Posts Made By: tim winship

My question as well. Is it a C6? That unique (to me) sliding secondary/focuser makes for some interesting collimation procedures, but it can be done--after all these years I finally feel like mine is now properly collimated. Best images I've ever had with it. I found it beneficial to use an Orion laser collimator in addition to the sight and Cheshire tubes. I don't think the C6 mirror is spherical, though. Might be wrong.

Here's a highly technical issue: where's a good source of lens caps of pretty much any size? It seems like every time I go observing I come home missing at least one cap, which has inevitably disappeared in the most nondescript spot of a large field (God knows what some archeologist will think some day.."we've discovered an encampment of the "Cap Tribe"). Anyway, where can I order replacements?

The last couple of threads about solar filters has me wondering: how many of you out there have first hand knowledge of accidents with solar filters? I don't mean, "I know a guy who said he knew....", I mean you witnessed it. I have been observing for many years, using most means of solar filtration or projection (yeah, I even had the notorious eyepiece filter 40 years agon as a small kid)but happily have never actually seen anyone hurt their eyes with one. The worst I have personally seen: an observer who set his beard afire when he forgot to cover his finder scope. Don't get me wrong, I'd never intentionally advocate doing anything stupid, but I'm wondering how often this kind of accident really occurs.
P.S.--I'm especially interested in failure of those old eyepiece filters. I'd never use one again, even if I found one, but did anybody ever actually see one fail?

I'm willing to bet that a lot of people, going to the various star parties around the country this weekend, picked up copies of RITI's Lunar Map Pro software. It's good and very useful, but if it runs very slowly and acts like it's completely consuming the resources of the computer, be advised that it has problems with certain types of McAfee antiviral software--I don't know exactly which forms at this time. If you have a problem of this sort, try disabling the antiviral software. Mine was associated with the old "Hurricane '98" package. Works fine otherwise.

Given the latest pricing information, I'm considering stepping up from my Solarmax 40 (with which I've been quite happy)to a 60 mm scope, either the Solarmax II or the Lunt. If Meade/Coronado is now really shipping the SolarMax II (they said end of August) I'm sure we'll start seeing some reviews soon, and I don't know if I'm willing to wait months for a Lunt. Do we know anything now about the SolarMax II--anybody ben able to use a pre-production version? I'm not finding anything searching. I'm a little concerned about the $1300 pricing for the Solarmax II 60 when a SolarMax I 40 is still $1600!

Thank you!

That's interesting--certainly glad you weren't hurt. I'm surprised that anything other than department store refractors ever had the eyepiece filters, much less a six inch reflector. Mine was just a 60mm Tasco refractor from 1960 or so.

Obviously, that's a very big question you will get many opinions about. If you apply the "50x per inch of aperture" guideline, you'd get 462.5X as maximum,which you'd achieve with a 5mm eyepiece (470X). Is your C9.25 up to that optically? They do have a very good reputation, but have you star tested to determine if your's is a good performer? Then, often as not, local seeing conditions and the state of your scope's cooling will limit magnification more than optics. My advice would be to see how things go for you with eyepieces of not much less than 10mm and buy a good quality Barlow before investing much in really short focal length eyepieces, regardless of design.

Have you looked at Edmunds Industrial Optics' selection of reticles? I don't think they have any threaded inserts as you describe but they do have various types intended for use within microscope eyepieces. Might at least want to talk to their customer service people.

Well done! You've covered this thoroughly. Your idea about mentoring is a good one, but it's not all that hard to do by yourself if you do some reading beforehand and take it in very small increments. I'm trying to get my old Meade 2120 tuned up for Mars as well, so I'm going through some of the ame kinds of things but with optics that are probably not as good as yours.

Gee, I don't know that there's anything particularly wrong with it. Over the last few years I have replaced all the finderscopes on my telescopes with 50mm scopes or larger, and have bought examples of most of the brands out there (Celestron, Meade, Antares, Orion, the late Lumicon). Whatever you buy, you won't regret going up from 6X30. But I wouldn't say that any of the under-$200 finders out there are exactly sterling examples of the opticians' art. It may not be optically the best, but right now I find it easiest to use Orion's 50mm "correct image" finder scope, both because of the 'right-way-around ' image and the spring-loaded mount, which is easy to adjust. Also, though the purists decry them, my back and neck cast emphatic votes for finders with star diagonals.