Posts Made By: steve cassel

CAUTION: CATHARTIC VENTING.

I bought one of those little Orion five inch Mak tubes last year. Got it as a 'factory second reconditioned' at a great price. Originally I mounted it on my homemade ROBO-MOUNT. an old Starfinder mount converted to alt az dual axis drive with Autostar.

I was very pleased with the scope, except for the effort required to drag it out and set it up. With the bulky mount, it seemed to require as much effort as setting up my 10" SCT. Definitely not optimal performance... The whole idea of getting the mak was to have something quick and portable.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found a real GARAGE SALE BARGAIN, A chinese made eq2 mount with worm gears on both axes and a Meade RA drive. For $20, I jumpped on the deal!

It took me several hours of shop work to mount real shafts with real bearings and fix all the major deficiencies... I'm sure those of you who have experience with Chinese mounts know what I'm talking about... But ultimately I had what I really needed all along: A capable scope with a folding tripod that could stay basically set-up, living comfortably in my closet, to be called into use at a moment's notice. A real low cost low tech grab-and-go. A virtual luddite nirvana.

Well, tonight was the first night I took it out. I set it up in the front yard (best views from the front yard), and viewed Saturn for a while. I noticed the drive didn't track quite perfectly... Oh well, what can you expect from a simple little mount like that. I checked the polar alignment, tightened the clutch, and adjusted the counterweight, then I centered Jupiter in the eyepiece. It seemed to be tracking better, so I decided to give it a while to track while I went inside to microwave some coffee.


just a couple of minutes...


Quess What??

Yup, you guessed it. My wife and I heard a noise, and I went outside to hear a truck just driving away. THE SCOPE WAS GONE. I jumpped in my Jeep and gave chase, but wasn't able to catch them.

Now the fruit of my good fortune and hard labor is doubtless being traded for drugs, and will probably end up in a pawn shop being sold to some undeserving little Harry Potter wannabe who will clean the optics with a dish sponge!

Well, it could have been much worse... I'm glad I didn't loose my SCT, or my 10" eq Newt. Then again, they probably couldn't have carried those to their truck!

GRAB-AND-GO... A Wonderful Concept, but inherently a dangerous one as well. Please be more careful than I was!

----------------Steve.

I am considering constructing a bino-scope using a couple of 90mm objectives coupled to two halves of an old pair of BAK4 binoculars and 1.25" eyepieces.

I'm wondering though, how high could I expect to go with magnification before the exit pupil size makes them too inconvenient to look through? (I have dreams of mounting them on an equatorial fork for planetary observations.)

Anybody ever tried that before?

Thanks.
------------Steve.

I've read the posts and reviews of the SCT crayford type focusers, and I'm tempted to get one, even though I'm not (yet) doing any CCD imaging.
But what I haven't heard addressed is the effect of mirror shift on collimation... Is that just too insignificant to be any kind of an issue?
Thanks.

----------------Steve.

Recipe for a surprisingly effective Light Pollution Reduction Filter you can make yourself from commonly available materials.

Materials needed:
dishsoap solution, cotton balls, tincture of Merthiolate, Kodak Pan X B&W film ISO 35, and a darkroom. (other B&W films may work just as well... the slower the film speed the better).

First mix a drop or two of dishsoap in a half cup of warm water. (No exacting measurements required -it's just a wetting solution).

Next, mix one part of the wetting solution with one part merthiolate.

Now take your solution, cotton balls and film to a dark place, pull the film from it's spool and mop it down with the merthiolate solution. Hang the film, or let it stand on edge to dry for an hour or more before removing it from the darkroom.

Once it's dried you can bring it out and rinse off any residue under tapwater. Instead of turning dark like exposed film, it should now have a nice transparent metallic pink appearance. Cut a circle of it to fit in the filter end of your favorite eyepiece and try it out!

Would you believe this works as well as my Ultrablock narrowband filter on emission nebula, and enhances comets too??

Would you believe it provides brighter planetary images with more detail, even in a 60mm DS refractor?? Would you believe I can now see the horsehead from my suburban front yard?? Under a full moon?? Before sunset??

Would you??

Tonight was my first view of Mars with my new homebuilt refractor. I was only able to observe for about fifteen minutes before the clouds rolled in again. (It's been solid overcast here since I drilled and tapped the last mounting hole last Friday night ;-)

Even so, I've got to say that 6 1/4" Surplus Shed Achromat is an outstanding piece of glass. Clearly better views than my 10" Meade SCT, or my C8. Mars looked like someone drew it with a pencil. Really crisp view even after the clouds arrived. (I finally lost it while changing eyepieces, and was unable to find it again through the thickening clouds. After trying for a while, I retired to the porch for a cup of tea, hoping the sky would clear again. That was two hours ago... Oh well...)

I would like to hear from anyone else who has built or owns one of these scopes. Surplus Shed claimed 'exceptional quality' in their ads for these lenses. I'm not an expert on optics, but I suspect they were right. Does anyone know more about these Achromats? Would love to compare notes.

Thanks.
----------Steve.

My LX50 has gone nuts. The second I turn it on, the RA motor runs like crazy... Way too fast. The hand controller is ineffectual while this is happening.

Has anybody else had this problem??

Thanks.
-----------Steve.

I'm looking at a trade for a Meade 8" SCT, but the secondary mirror has lots of little dark spots on it. Can anyone tell me where I can get it re-coated??

Meade only offers replacement of the optical set complete.

Thanks
--------------Steve.

I need to find motors for a mount with 144 tooth gears. Can anybody tell me which mounts/motors use these? I would guess that's a pretty common configuration... RA would require 1/10 rpm... Is that standard for Polaris or Celestron or Meade or Orion motor kits??

I have asked Meade and Orion, but they can't or won't tell me the drive rpm or number of teeth for their motors or mounts.

Thanks.
--------------Steve.

Joe,

Check to see that your spider is tight and the secondary is alligned to the optical axis (ie centered to the primary). If the secondary is even a tiny bit off center, you will see astigmatism.

Hope it's not your mirror... but lots of things to check first. Best of luck with it.

-----------Steve.

Michael, Siegfried and Sam

The lens is not currently available from Surplus Shed, but I hope they have some more made up. They said the lenses were specially made for them by "the same company that produces our 1/20th wave flats". Not a Copier Lens... It was advertised as 'Telescope Objective' and described as 'Exceptional Quality'. It is a coated f/10.

These lenses have appeared more than once on the Surplus shed webpage (each time at a higher price, it seems), and in addition to the Achromat version I got, They also offered a Triplet evidently from the same company. There has been talk about them on this forum before, but I haven't yet seen an evaluation from any user.

No, Michael... I don't have a machine shop. If you have woodworking skills you could probably do a better job than I did. I mounted the objective in a piece of 8" sewer pipe, and currently am using a focuser from an old 60mm Meade scope. Not too fancy at all. I did, however, cut away most of the PVC pipe leaving a kind of truss-like skeleton which I clad with aluminum flashing. The whole OTA only weighs 20 lbs. with finder attached, and balances near the middle of the tube.