Posts Made By: Jaron Kovacs

Greetings All,

I've been into the hobby for about a year and a half, using a 60mm refractor that I bought from a buddy for $50. At least it has gotten my feet wet. Also have some nice 9x63 binos and have been learning/reading a ton.

I have run through some of the improvements on my 60mm:
http://www.geocities.com/sftonkin/tutorials/junkscope.htm

I'll drop in some pics now, just for fun

the "Jason", post-improvements:


Olympus D380 "Jason" afocal


But my ep's are somewhat lacking and I hesitate to spend the cash to upgrade focuser and EPs; although I do enjoy the challenges/satisfaction of finding dso's with such a small scope. I've logged ~20 or so M objects with my binos and scope.

Now I wish to piece together a 2nd scope to provide some better views. The "Jason" will remain in my arsenal for quick looks and moon stuff (and probably upgrade of focuser and ep's someday).

So, on to my first [real] scope purchase. My plan is to purchase a refurbished 8" Meade Starfinder, and build a Dob Base for it; keeping the option of someday switching to EQ mounting.

Is a Refurbished scope from Meade-factory-outlet a bad idea?

The initial dobsonian base doesn't have to be anything great. Just wanting to be up and viewing quick and cheaply. Another option I'm considering is the "pipe-fitting" w/ 90 degree elbow and plywood base that I saw elsewhere on this forum.

Which DIY mounting would be preferable?

Please share your comments and relevant experiences.
Thanks,

Jaron

Hi all,
Hope the Refractors" forum is a good place for little junky refractors as well as for all the good ones!

Regarding my 60mm alt-az "Jason":

A week ago I pulled off the objective, and carefully marked both lenses, rinsed them off with tap water and light cotton balls, and gave a final rinse in 70/30 alcohol, let dry and replaced. It did clean off the crud, and the images are still pretty decent. However, bright objects appear very-slightly "hazy-ier" than they before at higher powers. At 100x, I don't notice any difference. Previously, this little scope could do OK at 200x, and now that is where i notice the haze.

Question: did I ruin it by doing the above cleaning?
8O

2 possibilities in my mind are that i over-tightened when popping lens back in.
Also cleaned the little barlow lens, so that could be where its coming from too.
I'm wishing I had just blown off the lens with some air or something and left well enough alone.


I have enjoyed this scope, despite its small aperature, and don't want to junk it. so I'm seeking your comments and advice.

///

My current junk plastic focuser needs greased badly. Last night it was pretty chilly, and the thing almost wouldn't budge. The gorilla-snot grease froze up and did not help my viewing session. I suppose I should disassemble and go with some white lithium grease for improvement (right?).

If the lens is still ok, I'm leaning towards fixing up the focuser with a 1.25 one so I can get some better EPs.

I'm pretty sure I can see Titan, using averted vision. Does that sound impossible with a 60mm achromat? Guess it could be a background star, but it is appears to be in the same plane as the rings and just looks a lot like a moon.

Thanks, and happy stargazing!

Jaron

Greetings,

When I Preview a forum post with Mozilla 1.7.3, it strips out all my line feeds, and leaves one messy-looking document.

So, I've been using Mozilla to browse and going back to IE to post.
(except for this post, i'm using Moz)

Anyone else experience this? Any advice?

Thank you both for your comments!

If you have time to comment further on my 60mm setup, check out my post over in Refractors.

clear skies!

Heh,
Okay, so the preview looks bad, but the actual post is fine.

(maybe there is a tiny glich in "Preview")