Posts Made By: Erik Hammarlund

Update:

I've decided to go with 30 degrees, eyepiece on the right ("pulling" in southern hemisphere).

Why?

-My wife has a strong preference for left-eye viewing; I don't care as much myself.

-Our site doesn't provide much low-angle open sky; we have trouble seeing to about 10-15 degree from the horizon anyway.

-It seems there's no point in going with 45 degrees to ease extreme low angles. Similarly, 15 and 20 degrees don't seem like enough change from 0 degrees.

Thanks to all! I'll update on the scope when it arrives.

Why bother getting a reflector is it's so darn small? You can afford about the same size of refractor, or if you look for better reflectors you can get a much larger one. For example, look at the Meade factory outlet, linked off the Meade dot come home page:

You could get an ETX-70 EC, for example, for $99 shipped, add a tripod, and have a decent little scope.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Meade-ETX-70-refractor-with-EC-type-keypad_W0QQitemZ7552656318QQcategoryZ74928QQcmdZViewItem

If you're willing to lose computers, you can get a much nicer scope for $175. E.g. pick up a 4.5" f8 Newt tube for only $50 shipped, here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Meade-114NT-Optical-Tube-05114-00_W0QQitemZ7554404099QQcategoryZ28181QQcmdZViewItem

and then get one of these off the classifieds to put it on:
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=386057
or
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=386058

There are often cheap mounts for sale, both alt/az and EQ.

Finally, this is a well known tube with good optics. Sounds a little beat up, but the views through these are considered good:
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=384674

Floyd Blue said:
...This is not a money making proposition, it is a big drain on the economy of Herb and all the others that pay the bills here.

Is that true? I always assumed that the ad fees and sponsor fees and increased business to ATWB produced a net profit, or this wouldn't be here. I mean, lots of people here buy from ATWB who would theoretically not have done so absent AM. Herb's certainly a smart businessman and I have trouble believing he'd dump money into this continually if it was a huge loss.

Yes, this is a common scam, which operates in one of two ways. Either:
a) the seller will ship the otem, only to find that the money order fails to clear (banking regs for international transfers can make it ver confusing, but people tend to think funds have been transfereed when they have not)

or

b) The buyer will have a 'too large' check and ask the seller to send money for the 'extra'.... and (as above) thwe check will fail to clear and the money will go into the ether never to return.

It's actually a tad more complicated but I'll spare you the details. Yes, it's a scam, though.

Young kids have limited viewing times.... I'm guessing if they're anything like my various kids and nephews/neices that keeping them all outide after dark (esp in winter) for more than an hour (if that) will be rare.

Anyway, I'm going to be my usual self and disagree a little

First, I'd note that kids (especially young ones) like bright shiny things. That means moon, planets (Saturn and Jupiter), and the Orion Nebula, as well as the occasional star cluster. Yeah, yeah, we all know children who can stare at double stars for days or who dream about that averted-vision DSO. But really those kids are rare.

conclusion #1: prioritize moon/planet viewing

Second, kids like to touch things. 5 and 6.5 year olds kids like to touch things a LOT. Your scope must be durable. You might also appreciate a scope mount which is unlikely to move if bumped.

conclusion #2: durability / ease of use are paramount.

OK, so far I'm agreeing with the above posters that a 4.5" Dob is a nice tool, easily usable by your younger kids as well.

BUT:

Third: Kids like to look through things, and will do it more if they have more opportunity to do so. Dobsonians are great; they're bang for the buck; they're everyone's favorite scope....

Until you have to go backpacking with one.
Or until you have to hide one in your sleeping bag while you're at lunch.
Or until you want to look at terrestrial things in the daytime.
Or until you have to collimate it.

I think for most families who do NOT otherwise have additional optics, a refractor is a nifty scope. The prevailing thought here is that we should all own binocs, and dobsonians, and spotting scopes,. and... but we usually can't afford all of those.

A refractor in the 80mm to 90mm range will be reasonably cheap. It will be portable. And you can use it to look at birds, deer, etc. in the day (which is nice if you don't have a spotting scope).

I have an 8" Dobsonian myself. I have a 12.5" Dob on order. I have a 62mm waterproof shock resistant flourite spotting scope which isn't designed for astronomy, and only has a 45 degree angle.

When I get my 3 year old out viewing, guess which one I always use; guess which ones she loves? It's not the Dob...

That is simply ridiculous. I can see if people start posting things like this in the Astrophysics thread, but this is the politics forum, is it not?

Some people's politics are moderate or centrist. Others' are extremist. Censoring extremists merely reinforces their (occasionally valid) arguments of suppression. You should not censor this; rather, you should simply ignore it.

Censorship should be used only in extreme situations. This may be an annoying title.... but sadly, it represents a view shared by an unfortunately large number of americans. Lots of people ACTUALLY BELIEVE that (for example) anti-bush = pro-Osama. Are you going to kick them all off the BB, or require them all to "moderate" their speech to avoid offending anyone? Sheesh.

The easy way:
1) Go to http://www.astromart.com/aboutus/supportoptions.asp
2) Choose a level of support.
3) Determine the cost
4) Give them that much extra money and tell them to do it themself.

As it's quick and easy, it's not as if you are saving them time by doing it for them, it's all about the money.

My guess? I'd say lala land. Here's why:

The ETX has been on the market for a while, there are lots of them used. And there are lots of other scopes of that size, for the price. However, there aren't many ED100s on the market, so they command a premium.

Additionally, computerized stuff like the ETX loses value faster as it goes obsolete faster--supercharged or not. Refractors hold their value better as they are harder to damage. And mounts for refractors sell for more as they are usable for multiple scopes. That's why you'll see a greater markdown on an Ultima 2000 or LX200 scope, say, than on an equivalently priced refractor/GEM setup.

And finally, those who might appreciate things like supercharging (which I would never pay $255 for on a 4" ETX, for example) are not going to care about those EPs and barlows, as they'll already own their own, better, ones.


Just my 0.02...

I'm guessing that it's accurate; he's talking about fan speed. You could convert by using:

FPS (velocity of air passing through cooling fan, in feet per second; note this is NOT a unit of volume)

*

12 inches per foot

*

Area (of cooling fan in square inches)

=

CIS (cubic inches per second) of air that the fan is pushing in.

Then you can convert CIS to CFM easily: (CIS * 60) / (12^3) = CFM

I am a longstanding member of photo.net, which is a vaguely similar BB in that itL

-has sponsors

-has an active community forum area

-involves frequent transactions between users of VERY expensive stuff

I have bought and sold thousands of dollars worth of stuff there.

photo.net allows 'free' emails and hasn't had any huge problems. Sure, you could get an ISP. But I'd note that you can sign up for an ISP by mail using a money order with a fake name; you can have the address go to a relatively untraceable address, and you can give a nonworking phone number.

Those who are worried about getting scammed may be putting too much faith in an ISP, and not enough faith in a user's post history and ratings.

Herb's compromise makes sense, and is a good idea.