Posts Made By: Ron Bee

Sean McGrath said:

I have it, and I highly recommend it! I am using on my TOA-130. It does not have the spongy feel or the rough spots that I experienced with the takahashi micro edge focuser.

It gives a very solid feel.

Here's a crappy pic for you.

Wow Sean, that looks like it's part of the original Tak - very well executed by Starlight Instrument!

One question: with that huge eyepiece you have in the picture and pointed up at the zenith, if you tighten the focuser tension screw a lot, is the micro-focusing still smooth or still? In other words, is the micro-focuser smoothness governed by how much you tighten the tension screw?

Thanks,
Ron B[ee]

Have you spoken to the seller about the problem, Richard? Maybe you can get him/her to discount the $215 off the total price or at least split the cost? BTW, the $215 includes complete service, i.e. scrubbingly ;-) cleaning job etc. in addition to collimation.

Ron B[ee]

Allen Tracht said:

I'd appreciate your suggestions for a wide-field scope that would complement (and maybe piggyback on) a C9.25, primarily for visual work. I'm thinking about a Televue NP101, with a reasonable aperture and wide FOV, but I'm open to suggestions.

Allen

You're thinking much wisely Allen ;-). The NP101 has a very wide and also very flat field with enough aperture to nail those huge objects that won't fit into the C9.25.

Ron the 4-inch Tall Evangelist B[ee]

Most interesting, Alan!

And thank you for mentioning the book which I haven't known about. I know I can always count on learning new things from your post. I just went to Amazon and they have it listed plus ability to preview some pages of the book; look like a must have for a lunartic like me ;-).

Thanks,
Ron B[ee]

In my opinion, the "sweet spot" is greatly dependent on the object to be viewed and the 1.5-3mm may turn into a "sour spot" ;-). For instance, 1.5mm exit pupil is way to bright and too low of a magnification in both my 8" Dob and my 4" TV-102 APO ;-) when viewing Mars. Even with DSO, some objects can benefit from less exit pupil (i.e. more magnification) such as GC and PN ;-).

Perhaps for this reason, many of us have a eyepiece case full of eyepieces (eg. Floyd needs a suitcase ;-).

Ron B[ee]

David Colton said:

For high power viewing with my TV102 I have a 7.5mm Sirius Plossl and a 6.4 Meade Plossl. I was thinking of getting an Abbe Orthoscopic in the 4mm range, but I have been finding that it is uncomfortable looking through such a small aperture eyepiece. Therefore I am saving my money for a “premium” 4mm or 5mm eyepiece. Considering the price of a Nagler as being the most I can afford, what other brands would you recommend?

Hello there Fella TV-102 David,

In addition to the excellent 5mm NT6, I would also highly recommend 5mm and 4mm Radian for your TV-102. When Mars gets bigger later this year and if you get excellent seeing from time to time, you may wish to consider the 3mm Radian as well. The TV-102 at 293x on Mars in very good seeing is a wonderous sight. BTW, I've compared my 5mm NT6 and 5mm Radian and other than the obvious eyerelief, AFOV and lateral color difference, I couldn't find anything I could see in one that I couldn't see in the other, nor contrast, nor brightness differences.

Alternatively, you may want to consider the 3-6mm Nagler zoom. Although the eye relief of 10mm is a little uncomfortable to me (which is still far better than the 4mm ortho), I can pull back a little bit for a comfortable view (sacrificing only a bit of the AFOV).

Best wishes to your quest.

Ron the 4-inch Tall Evangelist B[ee]

At seeing 3/10, I would have packed it in right away and not bother with visual observation; Mars would have been all marshy ;-) at the eyepiece.

Now that I'm little over the shock, here's the photo by the same imager from his 10" Newt with Royce mirror.
http://alanchuhk.sev84.001at.com/P030827a.jpg
Aperture wins ;-).

Oh, I forgot to post a link to the source of all these.
http://alanchuhk.sev84.001at.com/
While there do take a look at some of his Moon shots!

Ron B[ee]

Carl Gall said:

I have a 8" and 10" Orion f5 Dobs. I have NP101, and have been comparing the dobs against the APO on Jupiter. Both Dobs are a litte fuzzier than the APO. The moons are not nice and tight like the APO. The question I have is this way it is on all reflectors? Is it maybe my mirrors. I have though about sending the 10" mirror off to Swayze to be test or refigured. Any one have any ideas.

Well Carl, I can't answer the 10-inch question but I can give you comment on the 8-inch. And BTW you've got a very fine NP101 indeed!

I have an 8-inch Discovery f/6 PDHQ Dob with enhanced mirror and small secondary (19%). I think it has a pretty good mirror (I've got a Ronchi eyepiece to test it ;-). When seeing permits, the view of Jupiter is extremely sharp (except the 4 rays ;-) emanating out from the planet of course due to the 4 vane secondary). The swirls and the ovals were well edged. Of course, the view from my 4-inch TV-102 APO is very sharp too but never as detailed as in the 8-incher (unless the seeing is bad). You can get some idea of what I saw here.
http://www.cloudynights.com/observe/ronbee/Jupiter/Jupiter-050804-PDHQ.html
http://www.cloudynights.com/observe/ronbee/Jupiter/Jupiter-050904.html

So if you're seeing fuzzy image, the possibilities are:
A) The culprit seeing :-(
B) The scope has not cooldown completely, or not collimated (f/5 is sensitive to collimation). I usually let mind cooldown at least 1 hour to be safe or put the house fan to the mirror ;-).
C) Dew? You never know ;-)
D) Not such a good eyepiece?
E) Dirty mirror - I got a good taste of this earlier this year :-( and will result in fuzzy image.
F) Lastly but hopefully not, it could be bad optics :-(.

Ron B[ee]

Floyd Blue said:

Hahahha!
Semi-ED, now what the heck is that?

It's elementary my dear Floyd. Let's say the real ED glass has X chemicals in N parts per thousand. The semi-ED glass must then have X chemicals in N/C parts per thousand ;-) where C is the amount of aclaimed color corrections less than the real ED glass.

Is my explanation semi-clear ;-)?

Ron B[ee]

Paul Maxson said:

Hi all,

I heard a rumor....actually more than a rumor as it came from IAUU, that there is a 13-14 mag Supernova in M51 right now. Has anyone heard or looked?

Paul Maxson

Yup, here's the link Paul. I'm planning to try to observe it.
http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=344761&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

Ron B[ee]