Posts Made By: ken blankenship

Hey all, I have an older 4.5" Meade Newtonian that I've been playing with for a few months with some "wow's" and some frustration. I removed the focuser once for adjustments and removed the secondary in order to do this. Since then, it seems the alignment of the optics is impossible to correct. I took it to the local club (Atlanta) and some really nice people put a laser device in it, twisted things around for a while and finally said "It's not perfect, but much better." I agreed when I used it. Another night some other guy (who seemed to know what he was doing) put Sirius in it and unfocused it, and scoffed saying how terrible it was. By the time I was done adjusting the primary as he looked through the eyepiece trying to "help" me, things were even worse... HELP ME! How can I do something without expensive collimating equipment? I may switch to a refractor one day and don't wanna spend the $100+ to have it become obsolete. I really want it perfect so I can appreciate what my 'lil scope is capable of.
Thanx - Ken

Another rookie conundrum... After doing much reading, I have decided that for my purposes either a Newtonian EQ mount or 4-5" Refractor would be best for my first "nice" 'scope. But this opens not one but two big cans of worms... wondering if people could offer some advice...

For Newts...
* How can a brand like Orion offer a new 10" Dob for $650 when I see similar apertures of other brands going for $1500+?
* What are the major advantages in quality for more expensive brands and/or which brands should I avoid b/c of chronic lesser quality instruments, optics, etc.???
* What about buying one used (like from this site)? What to watch out for... good questions to ask? (I'm still freaked out by collimation and "hard to get just right" flaws and adjustments)

For Refractors...
* I have heard Tak and TeleVue are the best out there... why?
* What is false color and color correction... and which brands/models should I avoid because of this?
* What is apochromatic vs. achromatic and which is better (not trying to start a fight, just really want to know b/c apos seem so much more expensive)

And hey - this is a lot to respond to so anything is appreciated. But if you wanted to spend no more than $1000 and get something that could possibly do astrophotography down the road, in what direction would you be going???

Thanks!

-Ken

Still reading... still researching... and attending a local club on the 17th to look through some toys. I'm gonna get my first "real scope" eventually.

Anyway, much advice and literature has me leaning towards a versatile, transportable (issue for me), and affordable (other issue for me) 6" or 8" Newtonian Dob. I can learn the sky and the hobby for a year or so before forking out big $$$ if I end up wanting to. I understand a good 6"-8" f/7 or f/8 will do well with planets and doubles, and perform great for deep sky objects.

Here's my question: which would have better optics for such a beginner's scope... a Discovery 6" f/8 (or their 8" f/7) OR a comparable Orion Intelliscope? I ask because for the price of just the scope and base from Discovery I can get the scope AND computer assist from Orion; is there really such a difference in quality? I read somewhere that quality, standardized 6" f/8 mirrors are easy to produce and that it may not matter Chinese/American or whatever.

As always, any light you can shed is appreciated!

-Ken

The only EPs I currently own are 5 that came in a set from Celestron (4mm, 6mm, 9mm, 15mm, 32mm) and are joe schmoe Plossls. They are fine, but...

When I finally get my first "real" scope, could anyone throw out some comments on the best 20-25mm EP that can be had for under $100? I see so many brands and descriptions, I don't know the dif. between any of them. I know a 22mm Nagler sure would be nice, but I can't be spending that kind of money. I think it's probably a good idea to have a higher quality mid-power EP for many uses, but I am lost.

-Ken

I have a pair of Orion binoculars with BAK-4 prisms. I use them for astronomy and birding. I have taken good care of them (they are only 3 months old). The worst I have done with them is leave them in the car for a few days at a time, and twice they were left outside overnight on nights with no precipitation (on a table on my covered porch).

During the day the performance is still excellent for birding. However, I have noticed that there is a semi-circular fuzzy glare around stars and planets. It is driving me crazy. It was never there until maybe 2 weeks ago; everything was a crisp pinpoint. I have carefully washed all lens surfaces with alcohol, q-tips, and lens paper and they are spotless. I looked through them backwards, and there is no condensation or any visible flaws...

Help???

-Ken

I have been getting into both astronomy and birding over the last several months. I am excited that my Orion 8x56 Mini-Giant binocs do a pretty nice job for both.

I would like to get another pair of binocs for birding (specifically) in the $175-250 range. Just wondering if the experts could offer their insight on the "numbers" aspect of the best birding binocs, as well as who has the best optics at that price.

I also would like a tripod to mount binoculars OR a spotting scope on. Same questions about scopes... plus I have no idea what to expect to pay for a scope/tripod set-up?

Thanks in advance,

Ken

Hey, just wondering if I should expect to see the three shadows crossing Jupiter this weekend in a teeny 4.5" reflector? In dark skies and good seeing I can always make out the major two dark bands and sometimes several other bands... I think my collimation may be off a little, too (don't have any tools for this).

Just wondering if I should try or attempt to look through someone else's scope. Sounds like a great sight!

-Ken

Hello all,

I was wondering if Discovery's 10" f6 would be any good for planetary and lunar observing? I have read that lower f-ratios are only good for deep sky but f6 seems good for a 10", which are normall f5 and lower. What about the possibility of a partial aperture mask? Any and all tips and advice would be appreciated - I may finally get that first "real scope" in the next 6 months... I want good aperture for nebulae, galaxies and clusters... but I sure do looooove our corner of the universe as well.

Ken

Here's my first attempt at photographing a bird. I am a big-time birder (well, as big-time as you can be for having started last winter), but the photography side is just as intimidating to me as astrophotography. The techniques? Yes. The cost involved if I ever wanted to really get serious? Ooooooh, yeah!

Anyway, all and any advice is appreciated.

Ken

Just getting started in this hobby. I had some family in town... and my future brother-in-law happens to be a serious birding photographer. He passed down his old digital to us and I've been messing around. Still don't really know the basics too well but here's one shot that I played with in a severe "basic" photo editing program!