Posts Made By: John Boyd

Mike,

The Tenba cases are have rigid sides and provide decent protection for the OTAs. They are well suited for transporting to viewing sites with reasonable precautions.

The cases are tight and there is no room for finder or diagonals. I use a FS-102 Tenba case to transport my FC-100 and since the FC is a bit shorter I can keep my CAA and 2in holder on it but it is tight. I can also leave the Parallax rings on, but again it is VERY tight. The FS-78 case fits my 78 almost exactly and I can only keep the CAA and rings installed on it.

Hope that helps

JB

Well looks like Lumicon decided to close its doors. No message other than the following on their web page

After 23 years of innovation, Lumicon has been
forced to close its doors due to the slowing economy, September 11th,
and other circumstances. We are very sorry.

John

Turn on the news. The orbiter Columbia appears to have been lost over Texas.

John

Sal,

I would comply with Herb's reply in the User Rating FAQs :

"Can I rate a user I did not do business with?
Yes, however, since Astromart is not involved in the actual transaction in any way, we can not tell who actually completed transactions with each other, but we ask that you do not rate a user you did not actually purchase from/sell to. This system is designed to be helpful to Astromart users. Abusing it by "flaming" or otherwise seeking to harm the reputation of another user hurts the Astromart community as a whole and may result in you being banned from using the Astromart system."



I will also say that you should "read" that users feedback and ask yourself the question ... How did this person build up 150 or so 5 star ratings? He did that by working hard to build up the rating and making sure he completes transactions honestly.

Keep in mind that your "he did not respond to my eMail" will do more to hurt you than him. Most users here read between the lines when an out of place low rating shows up. It will say a lot more about you than it will him. Also keep in mind that he has the opportunity to return the favor and you would have no completed transactions and a low rating to boot.

John

Anybody get any feedback as to when these will start shipping?

John

Last night was my first night out with my Sky 90. What a nice little scope. As I was cruising around, the thought of how nice slow motion controls would be kept crossing my mind. I had looked at the Tak Lapides AA mount a while back, but like many other items, the lack of information kept it on the back burner.

I would really appreciate any information, feedback, and especially pictures of your setup if you have them. I did search and read the few comments that are in the forums and that helped. Just looking for more.

Thanks

John Boyd

On the Cloudy Nights Review on the SKY-90 by Dave Novoselsky at

http://www.cloudynights.com/reviews/tak90.htm

(see the update at the bottom of the review)

Dave mentions a short compression ring adapter for the SKY-90. Does anyone know if this is available anywhere? If so what is the part number for it and does anyone have any information on it. Any assistance or information on this adapter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John Boyd
Titusville, FL
web site: www.jbastro.com

Lukman,

It is a slip fit over the Dew Shield. It comes with some adhesive pads to adjust the tightness. If I remember right, I did not have to add any to mine as it was a pretty tight fit out of the box. I did use a bit of fine sandpaper on the inside edge of the filter cell as it was pretty sharp and I did not want it to scratch the paint on the Dew Shield.

John Boyd
Titusville, FL
www.jbastro.com

David H,

I know you will enjoy your new 80ED. It sounds like a very nice unit with the Moonlight focuser. If you end up using it like I use my small aperture refractors, you will find that you have a tendency to take it out much more frequently than your larger scope.

It will not replace the aperture offered in you SCT (assuming it is a larger aperture), but for beautiful wide field views and the ease of use, it will be hard to beat.

The most important aspect is to have fun and enjoy the view.

John

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to take a moment of you time to say Hi and to give you a bit of insight as to how I see my role in this forum.

First off is to ensure that the Astromart Terms of Service (TOS) are complied with. I am sure that you all have read and fully understand these terms...right

My next priority is to try to encourage discussions relating to REFRACTORS. Selecting, repairing, using, improving, and general discussions regrading REFRACTORS are great. There will always be conflicting opinions regarding any topic, and as long at the discussion does not get personal or confrontational and remains within the topic, we can have some fun and hopefully exchange information and ideas.

Feel free to contact me at any time if you have a problem or feel that we are loosing focus in this forum.

I am looking forward to assisting Herb here in the forums, and hopefully making this a forum that people interested in REFRACTORS enjoy visiting.

Thank you,

John Boyd
Refractor Forum Moderator