Posts Made By: Lawrence Regira

I have a 12.5 inch f5 Cave telescope which arrived at my door in January of 1980. It was probably one of the last Caves out of the plant door. I had the mirror checked by Steve Swayze three years ago and when he tested it he found it to be overcorrected throughout with the exception of the edge which was noticeably undercorrected. He then refigured it for me and it has been safely kept in its shipping crate since then. I do not want to use it until I can build a permanent home for it. I am about 2/3 finished on a roll-off roof observatory. Now with that out of the way here is my question. When I look through the focuser at the mirror image in the secondary, should I see the entire mirror? I ask this because as it was set up from Cave the outer edge of the entire mirror was not in view. I suspect this was done because of the undercorrected edge. Before I go and put new holes in the tube should I see the entire mirror?

Lawrence Regira

I found this 5 foot critter soaking up the sun in the drainage canal in my back yard.

Lawrence Regira

While checking out how the moon will cover Antares on the 17th, I noticed that according to Cartes du Ciel that the dark side of the moon will cover Comet Tempel on July 15 at about 11:00 UT. I am at latitude 29N in Louisiana and will not see it. I could not find Comet Tempel anyway with my RV-6. Can anyone else verify this will happen?

Lawrence Regira

I have an RV-6 Dynascope f8.3. I ordered it in June of 1975 and got it in December. Had the mirror recoated in 1993 and put a new secondary of 1.32" at the same time. The mirror is in need of a new coating once again. My top three eyepieces which were bought in the 1970's and early 1980's for this telescope and my Cave 12.5" f5 are as follows: 20mm Meade Erfle, and Televue 7.4 and 10.5mm plossls. I use a Meade 2x barlow with it. My most used eyepiece it the Erfle 20mm. It yields 64x and 128x with the barlow. The 7.4mm plossl yields 172x and 344x while th 10.5 plossl gives me 121x and 242x. The RV-6 still performs greatly and the clock drive still works after 30 years. The Cave which was ordered in August of 1978 and delivered in January of 1980 has not been used in several years. It was so big that I vowed I would not use it again until I could build a permanent observatory for it. The roll-off roof observatory is weeks away from completion and the Cave mirror was tested several years ago by Steve Swayze and refigured. I recently got a 1/13 wave quartz secondary to go with it from Protostar. They both have been sitting in their boxes since that time. I can't wait to put the big eye skyward once again before I get too old to enjoy it.

Lawrence R.

Davy and Davy Y. There is a craterlet chain that shows craterlets about 1/2 to 1 mile across. I have a drawing by Herring from 1959 Sky and Telescope but I do not know if it would be correct to post it here without permission.
L. Regira

The method I use is to place the mirror on top of a large sheet of paper (face up of course) and trace the outline circle of the entire mirror on the paper. I then carefully cut the circle shape I traced out. I then make two folds. The first fold is in half. Then I fold the half again so it is now quartered. While still quartered I take some scissors and snip the tinest piece off the center. When I unfold the paper I have a perfectly centered hole square shaped. I then place it carefully on my mirror and stick my center mark tape in the cutout hole.

Lawrence Regira

Could it have been one of those weather balloons? That's what usually happens to them I think.

Lawrence R.

The February 2006 Sky and Telescope has an article about Saturn. The ring shadow spends 6 months from our point of view north of the rings and 6 months south of the rings. Right now the shadow of the rings is south of the ring system and in line with the crepe ring.

Lawrence