Posts Made By: Jean Dorais

Ralp,

Sounds like a really great setup. I am looking forward to getting my SM40 to stack onto the PST in June, so not long now! Woohoo! Any chance you can get some pics of the non-stacked/stacked views through the scope?

Clear skies,

Jean D.
Ottawa, ON
Canada

ralph marantino said:

First light on my dual stacked PST........... Well for a $1,300.00 outlay..the contrast on surface filamentary detail was better than my Daystar .65 ATM and it was a lot easier to "tune in" surface features and "zoom in" on specific filaments..I found that using the Teleview zoom eyepiece 12mm gave the best overall view and after putting on a Teleview SolSearcher it was easier to keep centered..I did not find a "sweet spot" the whole disk view was equally detailed and contrasty all in all this new technology is really great..the scope may not be as impressive as the 152mm Astrophysics with 2 feet of "optical train" hanging in the back with a hand grenade 31mm type 5 Nagler in the 2 inch diagonal but boy the pleasure of the
convieniance shure outweighs everything else it looks like my retirement just got bumped up a notch all of you cll I was just out for 45 minutes with the .6A MS40/PST and it way exceeded my expectations foran share at Jersey Starquest or the Summer Starparty in Savoy..

Morning all,

I just came back from about 40 minutes of h-alpha goodness! The PST
itself is an absolute joy and a relatively inxexpensive way to get
into h-alpha view of our Sun. The SolarMax40 add-on filter is an
expensive (more than the entire scope!)but STUNNING add-on for the PST.

Installation couldn't be easier: you screw in the SM40 to the PST's
threaded collar. That's it, done. : ) I like simple things like this
one! It does add about 12oz to the weight of the PST, so balancing
might be an issue if you have a lightweight tripod/camera head combo.
On my Manfrotto video camera head and surveyor's tripod, it's a non-issue.

There was a fair amount of haze out there this morning, but the
views were simply stunning. Surface details on the Sun were crisp and
absolutely riveting. The addition of the SM40 to the light path does
dim the view by about 10~15%(non-scientific values, btw), but what you get in additional detail more than makes up for it. WOW!

If you own a PST, you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY have to take a look at
the SM40 filter. In Canadian funds, the filter was an additional 1100$, bringing the PST/SM40 combo in the 2000$(CDN) range. Not cheap, but absolutely two of the best buys I've ever done in astronomy.


Clear skies,

Jean D.

Vijai,

I just received two of these e-mails today (Feb 4, 2006)for my items listed. It's a scam, pure and simple. I've forwarded off to [email protected], but there's not much they can do except toast the account it was sent from. Then the scammers will just open another account and start again.

Sad, but that's the way it goes. I appreciate the fact that someone posted saying they received this kind of e-mail (it's not just me!). Let's keep our eyes and ears open and hopefully they'll get the hint and leave.

Clear skies ,

Jean Dorais
Ottawa, ON
Canada

Vijai Krishnan said:

Anybody on Astromart have experience with getting emails from folks claiming to be in Nigeria requesting that items be shipped to them? I know this type of scam is a big-time occurance on sites like the big auction site and craigslist and it looks like Astromart has been invaded as well

Check out this email -

"Hello Seller,

I am very much interested in this game and I will love to buy it. I am a US citizen but I schooled at Unversity of ibadan in Nigeria, am 19 yrs of age. my Uncle will pay for me using his paypal account, will you ship for me plz? I will prefer either you use ems, ups, fedex or dhl for the shipping. plz let me know the total ammount including the shipping to Ibadan city in NIgeria, then I will call my brother to pay for me.
I will be waiting for your response."

This "buyer" is not even sure if he wants his Uncle or his brother to pay and he just signed up on Astromart the day I posted the ad! Smells real fishy to me and wanted to know if anyone else has any such experience...