Posts Made By: Roman Depa

As being fairly new to this hobby, I have been observing with an 6" chineese refractor. The planets look great , but those faint fuzzies are just ,well , faint. I'm thinking about going newtonian , most likely a dob, and was wondering what size would you guys suggest as a minumum apperature for resolving most of the heavenly wonders ? To keep things simple , I will probably downsize my refractor so I can have a grab and go second scope.I live in Chicago , so I need to drive to a darker site. Weight / size is not an issue.

I'm looking for a source for larger size tube rings[8,9,10"],and a dovetail bar. Any info would be appreciated.Thanks,Roman

I thought I'd share my first report observations, with my new Axiom 23 ,used with a skywatcher 150 refractor. I have an Ultima 30mm pl. ,and a TV 20mm pl., but found that the FOV with the TV, was too small for deep sky,and didn't matter too much for planetary veiwing, so I ordered the Axiom 23. Very nice eyepiece.Optics are great,70 deg.nice coatings,excellant finish,fold over rubber light gaurd. It gave me about the same fov as the 30 ultima with higher magnification.M6 and M7 filled out about the same FOV in both. Stars were pinpoints all the way across in both, with just a touch of elongation at the outer 10% of the Axiom.Both eyepieces showed a very dark background , with bright stars.It's a keeper, and now I have to get a wider fov in the 30 to 35mm range. Eyepiece chess has it's grip on me. Help! Roman.

I just picked up my first newt. I was wondering if there are any advantages of one laser collimator over another. Should I consider a cheshire ? Both ? Any recomendations are appreciated. Thanks, Roman.

I picked up a used 14mm uwa this week, with full knowledge of a defective lens chip. The minute chip is on the edge of one of the top elements, and does not effect performance . However , when I pick up the eyepiece , it rattles! This leads me to believe that a lens,spacer,or whatever is not in it's proper place or is missing. Probably was disassembled by the original owner and hence,the chip.Does anyone have knowledge of a Blown-out plan of this eyepiece ? Any other suggestions ? I'm not banking on Meade customer service to help much. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Roman.

Anyone with any tips, or websites, with info on how to spot Uranus ? I know it's been close to Mars, but so far,no luck with finding it.

Bob ; There's a review on the APM 102 over at Cloudy Nights.

Floyd ; I take it your not a fan of offsetting the secondary. Your thoughts -----

I"m also curious about dark sky's, but I"m in the Chicago area. Where are your favorite sites, within a half days drive ?

You need to do a search ,here, and over at yahoo groups,concerning your scope and mount related issues.