Posts Made By: mike selz

Im buying a 10" meade telescope on a GEM...with perfectly working clock drive...but I want to add a goto system to it..so I assume I'd need to buy a seperate mount that has goto capabilities. Does anyone know of any compatible mounts I could buy, for the most affordable price, that have goto for a 10" reflector? ive looked everywhere...i havent seen any under 1,000....grr...


P.S: This is my first post on astromart and im relatively new to big scopes...ive owned a Meade ETX 90 RA the last 7-8 yrs but havent used it too much except for the first year or two...just now getting back into the hobby and doing tons of research to learn more. I live here in south fla so its always comfy at night for viewing (no cold winters) =0)

Anyone own this monster? Also...is it possible to put the 20" OTA on a Meade Super Giant Tripod mount? I wonder how dim a magnitude this bad boy can reach with an extended CCD exposure...


http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1562

Im buying a used meade GEM with magellen 1 DSC's for a great price...but his rotating rings are 8"...and my meade telescope is 10"...i checked the price for these aluminum rings and they are ridiculous..it seems u can make them for 1/10th the price..anyone know where i can get 10" rings cheap? (do i even need them?)...thanks!

Can a Meade LXD75 goto mount hold a 10" meade Schmidt Cassegrain OTA? I think the two would be a nice, lower cost combo, best bang for the buck. They claim the mount holds up to 30lbs...not sure how much the 10" ota weighs...
thanks guys..

-Mike

Im purchasing my first goto mount ever (never tried DSC's yet either)...its an LXD650..i read about it...compared slewing rates, object database size, weight capacities, price, ease of use, and other factors coming to the decision of this mount...it was either this or the Orion Atlas...but i am getting a great deal of $850 on this mount, when I believe it originally sold around 2500 or more. What is everyones experiences with it? Also..what kind of OTA's do u have atop it? Im going to use my meade 10" reflector OTA on it for now..its 31 lbs I believe.

Clear Skies!

I bought a C11 recently and have been trying to put my meade 9 by 50 finder w/bracket on it but thr screws on the C11 are placed either too close together or too far apart to connect to the C11..do i need to buy a orion/celestron finder...or is there another way to get this puppy to fit?
any help would be appreciated...thnx!

ive used it several times to input basic data into it, before using it outside for the first time. When i got the C11 on top with ken's adapter, and got it all set up i brought it outside for use...i have a battery pack thats compatible with it hooked in with a cig lighter, so power is no problem..but it doesnt want to turn on. Do i need to put in new internal batteries or something...or reset it somehow? Any advice would be really appreciated..i wanna finally use this!

thanks

First one ever for me...was walkin my dog here in south fla in a pretty dark area....clear night....saw two very bright stars far away about maybe a 30-45 degree angle (or supposed stars) in the sky...it was unusual because i never saw that configuration before in that part of the sky at midnight...both were about magnitude 0 or -1 id guess..30 seconds into staring at them, they slowly started to fade away over a 20 second period...until they were completely gone, and never reappeared. (and like i said, it was a clear night)

Do satellites slowly fade out like that? or could that have actually been an UFO ...well 2 UFO's...

And i swear on my mother's grave im not making this up...i have no reason to, im 100% dead serious...but honestly...has anyone seen anything like before? or could there be a rational explanation for it?
Thanks!

Just purchased a 2 month old Celestron 8SE off astromart...should arrive today or tomorrow. Im new to astrophotography and would love to get into it, have wanted to for awhile now. Any suggestions as to what Ill need? I live in south fla in a suburban area...but have access to dark skies if needed. Also have an ultrablock filter at hand. Im looking for a simple all in 1 system for capturing deep sky objects...does the meade DSI pro and or Celestron Deep sky imager accomplish this? What do u guys recommend?

Thanks!

-Mike

I know it sounds silly considering how easy it should be to align a Nextar 8SE (granted its my first time with alignment on any electronic scope)...but ive read the guide and used the SkyAlign option and centered 3 bright objects and it still failed to align. I also did enter the correct lattitude/longitude for my area (coconut creek fla 33073), and the right time, etc), date, etc..so not sure exactly what im doing wrong. I DID do a planetary alignment with success, centering and aligning mars in the scope...so its only "somewhat" aligned...but still definately off a good moon's area in degrees, or so =(. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Mike