Posts Made By: Reynaldo Cordero

Kay:

There is absolutely no way that you could have exhausted the capability of a 6 inch instrument already. At least not yet. My opinion is that you are having a case of buyer's remorse. I have had that with every car I have ever own, namely it could be bigger, faster, more economical, etc.

Another thing is that all of those pretty pictures in astronomy books and magazines, as well as the box that your telescope came in set unreasonable expectations about what you can see with your eyes.

Part of this hobby is learning "to see". This is something that is hard to explain but is at the core of what this hobby is all about. Once you reset your expectaions, and train your eye, you can really enjoy what a 6 in DOB has to offer.

A couple of questions:
Have you look at any of the following?
Orion Nebula M42
Open Cluster Alley in Gemini and Auriga (M35, M36, M37 and M38)
The Pleiades (M45)
Any double stars? Castor is an easy one to split at 100x.

All of the above are good targets for your scope.

Have you taken another look at Saturn lately?

Your answer to these questions will help us figure out how to advice you.

Rey

I just bought both Star Watch and Turn Left at Orion online not knowing that there is a lot of duplication in them.

I do like the star charts in Star Watch better but then I know the brighter constellations pretty well by now. The star hopping sequences are well detailed but you would have to know where to look to begin with. The charts in "Turn Left.." however are simpler to read and use and would stand out well with minimal lighting if you want to copy the pages and take them outside to view.

For intermediate level, I agree that Sue French's sampler is great, but it does require the viewer to have developed good star hopping skills. Alternatively, the use of setting circles or an object locator will solve this issue. One of my "best buys" is Storm Dunlop's Sky Atlas with Moon Charts by Rukl and Star Charts by Tirion. A truly beautiful work, and a must have in my opinion.

Rey

Darrell:

You need a lot of help. Not because you spend money on optics; nothing wrong with that. But doing it without the wife's approval! Man, you are brave!!

Would she believe you if you told her you won the scope in a raffle? Does she believe in fairies? Is there anything else you can come up with? Because, I am afraid we will never hear from you again, and Darrell, we want to know how that 12 in dob performs for you.

Gang, we gotta think quick and help Darrell live to tell the tale. Any suggetions?

Rey

Hello Tom and Ed:

Thanks for your responses. By the way, I do have Bob's Knobs installed on all my SCT's. I would not try to collimate without them.

Ed, to answer your question. My comment about the diffraction rings is that with the reducer in place they are concentric on one side of focus but not the other. I have rescrewed the reducer into the visual back a couple of times to see if it made a difference. In any case, if the reducer was set off axis, I would expect that it would create off center concentric rings on both sides of the focus.

As you mentioned, I put the reducer in place for wider field views, generally at low power, where the ill effects of poor collimation would matter the least. I wanted to leave the reducer in place for high mag views more out of convenience than anything else, but don't mind having to remove it if it turns out that affects performance.

I am looking forward to a good night of seeing to see if I can see a difference in resolution on Saturn at comparable magnifications with and without the reducer.

Clear Skies

Rey

Hello:

Saturn is now visible at a reasonable hour and in a retrograde motion.

How about..
Why do planets move backwards and then forwards? Assuming there is a nearby star for reference. This touches on basic physical concepts about frames of reference, and can easily be explained by filming a slowly moving car from your own car window. Is the other car moving forwards, or are you moving backwards?

If you are really ambitious you can film Saturn thru the scope using a webcam for a few hours at high mag and be able to see the movement if the film is then speeded up. Assuming there are stars in the field for reference. There was a good reference star in the field 2 nights ago.

Keep us posted on what you decide.

Rey C

I have a C5 non-XLT which gets a lot of use. I have always liked the C5 a lot because it is small and lite, and has enough aperture to be useful in urban skies. The reviews of the C6 with XLT coatings has caught my attention. I told my wife that I was done buying equipment for a while but the portability and versality of a 6 in SCT is going to be hard to pass.

Rey

Thanks all for your responses.

Up to now, I have been a "visual" kind of person. I would like to try my hand in astrophoto at some point in the future, but don't have any compelling desire to do so at this point. So the feedback to you have given me has not come as terrible news. I was afraid to find out that the deck would not be useful even for visual observation, so all in all, I am encouraged.

After discussing it with my wife, we have decided against modifiyng the plans to include a full length pier through the structure. For one, we live in one of the most light polluted parts of the SF Bay Area, and secondly, it would disrupt the usable space in the room below the deck. Then of course, there is the cost. Construction costs around here are nothing short of absurd.

Besides, this gives me further impetus to pursue my dream to buy undeveloped land under dark skies for a more sophisticated observatory setup.

Another question: are portable piers better at handling vibrations than standard tripods?

Thanks again and clear skies to all.

Rey

Hi Jeff;

You made me feel homesick. I have been in El Yunque dozen of times ( I grew up in San Juan ), and always make a point of stopping by when I visit my family. It is one of my favorite spots in the world (of course I have a bias).

As for the bird population, there are seasonal variations as it is a way station for migratory birds. It depends on what part of the island you look. I did not get into birding until I left for the continental US but suspect that there is much to see.

Keep posting

Rey

Just out of curiosity. Did they ever figure out who the Ultima belonged to?
RC