Posts Made By: Donnie Bigers

What part of the country do you live in, if I may ask? I live in Wesetern Ky. I rarely get nights where I can push 300x, in any scope. The jetstream seems to dip down right where I live. I have only had 5-7 nights since 2000 when I could really say that I could see much more at 300x as opposed to 220x or so. This through a variety of scopes. The reason I say 2000 is because from Christmas until New Years back then I had 5 nights in a row which were rock steady, ubelievable seeing.

Perhaps the seeing where you are at was not that great that night. Looks can be deceiving. Examine the in focus airy disc of a star and see if it appears stable. They should be easy to see with a 4" scope. Also, I have found that the moon can provide a good test of seeing sometimes as well. Try about 200x near the terminator. There is plenty of texture along the terminator. At that power and with a really bad night of seeing around here I can see the turbulence in the atmosphere. The tiny details blue then get sharp then blur again. On good nights at the same power the detail is all there and never waivers. Again, this with a variety of scope from 80mm up to 12".

One last thing. Planetary viewing can be an exercise in frustration depending on your local seeing. However, even with great seeing some details are only visible in fleeting moments as some people put it. Patience is rewarded. But some nights it doesnt matter if you are patient or not, the sky doesnt cooperate.

I suggest if you have not already, take your scope to a local club. Have someone there check the scope out if you are truly unsure. Better yet, view with them with your scope and theirs. Preferrably a similiar aperture scope. Only then will you be able to rule out bad seeing or bad a bad scope, unless every member there has a bad scope as well, which is unlikely.

Good luck.

Actually I think many of their scopes are/were made this way. I had an Ultima 9.25 for a few years. I have also encountered several 9.25's since owning that one. I too noted the lack of holes in the rear assembly on all of them. They were on German EQ's. Evidently Celestron manufactured different rear assemblies for their scopes, depending on what series it was for.

Congrats Floyd. I owned the 127ED briefly. I think unless you are super critical you will be quite pleased with the color correction. Assuming you get a good one.

One thing you will want to do is join the Yahoo Group for these refractors. There are explicit instructions there on not only the collimation but also the lens centering procedure--should yours need to be re-centered.

If it has the newer cell then you can adjust it yourself. If it has the older cell then it will most likely have to be sent to Meade for the upgraded cell.

I got mine from Mark Rieck. I enjoyed it, but in the end it was a bit bigger setup than I was willing to take out each night. I performed the centering adjustments just to see if I could do it, based on the instructions on the Yahoo Group. The scope arrived well aligned, but I tried it just to be sure. Because the scope uses FPL-51 I believe, the curves are quite steep to maintain color correction. Unfortunately the steep curves can be problematic with regard to decentering.

The one I had was a very good performer. A serious CCD imager would probably not be satisfied with the color correction, but for visual I found it to be quite a bargain. One last thing. I really liked the focuser on the Meade ED's. Once adjusted it was smooth as butter and solid. Although often maligned, I think these scopes are much better mechanically and quality than the SCT's they produce. I think you will be quite pleased with how "solid" these scopes are. Good luck, look forward to a first light report.

Donnie

Hi Floyd. Did you join the group I mentioned to you before about these scopes? There is a wealth of information there.

One thing you can do right away is use a cheshire to see if collimation is way off. You can do this indoors. Put the cap on the telescope and check the reflections that you see using the cheshire. You will see a series of reflections that look like donuts. They should of course stack on top of each other concentrically.

If you have not done so yet I strongly suggest you join the group. These instructions are more detailed there. Also, if you get into the centering of the lens. Be advised about the setscrews for that. Generally there are two screws in each hole. One is a cover. Remove it and there will be another one inserted below it. That one actually does the movement on the lens. If I were you I would check each hole first before attempting to adjust it (if needed at all). I have heard reports of more than two screws in each hole, which could be confusing.

I would remove screws from each hole until you are sure there are no more in that hole. Do it one at a time, then put them back in and move to the next hole. Its better to know before you start, because you might think you are adjusting it when actually it is not the lowest screw. I have also heard of some where there was only one in each hole.

Again though. the group has great files and text isntructions that are very detailed on how to perform any of these steps. Good luck, hope you got a good one.

There is a Y**** group for these and other Meade ED refractors. There are very good instructions in the file area there on how to do the collimation. Diagrams of the lens cell along with the location of the screws.

Just remember that the main culprit with these is lens decentering, not just collimation within the OTA. The individual lenses have to be centered pretty accurately with regard to each other (laterally). Because of the steep curves the lens design uses, lens decentering has a quick and detrimental effect. The newer lens cells have these adjustments.

I had a Meade 127ED a couple of years ago. I fiddled with it using those instructions and was able to return it back to collimation easily. It arrived in collimation from the seller here on Astromart, but I couldnt leave well enough alone. After a couple of times it was effortless.

However, if after reading the instructions there and you dont feel comfortable or if it is a recent purchase from Meade, then send it back. But, having owned one before I will tell you that it isnt hard to do and after a few tries it becomes second nature.

Good luck.

As Jon said. You might have to be more specific about what you mean regarding "usual commercial businesses."

If you are referring to the commercial metal tube dobs or truss designs, then you might look into the premium options that Jon pointed out. Premium optics and premium craftsmanship with regard to the woodworking and movements.

They are commercial as well, but for most of them it seems it is a love of labor. I have not seen too many premium dobs that I was not impressed with. They are very beautiful to look at and with the excellent mirrors in most of them, they are a sight to look through as well. The movements in particular can really set them apart from the lesser dobs of the world.

One thing to point out though. If you don't have a lot of experience with dobs in general, you might want to find a buddy with a dob that you can "test drive". Dobs are not for everyone, plain and simple. Especially if you are accustomed to the tracking provided by an equatorial mount. Having said that, if you need tracking, EQ platforms can provide that too. And with a dob on an EQ platform, the eyepiece will never get in the strange positions it can on a normal EQ mount.

I don't know what your experience is, just putting this out there, hopefully it is of use. But you definitely want to try before you buy if you don't have any experience with dobs. It can be expensive to try out one of the premium dobs only to find out that dobs in general are not for you. Resale value on dobs, even the high end ones is not the best these days.

Personally I love dobs. Lot of bang for the buck and very comfortable to use, for me anyway. Good luck.

Generally when a transaction is finished I will send a follow up message. Basically thanking them and letting them know that everything was ok. Somewhere in that message I will mention that it was a pleasure doing business with them and that I am leaving positive feedback for them and ask if they will reciprocate. I go ahead and tell them I am leaving feedback. Perhaps it is the guilty conscience but they usually leave feedback as well.

Some people just need a reminder, they are busy and forget. However, some people need a stick over the head. There are more than a few people who have dozens of ratings given to them and they have given only 5 or 6 back. I don't mess with those people. I look at that stuff before I even reply to an ad.

It is still showing up. If you click the yes/no checkbox for displaying found/sold items you will see it shows up. The seller marked it as sold, which in the filtered view makes it disappear. It is still there.

I will say that many users delete ads. I like looking through older ads, it makes that more difficult. I guess I should find more constructive things to do when it is cloudy.

As for the ratings. It could be that a person that rated you previously has now been banned. They are gone and any ratings related to them are as well. Just a guess.

Another source is what some people call the mid life crisis. Mainly guys, who have had the Astronomy bug since they were young. Now they have income that they never had before. They research until they are blue in the face and then buy a hundred things they never use. Realizing that it is more work than they envisioned or their interest wasn't as strong as they had thought. You see this often with astrophotography gear too. Learning curve is steep there and after seeing the beautiful images that others produce, many people can't help but think they can do it too. Many can, but just as many or more fail miserably and take a loss on the equipment.

I know of two people personally who went this route. At first I felt bad because it was after observing with me their interest was rekindled. I advised them to start with something small and see how the interest held up. But they insisted on only the best gear. Next thing you know they have a closet or garage full of unused astro gear.