Posts Made By: Jerry Bassett

I use MegaStar to find the H400 with my 14.5" Dob. You can print charts EXACTLY the size and star mag you need. You see precisely in the eyepiece what is on the chart. Works great. Does take some work printing charts, but they are very good.
Jerry

Stories like that are wonderful. You've given your daughter the tools to start a life-long adventure. She'll probably pass the adventure along to her kids as well. WELL DONE.
Jerry

Yes, I have an opinion. I bought the Orion 120ST. It's OK, but don't try planets. I used my 4.8 Meade UWA on Jupiter, and it's pretty ugly. Anything over 100X breaks down. With the 35 Panoptic the view is very nice but that is 17x. I would go with a longer OTA.

Jerry

Walter,
I think you could nicely fill the GAP with either the TMB 8" apo or the AP 10" Mak.

Of course, if you fill that gap, then there will be 2 more gaps between the new scope and the fs102 and 16". Then you fill those 2 and you'd create 4 more gaps.

Astronomy can get very expensive if one focuses on equipment rather than on celestial objects.

Jerry

Morgan,

The best way to mount it is in whatever UPS or FEDEX will take and ship it to someone else. Take the money and buy something useable. These things need to be in a permanent observatory. The eyepiece height range is taller than you are.

Our club has a Clark 6" f/15 and I've used it in my back yard - never again. The SLIGHTEST breeze makes the image dance.

Jerry

Don,
Forget about the scratch. Blacken it out and move on. It is not worth thinking about, much less spend money on. Consider the size of the secondary and how little that matters. I'm sure your scratch is much smaller.

A friend of mine dropped his 10" Dob with a Zambuto primary, and knocked out a chunk out of it about the size of a golf ball. We set it up next to a pristine scope and the images appear identical.

FIXING THE SCRATCH WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR IMAGES - recorded or visual. Blacken it and forget about it.

Jerry