Posts Made By: George Blahun

Jim:
Thanks for responding to both questions and especially the second. You and I share one thing in common, my dad was in the Coast Guard for 38 yrs and I grew up on the grounds of the USCG Academy. While there were certainly many benefits to that life, by the time I was 18 I was so sick of it, I turned down (an error in retrospect) an appointment to the corp of cadets. Anyhow, I do believe you are as sincere about your opinions as I am and appreciate your willingness to share your background.
I am sure we will have many more debates about the things we each see, feel and think, but it's nice to know there is some commonality amidst the disagreements.

George

I couldn't help but notice the license plate seems a tad more reflective than typical. Was that modified also?

George

Rob:
What a superb instrument, you do first rate work. There is something inherently appealing about a large long focal length refractor. Please let us see more photos when it's mounted.

George

Oh man, just when I thought my dream setup would be the Fujinons on a parallelogram mount.

George

Maybe I am way off in questioning this, but is it possible this was not an impact but an ejection of some type? Perhaps it's just coincidental the equatorial belt this occurred in has changed in appearance radically over the recent past.

Bernie, what are the test results? It doesn't sound like a "run of the mill" mirror, but if the data includes a Strehl it would help its value.

George

Hello Ed, good luck with your new project. I have built several refractors, the last one was with a 5 inch Ceragioli made achromat. If you are doing this as a learning experience and a fun thing to do it will be all that and more. If you are doing this in anyway to save money, I'd double check your calculations. A 72 inch or 90 inch refractor is a beast to use and mount. You'll need a nice (expensive) tracking mount and while you color correction for an achromat will be as good as they get, it won't be perfect on every object. After selling both of my projects for slightly less than I paid for everything, I now use a TEC-140. Assuming you are undaunted, I'd contact Hastings to get an aluminum tube or as I did on a couple of occasions made carbon fiber tubes from scratch (BIG job). Focusers show up on AM all the time, I used a 2.7 inch AP. Since I'm a binoviewer guy I cut the tube short and used an extension tube for single eye use. Getting the OTA together really isn't the big deal, once it's together you'll look at this big scope and see how substantial a mount must be to carry it well. Of course you won't want to skimp on the diagonal so a 2 inch quartz dielectric will be needed to take full advantage of the D&G achromat. Rings and dovetails are also easy to find at moderate expense but you'll need to decide on the mount before the dovetail is purchased. Flocking the inside of the tube or adding baffles is really going to be essential. Let me know what else you have or give some more design criteria and I can point you to some specific places for parts and help. You'll occasionally find used tubes here on AM, but chances are nothing as large or robust as you'll need. You'll want heavy tubing so nothing flexes.

George

When I owned a Nagler 31, it received many compliments in all the scopes I placed it in. 1.3 degrees is pretty impressive and you can save some bucks over the Ethos (also very nice).

George

Refet:
Hello, I am almost exclusively a binoviewer. I use 24mm Panoptics in my Denk II BV with Power X switch and obtained them after using the 19mm Panoptics. There is nothing wrong with the 19mm Pans, but with your power X switch you'll have a nice range which will include the widest field you can see in a 1.25 inch eyepiece with the 24mm Pans. The 24mm Panoptitcs I think would be the first choice and the 19mm version not far behind, but the difference is observable and worth the extra $. I have used this combination in refractors, SCTs, reflectors, Maks etc. Unless I get a Binoviewer with 2 inch eyepiece capability, I'll probably stick with my 24mm Pans.

George

This makes me long for the old cold war days. The Soviets didn't want to die anymore than we did. The modern terrorists don't really care.