Posts Made By: Roger Rasmussen

I realize this is a long shot, but does anyone out there have the documentation for an Edmund 6" Space Conqueror reflector??? I recently came into possession of this classic telescope. It belonged to an older cousin and it hasn't been used in decades. I would like to see if I can get it functional again, but I'm a beginner when it comes to telescopes. My only scope was another classic, an Astroscan 2001, that I had as a kid. I have no experience using an equatorial mount and we can't seem to locate the manuals or instructions that came with the scope.

If somebody has these manuals I would be so incredibly grateful to get some kind of photocopy of them! I'll even pay you for your trouble since I can imagine it might take time and money to get a copy of everything.

Hi,

I'm new to these forums and trying to get back into astronomy. I used to read about it constantly as a kid and had a little Astroscan telescope. I always wanted more telescope though and I just purchased an Orion SkyQuest XT10i a couple days ago. I would like to find a good starter eyepiece and filter set.

The ones I've seen range from about $120 to $230 for a 1.25" set. I've only looked at the ones below, but I'm not limiting myself to them.

On the $230 side was the Meade Series 4000 set:
http://www.telescopes.com/telescope-accessories/eyepiece-and-filter-kits/meadeseries4000eyepieceandfilterset.cfm

On the lower end of the price range was this Celestron set and Zhumell set:
http://www.telescopes.com/telescope-accessories/eyepiece-and-filter-kits/eyepieceandfilterkit125inchformat.cfm
http://www.telescopes.com/telescope-accessories/eyepiece-and-filter-kits/125ineyepieceandfilterkit.cfm

Actually I was also wondering if it's worth getting additional 1.25" eyepieces or if I should focus on 2" ones. Is it better to have some in both sizes?

Roger

I've recently purchased an Orion XT10 Intelliscope. I would like some advice on eyepieces for someone with astigmatism and wears eyeglasses. Should I lean toward eyepieces such as Televue Radians or Baader Hyperions with 20mm eye relief to accomodate my eyeglasses or would I be better served getting a DIOPTRX? Regarding long eye relief eyepieces, there seems to be some good choices and also wanted some advice on what to choose if I go that direction. In general, the main tradeoff for these long relief eyepieces seems to be price vs field of view.

If one has a variable polarizer to cut down the moon's glare, is there any reason to have one or two neutral density filters. Do they give a better quality image?

Besides the obvious flexibility vs cost argument, what are the pros and cons? Are there applications where a VP works better than a neutral density and vice-versa?

Hello again,

Been enjoying my new Orion 10" dob, but am discovering the right angle finder scope isn't the most useful tool for locating objects quickly, even bright reference stars. First I have to eyeball the scope to line it up with the target star and then hope I'm close enough so that when I adjust the altitude, I'll find it. It's easier on bright reddish or orange stars like Antares or Arcturus, but isn't so easy when trying to locate one like Mizar. I'm trying to decide what might be the best alternative, either to replace the finder scope, or complement it. I live in the SW Chicago suburbs, so light pollution is a factor unless I drive an hour or more away.

Telrads seem quite popular and highly recommended to say the least. How do other devices like Rigel Quickfinder or Orion EZ Finder stack up?
What about a green laser mounted in place of my finder scope?

My particular scope is Orion's 10" Intelliscope. Yes I know I got the computer, but still you gotta find the reference stars and even so, I'd like something where I can easily visualize where the telescope is pointed.

Roger

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone for all your suggestions, it really helped. Since I have astigmatism and wear eyeglasses, eye relief was important. I also decided it made sense to get the best quality up front instead of getting average quality now and trading up later. So with that in mind I decided on Televue Radians for my mid to high power eyepieces. A lot of online shops like OPT had them on sale, plus Televue had a buy one, get one free deal, so getting some new Radian eyepieces seemed too good to pass up. I took some of the focal length recommendations here and decided on the 6, 10 and 14mm focal lengths and threw in a 2.5x Powermate on sale too. Even though my scope comes with a 10mm Plossl, I've been told the quality of the eyepieces Orion includes are just average, so I'm actually eager to compare the views between the 10mm stock plossl and my new 10mm Radian.

With the buy one/get one deal it came out to about $145 per eyepiece, not too bad for a Televue!

Now its time to lust after a 31mm Nagler.