Posts Made By: John Cronin

I recently took my C8 Deluxe out and after mounting it noticed that something was wrong with the RA drive. I have tried to be circumspect about not moving the scope in RA while it was locked down, but after opening the battery cover to peer into the drive I discovered the worm gear has come off of the RA drive motor's shaft!
It seems to me that if I take the fork arms and scope off the rest of the mount (ie by removing the bolt in the center of the forks, above the center of the tripod), I should be able to put the gear back on the shaft.
Are there any gotchas I need to look out for?

I am looking for a good wide-field low-power eyepiece for a 12.5 inch F5 truss dob. I wear glasses and have very mild astigmatism.

I am looking in the $200 and down range. Right now the Meade UWA 32 and Siebert 36mm have caught my eye. The 36mm seems like it might be sharper at the edges but I am over 40 and a 7mm exit pupil is probably too large.

I already have Meade 32mm Super Plossl and Celestron Ultima 30.

My Siebert 36mm Observatory arrived on Saturday, and for once the sky was clear - at least for a while. It was also first light for my 12.5 inch F5 dobsonian. I got everything together and collimated just as daylight was fading away. I don't get a lot of time to observe - busy life and rainy winters right now. I also had a lot of new toys to play with, so I only spent part of the time really evaluating the Siebert 36 Observatory in any way, but I did end up using it a LOT, as it was quickly apparent it was my best low-power eyepiece.

The appearance of the 36mm Observatory is nicely different from my other commercial eyepieces. Lots of visible aluminum, and nicely finished. I also appreciate the relatively light weight. My dob could not focus out quite far enough to bring this eyepiece in focus, so I had to slide the eyepiece out slightly in the focuser. Luckily the 36mm Observatory is fairly long and I still felt secure that the eyepiece would not fall out. I have the same problem with my two Meade UltraWides (8.8 and 14) but I don't feel secure with them slid out slightly in the two inch focuser - the skirts are too short. I prefer to use them in my helical fine focus adapter which is also a 2 inch to 1.25 inch adapter.

As for the view, it was very good. Nice wide field of view - I could get the 7 bright stars of the Pleiades in the FOV with a little room to spare, something I cannot do on the same scope with a Celestron Ultima 30 or Meade 32mm Super Plossl. The image was flat and sharp to near the edge. I seem to remember it getting slightly soft at the VERY edge - maybe the last 3 or 5% of the radius, but I need to confirm that. I also seem to remember the field stop being just a little less sharp than on my Meade Ultrawides - not bad, and just vaguely softer. I looked at this for a while, trying to figure out if it was a problem, or if the edge of the field stop was fuzzy - it wasn't it just didn't seem quite as sharply defined as on the two Meade UWAs I was also using.

As a point of comparison, the view through my Meade SWA 13.8mm on my F5 scopes is just awful - severely distorted image starting about halfway out the radius. No amount of refocusing could make the outer edge look anything close to decent. It looked fine barlowed to F10, but at F5 the Meade SWA 13.8 is just horrible. The Celestron Ultima 30 and Meade 32mm Super Plossl did just fine at F5, as did the Meade 26mm Super Plossl.

I have never looked through a 35mm Panoptic, but for the price and performance I am getting from the 36mm Observatory I would need to be totally amazed by a look through the 35 Panoptic to consider spending the extra money. I consider my money well spent and consider the Siebert to be one of my three best eyepieces (along with the Meades UWAs).

I also got a Siebert 2X 2-inch Ultra Barlow, but I did not really evaluate it. I did look through it a fair bit, and certainly didn't notice anything wrong with it. Later I plan to compare it to my other three barlows (Orion Shorty Plus, University Optics Klee and GSO 2X 2 inch).

I also have to add that Harry Siebert is a very nice person to deal with. I talked with him on the phone several times, and he was very helpful. I can't say enough good things about him personally.

I recently purchased a 12.5 inch F5 Obssession-stye dob from Astro Sky. It has a Discovery premium primary (2 inch thick) and a Discovery premium secondary, with a Moonlite CR1 focuser. My other telescopes are a Celestron Celestar 8+ SCT, a Celestron 80mm F5 achromat refractor, and a Hardin Optical 10 inch F5 dob. I find the Hardin dob huge to move around, and hard to collimate because I can't see into the tube while turning the collimation knobs. The new dob is a nice step up for me, and proves to be the best telescope I own.

The Astro Sky dob was purchased at a very good price, with a few included accessories (Telrad, Shroud, Cover, Fan). Overall I am pleased. No instructions were included, but I got a copy of the Kriege/Berry classic text, and this is frankly all I needed.

I was so excited about getting the new telescope that I basically went wild and bought the following items over the last couple of weeks: Cat's Eye collimation kit, Meade UWAs in 8.8mm and 14mm, Siebert 36mm Observatory Eyepiece and 2X 2-inch Ultra Barlow, Meade SWA 13.8mm, Meade 32mm Super Plossl, Nagler 3-6mm zoom, GSO 2-inch 2X barlow, University Optics Klee Barlow, and Clear Skies Helical Fine Focus Adapter. I can't mention enough how understanding my wife has been about all of this - I would marry her again in a minute.

To be honest, I got some of these things (Meade SWA 13.8, GSO 2-inch Barlow, Meade 32mm Super Plossl) only to decide to spend more money (in one case because a great deal package deal came up and I couldn't say no to it) and get something better (Meade UWAs, Siebert 2X Ultra Barlow, Siebert 36mm Observatory Eyepiece).

I got the dob assembled and collimated before nightfall on Saturday. I didn't use the auto-collimator - I used an Orion Laser and Orion sight tube I already had, plus the Cat's Eye Cheshire. This proved to be good enough for the first round, as it was getting dark and I have not used an autocollimator before. I wanted to start looking through my new scope instead of fiddling around with the auto-collimator in the dark.

The observing conditions were not ideal. It was fairly clear to start with, but I live 30 minutes north of downtown Atlanta, so light pollution is a huge issue - I can usually just barely make out Polaris, and I can't see any of the other stars in the Little Dipper. Unfortunately, my best view from home is to the south, directly toward downtown. To make matters worse, a neighbor to the south was having a Christmas party and his house was literally lit up like a Christmas tree. Then another neighbor to the south lit up the fireplace and started filling the sky with smoke, and some clouds started coming in. Sigh. At least it stopped raining - it was cloudy or raining for the first week after the new dob arrived - I didn't even see the Sun for a week, seriously!

But I wasn't about to let that stop me from visiting some old favorites, at the very least. I got the telrad calibrated and began with the Pleiades. Nice, but even with the Siebert 36mm I can just barely get the seven brightest stars in the FOV - too bad I am not willing to spend the money at this point for a 31mm Nagler. I could not see M15 (trees) but I could see Albireo in Cygnus. I also looked through the heart of Cygnus at the stars of Milky Way for a while.

Orion started to come up, and though it was low in the sky, I turned my attention that way. I found the Nebula, and as you may imagine it was not a bright as I might like because of all the light pollution.

I took out the Siebert 36 (my finder eyepiece) and put in the Meade UWA 8.8mm - wow, do I see six stars in the Trapezium? I am pretty sure I do. I gaze at this wonder for a few minutes, fiddling with the helical fine focuser. I am sure I see six stars, no question. I actually went inside to Google "Orion trapezium" and try to find an image - darn, cable modem picks this rare moment to be flaky. Later, I do find an image and the fifth and sixth stars are where I saw them, so it wasn't wishful thinking or imagination!

At this point Saturn comes up over the trees, but is still quite low. I can't resist and point towards it. Bam! Cassini division with less trouble than I ever had before, even with the C8 (even after cooling down for several hours), despite all the atmosphere and light pollution! Three moons too, I think. I like my new telescope, and I guess the collimation must be right! I really wanted Jupiter to come up too.

Less impressive was Andromeda (M31) - just a fuzzy blob, too much light pollution. I didn't even bother looking for M33. At this point clouds started coming in, and while waiting for them to pass I looked at random stars in sucker holes while comparing eyepieces and such. I meant to get up in the morning and check out Jupiter, but I over slept and missed it - no problem, Jupiter should be prime in January.

My overall impressions of some of the equipment:

12.5 inch F5 Dob with Discovery premium optics: I like it, but as always there could be improvement. The truss tubes go into eight separate clamp blocks - I think I might replace these with a Moonlite setup, and get longer tubes while I am at it, as none of my three 2-inch eyepieces would come into focuse without pulling them out a bit, which made me nervous in the case of the Meade UWAs. I had balance issues with the Meade UWAs, and at low altitudes with the Siebert 36mm, so I need to come up with a cure for that. I am not crazy about the sling setup in the Obsession-style mirror cell, but it will be a while before I do anything about that. Nothing against this dob, I just don't like the sling. The optics were better than I expected, though the skies were not conducive for a good star test the results with the Trapezium and Saturn promise plenty of good things to come. Definitely fits in a closet better than the 10 inch Chinese dob, and is far better in use too.

Kriege/Berry Dob book: If you have a dob, you need this book! Dob owner's manual, even if you don't want to build a telescope or even modify one.

Siebert 36mm: I like it a lot, it is sure to be one of my most-used eyepieces. I have a review of this in the Eyepieces forum so I won't repeat it here. This is my finder eyepiece for star hopping with the new dob.

Meade UWAs: Excellent, I want to get a 6.7mm now too. I got these on sale, as the new Meade 5000 series is coming and the Meade 4000 series are being closed-out by many vendors. Really, I can't say enough good things about them. The UWA 14 is a beast though - about the size of a beer can, and heavy. How does this compare in size with a 31mm Nagler? If the TermiNagler is even bigger, that is one beast of an eyepiece.

Meade 13.8 SWA: Not suitable at all for an F5 telescope. It is not good in my F5 achromat refractor either. Horrible in the F5 dobs, to the point that I can't use it. Fine barlowed to F10 in the dobs, but not very useful to me at that power - I would much rather get a 6.7mm UWA. This one's going up for sale.

Clear Skies Helical Fine Focus Adapter: I like it, and it makes a nice 2 inch to 1.25 inch adapter too. The Meade UWAs feel very stable in this adapter. The laser collimator works well in this gadget too, and it is easy to check the laser's collimation by spinning the focuser around.

Moonlite CR1 focuser: I like it - this is my first Crayford focuser.

Nagler 3-6mm zoom: Got it as part of a package deal, and it's interesting but too much power for the dob, and too narrow FOV considering I could be using a 6.7 UWA instead. Sale pending as we speak, might as well let somebody else use it and recoup some of my cost (or future expenses!).

Cat's Eye collimation kit: I like the red triangle center spot - oriented the points with my collimation knobs. The 2 inch Cheshire is nice, I want a 2 inch sight tube now. I didn't use the Autocollimator yet, so I can't report on that.

Meade 32mm Super Plossl: Originally I intended to to use this as my finder eyepiece, before I got a deal I couldn't refuse that included the Siebert 36mm, which is an eyepiece I really wanted. The Meade is fine, good image to the edge, but my Celestron Ultima 30 seems a bit better. Even after looking through my fancy new eyepieces, when I looked through the Celestron Ultima I was surprised at how much I still liked it. I wonder if I will feel the same way about the Ultima 18mm and 12.5mm?

The Barlows: It's a long story, I wanted a 2 inch barlow, got the GSO, then the Siebert came as part of a package deal. I got the Klee on a whim, to get a bit more magnification from some of my eyepieces - the price was right. I really didn't do any serious comparisons - didn't look through the GSO at all, to be honest. I also have an Orion Shorty Plus, which I have used a lot and like. I see a Barlow comparison in my future.

Sorry for the length of this, as you may be able to tell I am excited to have so many new toys!

I have never seen or held a Nagler 31mm in person. How does it compare in size and weight to the Meade 14mm UWA?

I know what a stickler we are for correct personal info in the interest of preventing fraud, so despite my leanings toward "live and let live", I have to confess here that I find this odd: Two unrated people named Bill with different last names, in different towns in Missouri about 30 miles apart, selling what seems to be the same scope, using almost identical words. See ads 347874, 347725 and 342760.

Money and availability no object - Porsche 917-30

If it has to be something affordable, a Datsun 240Z or Dodge Challenger convertible with 440.

Vixen did sell an ED (not Fluorite) 102mm scope that had an FL of 9, I believe. Ed Ting, among many others, has reviewed it. Vixens still sells a version of it, and it is available from our sponsor, among others:

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=1&pid=4715&m=

Reports say it is a good value, and while not as color-free as the Vixen 102 Fluorite, it is alleged to be quite acceptable.

In classified ad 356598 a Televue NP127 with all standard accessories is offered for $3200. This seems a bit suspicious to me, as it is offered by an unrated Astromarter from out of the USA. Nothing wrong with being from out of the USA, just that most Astromart users are in the USA.

Maybe it makes sense in pounds? That 3200 British sterling would be about $5,800, which sounds reasonable. Euros doesn't make sense because that would be about $3,900, which is still quite low.

In any event, caveat emptor. If the seller demands wire transfer or escrow, I would be VERY suspicious.

I am looking for a larger grab-and-go scope than my ST80, and one without the "violent violet" I get at high-powers with the ST80 (which is to be expected from an F5 achromat). Currently, a Borg 101ED and a Vixen ED102SS are available in the classifieds. Has anybody looked through the Vixen ED102SS, and if so, what was the view like? Also, how much did the scope weigh? I want to be able to use a light mount, as one of my biggest needs is quick setup and take-down.