Posts Made By: John Harrington

What a gorgeous shot of the Pleiades and their nebulosity! It brings to my mind a poet's comment about the Pleiades being like "silver braid entwining the heavens" or perhaps more elegant words to the same effect. Keep up the marvelous work!

--John Harrington
Nashville, TN

Hi Larry! The problem isn't portability of the 'scope, but size of the vehicle. With a nice, loooong station wagon or mini-van, why you could just sail off with a big D&G refractor and its monster mounting. Just think of all the advantages: minimal need to recollimate, short wait to reach thermal equilibrium, razor-sharp views, etc. And picking out a new vehicle can't be any harder than deciding on a new scope. ;-)

Regards,

John Harrington
Nashville, TN

Ron,

Nice field report! One disagreement--some achromats are formidable. My 6" F/15 D&G refractor is indeed massive, but was relatively inexpensive (purchased used for less than a TV 102) and is extremely sharp. Color is minor, IMHO, and only visible on brighter objects.

Clear skies to you and your TV102 and new dob,

John Harrington

Hi Lonnie,

Sweet shot, particularly considering you were hand-guiding that 16" behemoth!

--John Harrington

Jim,

Sorry to hear your tale of woe. Try contacting ITE--they work with Mike Palermiti in Florida, a very well known optician, who does eyepiece cleaning. He cleaned up an ancient Brandon otho for me some years ago, and the improvement was incredible.

Clear skies,

John Harrington

Hi Andre,

A couple of years ago, I asked Nature Watch up on Prince Edward Island to make a "dobfractor" style mount for my mammoth 6" F/15 D&G (since sold). The Nature Watch mount was OK and would have worked fine with a long-focus 4", but was no match for the massive torque of the big D&G. I think your best bet for a "dobfractor" mount for a big refractor would be to actually try your own hand at making it, using Richard Berry's book as a guidepost. Wish I had better news...

Clear Skies,

John Harrington
Carmel, Indiana