Posts Made By: Doug Richter

I have a 12" mirror that will need recoating soon. There are 3 companies I've heard of that do those services (I assume there are more out there) Spectrum, Clausing and QSP. I would appreciate any feedback, good or bad, about experiences with their services and any advice on which coatings have the best reflectivity and durability. Thanks

I take my homebuilt 12" dob to a local nature center to let the kids look through. I'd like to find a couple of nice, inexpensive ep's to use. Right now I have a set of UO widescans that I use. As these are getting rare, I'd like to keep them for my own observing. Anybody got any suggestions? Some good orthos or plossls would be nice. Somewhere in the $50 each range. Thanks, Doug

I'm going to be helping some friends at a nature center with an astronomy workshop for kids and would like to know where I can find info on american indian skylore. Thanks for any and all help. Doug

Hi all, I'm in the market for a 7mm ep for my 12.5" f6 Dob for visual lunar and planetary work. After reading countless reviews I've decided that these three are my finalists, mainly because they fit into my price range. I'm probably leaning towards the 6.9mm Siebert because of the larger AFOV and the fact that I already own a few of the Performance series ep's and they work exceptionally well in my scope. I've also read good reviews on the other ep's. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Doug

I have a 12.5" f6 dob and am looking for an ep in the 13-15mm range with at least a 60-70° FOV for around $200. I have a 25mm wide field (76x)that works good as a finder. I would like to get close to double that power for the next step. A 15mm would give me 127x, 14 would be 136x, and a 13 would be 147x. I have a 10.5mm Pentax XL on it's way and that gives me 181x. For my higher powers I have a Teton 8 and 7mm which gives me 238 & 272x respectively. I don't really have/use anything above that because the skies here in SE Wisconsin don't ever really get THAT good. I had in mind a Pentax 14mm XL. Anyone have other suggestions??

Hi, anybody have a chance to use the UO Super Abbe Orthos? Just curious as to how the stack up against the Volcanoes or HD's. They have a decent price tag and the focal lengths are similar to the old Meade RG orthos, which I liked. I know they probably aren't near that good, but I thought they might be worth playing around with.