Image of the day

Captured by
christopher hunt

Jupiter

About Astromart

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: Darren Drake

May 28, 2005 11:49 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

90mm OTA only $6750

Posted By Darren Drake
There's an original Stowaway on the mart for $6750. I know one once sold for nearly that much at auction but isn't this a little extreme?

May 31, 2005 08:41 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Why no more Pretorias?

Posted By Darren Drake
Those really cool eyepieces from the early to mid '80s with built in paracors from UO were only a brief fad that soon died after the advent of the paracor. My question here is why? It was a great idea at the time that there be these coma corrected eyepieces that show no significant coma with a fast newt. I would like to see them come back.

June 3, 2005 10:40 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

10 inch AP for 4K??!!

Posted By Darren Drake
The add is gone now but did anyone notice it? Some unrated guy from Italy had the 10 inch mak cass for 4K plus free shipping. A close friend made an offer despite the warning signs and we'll see what happens.

June 5, 2005 06:09 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

WHO actually makes TMB and TAK optics?

Posted By Darren Drake
We all know who makes AP and Starmanter optics but who are the magicians that make the other high end optics? Do they have names?

June 16, 2005 01:59 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

another apo to consider

Posted By Darren Drake
I've been waiting to see how these come out now here they are.
http://www.apogeeinc.com/

June 18, 2005 01:29 AM Forum: After Dark

Past classic eyepieces

Posted By Darren Drake
Anyone have any past classic eyepieces from the '80's and earlier? These are the ones that haven't been available for at least 15 years and you would never part with. My vote is for the Meade 20mm RG It seems that so many who have been in the hobby have this eyepiece including me and never get rid of it.

June 27, 2005 04:51 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

2 galaxies near M13?

Posted By Darren Drake
In the 31 Nagler review here on AM the author mentions how he can see IC 4617 as well as NGC6207 near M13. I never realised this was a doable galaxy in that aperture class. Anyone here ever see it?

September 15, 2005 03:10 AM Forum: Refractors

Apogee's new fluorite triplet

Posted By Darren Drake
A couple years ago a friend came across a Russian made 80mm triplet lens that was untested but had high potential. I've been interested ever since in knowing how this lens would stack up with the other high end apos out there once it was made into a complete scope. Well at astrofest I finally had a chance to see what it can do. It was the shorter focal length version of 480mm as compared to the 600mm. In daylight using artificial stars the scope with a 4mm eyepiece had textbook intra and extra focal diffraction paterns with no noticeable color. In focus views revealed a virtually perfect airy disk with perfect collimation. That scope is definately a winner and if they are all like that one this scope should be another of the high end small apos out there to be considered.

October 2, 2005 10:51 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Interesting lights over Prarie Skies Star Party

Posted By Darren Drake
Saturday morning while at PSSP I recieved word that there were numerous reports over the skies of Tinly Park and Orland Park about 30 miles north of the star party site. These reports made local news as reports said there were three trailing lights moving from the south and were not readily explainable.
OK so there were no reports of anyone seeing these that I know of as they should have been comming from our direction. The next night around 7:48 or so we all did see 2 bright satellite-like objects in Casseopia moving northeastward about 3 degrees from each other. They were very bright around mag -3 and -1 and moved more slowly than most satellites tend to move from low Earth orbit. They quickly dimmed to invisibility after about 30 seconds. I almost saw them through my 18 inch scope but they dissapeared just before getting them in the eyepiece. I'm not at all certain these were the same objects reported the night before but it's certainly possible. At first they appeared to be irridium flares but they seemed to be moving more slowly than normal and they were bright much to long. Can someone out there identify what satellites these were? Anyone ever see these before?

October 5, 2005 12:46 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

New astro magazine

Posted By Darren Drake
Sky at Night is a new BBC magazine that has plenty of equipment reviews as well as observing and astronomy articles. I found it at Borders and my first issue has 2 cd roms I haven't checked out yet. It's the English version of S&T and I think is definately worth a look.

Funding Member

Telescopes, Astronomy, Binoculars

Sponsors


View all sponsors

Search