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Posts Made By: Philip Blanda

February 6, 2008 05:48 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

RGB filter set for ST-8E

Posted By Philip Blanda
I scored a used ST-8E for $1000 here on Astromart. Now I need an RGB filter set for it. Astrodon, Custom Scientific, Astronomik and Orion from $$$$ to $.

I'm leaning to Astronomik as they are IR blocked and, based on price only (!), appear to be decent enough. But are they? Will I get halos around stars with them? Is the OIII passband messsed up so my color balance on emission nebula will be hard to correct?

Is the Orion set good enough to take excellent RGB pics with an ST-8E? They aren't IR blocked but that can be solved.

Lay it on me. What do you all think?

February 26, 2008 03:09 AM Forum: Refractors

Interesting TMB 130SS review

Posted By Philip Blanda
Interesting TMB 130SS review posted here on Astromart. Check it out in the Reviews section. Or click:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=633

Philip

March 7, 2008 09:16 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

Any way to see your support history?

Posted By Philip Blanda
Is there any way to see ones own support history besides bothering Herb? I think I did so twice, but can't recall...

Prolly time to do so again in any case!

Philip

March 2, 2009 02:48 PM Forum: Refractors

4" APO too big or too small?

Posted By Philip Blanda
My smallest refractor is 4" used on a Giro mount (AP Traveler 105mm f/5.8). I occasionally wish that the setup was even smaller and lighter, especially when traveling. The length and weight of the tripod and mount needed is a bit of a drag. Oftentimes I will use my f/6 5.1" APO (AP 130EDF) on the Giro mount which is almost as easy as the 4" but does require the use of the counterweight and the size of the 5" is a bit more than the 4".

On the other hand, going below a 4" APO, especially from my light polluted locale would stink. One must use more magnification than one wants to dim the field to fight the light pollution and the 4" runs out of light fast. An 80mm APO would be almost useless I fear. On planets the 4" is OK, but when bumping the magnification the exit pupil shrinks to such an extent that floaters become an issue. A smaller APO would be that much worse.

On the third hand (Moties!) my 5.1" APO is just too big to be the smallest grab & go. What I want is the portability of an 80mm with the views of the 130mm. Argh.

Perhaps that is just what the 4" APO is for - a compromise. Thoughts?

Philip

March 7, 2009 07:26 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

3/7/09 50mm Lunt observation

Posted By Philip Blanda
The weather here in NJ was lovely this morning, high at 71F. I broke out my 50mm Lunt H-alpha filter mounted on my AP Traveler for a brief morning view. Noticed nice solar mottling and two decent proms at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock and a smaller one at 4 o'clock and several smaller ones around the limb.

Very nice - the Lunt 50mm was one of my better purchases.

Philip

March 7, 2009 07:31 PM Forum: Meade

Will they survive?

Posted By Philip Blanda
Will they survive? I hope that Coronado and the Meade high end products (SCT, etc.) make it through these hard times. No doubt there will be some casualties this down cycle, the only question is who.

Philip

March 19, 2009 04:30 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Lunt stays in tune for weeks at a time

Posted By Philip Blanda
I have a Lunt 50FHa/B600 and something that I'm surprised about is I now rarely touch the etalon tuning wheel on the filter. It has been set and each time I take out the filter it works with the previous setting untouched.

I was expecting to have to adjust it each time I viewed but so far this is not the case at all. I can see proms and surface mottling across the whole disc - no sweet spots or poor spots - it's all good and needs no adjustment from session to session - so far across many weeks. Impressive for such a (relatively) inexpensive filter.

Philip

March 22, 2009 01:48 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Coronado web site up

Posted By Philip Blanda
Yippie! Looks good, all is well!

May 23, 2009 10:11 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Is the Lunt 50mm supposed to be this good?

Posted By Philip Blanda
X-posted. Apologies if you've seen this before but I want Amart to have more discussions, so I'll contribute my own here, for what it's worth.

I had my 50mm Lunt filter (LS50FHa/B600) out today (5/23/2009) and the seeing was fairly decent. The mottling displayed across the solar disk was even and sharp, the larger active region had a nice dark condensation and was very prominent, and prominences where visible at several points which including a large faint swarm of them together and three small but bright other ones.

Is a 50mm supposed to be this good? I was mostly viewing at 25X to get a full solar disk. This filter is the best astro bargain I ever got at my pre-order price of $699.

Philip


April 13, 2005 11:53 PM Forum: Refractors

The Purple Planet Eater, aka "UltraViolet Refracto

Posted By Philip Blanda
Oh yeah baby! I like it. Perhaps AP, TMB & TEC will offer this paint scheme as standard!

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