Posts Made By: Garry Johnson

I've read about people using BV's with other scopes equiped with the solarmax filters but I can't find anything about using BV's with the Maxscope.

Does this combo work? Any comments, positive or negative about this setup would be greatly appreciated.

Should I post this question to the Coronado forum instead of this forum?

I am trying to figure out a way to mount the PST on top of my Nexstar 80GT.

The only solution I have come up with so far is to order tube rings from Orion (part #7370) and just use the one ring with the 1/4 - 20 bolt on it. See attached photo (sorry about the poor quality).

That should be as stable as putting the PST directly on a camera tripod, shouldn't it?

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Also, is there a cheaper source for tube rings with the 1/4 - 20 bolt?

Garry

I recently purchased a Nexstar 80GT (80mm f/5 refractor) and was very dissapointed with the views I was getting. I could barely get Jupiter to focus at 50x, it looked like a very fuzzy ball and the 2 brightest cloud bands were not visible at all, stars also looked really fuzzy. I also noticed that I was getting much sharper images using my 45 degree correct image diagonal...wierd. I put a cheshire eyepiece into the star diagonal and immediately discovered the problem (see left circle in the image below to see what I mean). I figured the diagonal was completely screwed up so I took it apart. The mirror was definitely glued in crooked with rubber cement which I removed pretty easily. I put it back together and put the cheshire back in (see the right circle in the image below) what a difference. I went back outside to look at Jupiter and I could see a 200% improvement, disk was sharp and cloud bands were bright. I knew the image could probably be even better if I got everything perfectly centered in the cheshire so I took the diagonal apart again, put 2 small strips of double sided tape on the back of the mirror, stuck it in place, put the diagonal back together and stuck the cheshire in....everything looks perfectly centered now (how is that for luck?). Unfortunately I'm too tired to take it back outside and see if my final tweak made a difference. I can't wait to test it tomorrow and see if I can actually push this scope up to 100x.

I just thought I would share my story in case any one else has a short tube that doesn't seem to be performing very well...give the diagonal a close look and see if it could be the cause of your problems.

Does anyone know if the Nighthawk can be mounted directly to my Nexstar 80GT mount without any modification to the mount or do I need that baader bracket adapter from alpine astro?

My nexstar 80gt is the ultimate grab and go scope for my needs but I would like to be able to use a LITTLE more power on the planets, hence my interest in the Nighthawk. I realigned the mirror in my diagonal in the nexstar a couple of nights ago so that everything is lined up in the cheshire as close as possible but I still can't push my nexstar 80 over 100x. I am using a 7.5mm Orion Highlight plossl with an Ultima 2x barlow for 106x and although I can actually get the image in focus now, it is still quite soft, very low contrast and it also looks like there is a big fingerprint superimposed on whatever I am trying to look at (any ideas what might be causing the distortion, it's only visible at 106x or higher?).

I have read mixed reports about the Nighthawk and medium high powers. I am obviously NOT expecting to be able to use 200x or anything crazy like that, but it would be nice to be able to view the planets at 120x to 150x, with a sharp image and maybe get to see the cassini division on Saturn or a shadow transit on Jupiter. Are my expectations too high for the Nighthawk or does this sound reasonable?

Any comments regarding the 80gt mount, the fingerprint like distortion in my current scope, or medium high power planetary viewing in the Nighthawk would be greatly appreciated.

Here it is, the end of March, and nobody has called me yet to say that my PST is ready for delivery.

Does any one have the scoop on a new estimated delivery date yet?

I finally had a chance to test out my new celestron solar filter for my nexstar 80 and compare it with my homemade solar filter. The celestron solar filter uses the baader astro solar filter material and my homemade filter uses the 1000 oaks black polymer material.

The celestron filter was a clear winner and showed much more detail that wasn't visible at all or just barely visible in the black polymer filter. For example, the patches of yellow in the attached picture were very easy to see with the baader material and appeared as bright white patches on the suns off white color disk. In the black polymer filter those same patches were very difficult to make out and the 2 tiny sunspots that I have circled in the attached image weren't visible at all.

Can someone tell me what the proper terminology is for those yellow patches on the attached image?

Thanks,

Great movie, just saw it for the first time tonight.

Has anyone used the 2" Antares Diagonal, it's supposed to be 1/10th wave with 98% reflectivity?

Our spoiled rotten 5yr old female iguana.

Is anyone planning on buying Google stock?