Posts Made By: Doug Culbertson

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A 24mm Panoptic?? COOL! How was the eye relief on that one, especially as compared to the 19mm Panoptic? This could replace my pair of 19mm Pans and the 27mm Pan...Any idea of price?

Doug
Midway, FL

I ran into this one too and was curious myself. At first I thought it might be the awaited HEQ5 mount, but upon closer inspection, it appears to be the EQ6 with an Orion nameplate on it. If you look at the description for the new 10" Newtonian on the EQ6 mount, the specs listed for the EQ6 and the Titan are exactly the same; 2" tubular steel legs, two counterweights, 30 (or is it 40?) pound weight capacity, and total weight of 54 lbs. The HEQ5 will be using slightly smaller legs, and weighs a bit less, according to the Skywatcher web site.

Doug
Midway, FL

Depends...the Tangent boxes (JMI, Celestron, Orion, etc) require you to level the scope and to achieve certain "warp" factors, while the Sky Commander requires none of those. Simple two star alignment and you are ready to observe. In addition, the Sky Commander has over 9,000 *unique* objects, meaning that (from the Sky Engineering website) "...we do not take the number of objects in each of the included catalogs and total them. That would be an inflated number, as there is a fair amount of overlap. ALL Messier objects are included in the NGC catalog, for example, as are several in the star cluster catalogs and the Uppsala Galaxy Catalog."

The Sky Commander also has an equatorial platform function wherin you can turn off the sidereal clock, and use a reset button so you don't need to realign when you reset the platform. Sky Commander also has a built in dew heater that kicks in when you run it on 12v (it runs on external 12v or internal 9v), but then again the red LED of the Tangent boxes does not require heating. The LCD of the Sky Commander will become really sluggish in very cold weather if you don't use 12v. I like the red LED of the Tangent boxes better, although the green/yellow of the Sky Commander has never bothered me.

All in all, I prefer the Sky Commander, but both work quite well.

Doug
Midway, FL

No, you will not need to purchase it as it comes with the BinoVue. It will not be needed on your SCT anyway, as it is mainly to help reach focus with Newts and refractors. The TV unit also comes with a short hollow barrel that you put on the BV in place of the corrector when using it on your SCT.

Doug
Midway, FL

Here ya go Ron. It appears that there were around 2500 objects in the Herschel catalog. Not sure if ALL of them were discovered by William. It seems that Carolyn did a pretty fair job herself!

http://www.seds.org/billa/herschel/

Doug
Midway, FL

Try reading the book of Ezekiel. There is a chapter )don't recall the specific chapter) that describes a "wheel within a wheel" that comes down from the sky breathing fire, and from which some beings emerge (I believe Ezekiel calls them "angels"). The description sounds a lot like a spacecraft landing, and has been taken by some to be an account of alien visitation...a "close encounter of the third kind", if you will.

Can't believe I even stepped into this forum...

Doug
Midway, Fl

Cool! BTW, Markus, will these be available through TMB's US dealer, or are they only available from Germany? Just hoping to be able to avoid the import duties!

Thanks,
Doug
Midway, FL

This is typical of UPS. I had a similar situation earlier this year involving a mount and tripod. UPS got the mount to me in one piece, but the tripod was wrecked. I filed the claim, UPS picked up the busted tripod, which I had repacked as close to the original packaging as I could get it, and UPS denied the claim as "Insufficient Packing". From what I have heard, UPS will claim this in almost every instance that a claim is filed. In my case the seller packed this thing to where an elephant could have stood on it, so I don't know how they managed to destroy it like they did. The seller filed an appeal, but a settlement was never paid, in spite of the fact that insurance had been purchased. I was out the tripod and the money for it and have not used UPS since then, and I will never use them again.

I have always wondered how much of UPS' profit margin consists of insurance that they sell with no intention of ever paying a claim?

I know it doesn't help, but sorry for your loss...

Doug
Midway, FL

Oh yeah...all scopes that these would be used in are fast: 18" f/4.2, 11" f/5.4 and a f/6.8 Pronto

Doug
Midway, FL