be very good binoculars for the price and seem like they will do everything I wanted them to do. I am glad they are not heavier because I do find it tiring using them. A friend brought his 16x70s and they are "wow" too, he had a parallel mount for them but even so I found it hard to hold them up for long periods and the neck angles weren't always good.

I must say I'm glad that they're inexpensive because I feel expensive equipment has to be babied. Nice to be able to use these without worrying about them.

As with all my small optics I plan on outfitting them with Butler Creek spring loaded caps.

I enjoyed the low power views of many well known objects but I must say that I remain unconvinced that binoculars for the newbie are not in my mind the best idea. For the money these cost (about) one can get a Star Blast and not get fatigued while scanning around. I suppose if one already has binoculars it's another story, but many folks have 6x30s which are less satisfying for astronomy. But even so it's hard to sit back and enjoy a view for twenty minutes with hand-held binoculars.

regards
Greg N