Posts Made By: John Powell

I have a pair of 10x50 Orion Ultraviews that have a small piece of debris on the inside lens on the right side eyepiece.I thought maybe I'd attempt to take them apart to clean it. Any thoughts on this? Any idea what it would cost to have them cleaned....and where to take them...thanks....John

Unfortunately,at 55yrs of age, I have astigmatism in both eyes and I'm both near and far sighted deficient. I've tried contact lenses to correct the problem but then I can't read anything (starcharts).Even with my glasses on, I have to position my eyes, my head and the binoculars just right to get pinpoint stars. This isn't a problem with high power telescope viewing. I was thinking of taking a pair of 15x70 Oberwerks to my local optician to see if a custom pair of eyepiece lenses could be made to replace the originals to correct my vision....anyone ever tried this approach? Any feedback would be much appreciated....thanks....John

I'm having a minor but bothersome problem with a 12.5" Discovery when observing Jupiter. I can't get the moons to pinpoint focus. Ths scope is collimated using a cheshire and star test ( I find that star test results vary greatly dependent on seeing conditions, but the secondary shadow is always dead center). Nonetheless, the moons twinkle. I've set a 7" Mak along side the dob, and at the same mag, I get pinpoint images with the LX200. I've squared the focuser, center spotted the secondary and primary, aligned everything numerous times with the same results. The dob provides crisp, clear and simply wonderful views of saturn, one evening with excellent conditions, I was even able to crank it up to 400x without image breakdown. DSO's are great...much more detail and brightness than with the Mak....but Jupiter's moons still twinkle(almost imperceptibly) at even 53x with the dob. Eyepiece selection doesn't seem to change the situation (Leica 20mm w/barlow, Meade 26mm plossl, Celestron 30mm Ultima,) A friend suggested trying a smaller secondary than the 2.60"....don't know what else to try...any suggestions would be most helpful....thanks...John

I started construction of a 10'x 10' roll off roof observatory with the intention of using heavy duty garage door rollers and rails but price quotes for hardware are running $400- $500,a bit more than I wanted to spend, so I'm going to take a look at V groove wheels on inverted angle iron as a cheaper alternative. I've found a few companies with reasonably priced wheels but I haven't been able to find any illustrations on how the inverted angle iron is attached to the 4"x4" top plate and outriggers. I've visited numerous sites of owner built observatories that use the system sucessfully but the builders don't go into detail as to how the angle iron is secured to the frame work. Anyone have any suggestions or can direct me to a site with illustrations ( I'm definitely a visual type learner...I gotta see it to comprehend). Thanks very much...John

Hello Everyone....I'd like some advice on low level lighting for an observatory...I'm almost finished my 10'x10'split roof roll off design, gleaned from visits to numerous web sites...any suggestions, ideas or links for non obtrusive low level lighting would be much appreciated...I'll post a picture of the completed project once I get a coat of stain on the siding and high gloss white on the roof...Thanks...John

Here's a picture of my newly completed 10'x10' observatory which houses a 12" LX200...mounted on the giant field tripod with the superwedge, it's too tall for comfortable viewing, so I'm awaiting arrival of a permanent 30" pier and will have to pull up a few of the floor pavers to pour a footing for pier installation...the observatory has dramatically increased viewing time as I can be up and running in a matter of minutes...each half of the roof rolls off 2 feet beyond the building but I think I'm going to have to take a few more trees down to take advantage of this option...sorry about the picture size...I just bought the Nikon 4300 on Sat. and I have to learn how to manipulate /edit the photos..thanks...John

I installed the permanent pier that James Grigar from Astrosky fabricated for the LX200...I can't tell you how happy I was to put away the giant field tripod...it took up too much space in the 10'x10'and now I can comfortably sit while observing.

Here's a picture of Saturn that I took using a newly purchased Nikon 4300 w/12" LX200. Getting an accurate focus presents a problem since the camera's LCD is too small for accurate focusing....any suggestions would be most welcome....thanks...John

I recently purchased a Tuthill Stereocular here on Astromart and after a few weeks of use w/12"LX200, I have to say that I'm a "binoview believer". I owned a Lomo unit two years ago (used w/7"LX200) but sold the unit because it was limited for use on the planets and moon. The Lomo unit also had a marked color difference from side to side. With the Tuthill unit, I've used 10mm and 25mm flat topped Celestron Plossls, 20mm Celestron Erfles, 32mm Omocron Plossls, 14mm Antares w70s and Meade 40mm 4000 SPs with all providing just wonderful views of planets and DSOs. I haven't noticed any color difference from side to side and light loss seems to be minimal...the unit is heavy and the previous owner modified the unit with the addition of a 2" nosepiece which is threaded for 48mm filters...I posted on the Yahoo Binoviewer site and received some feedback from Tom Mote who owned a Tuthill unit a few years ago but has since sold the unit(much to his chagrin)...just out of curiosity, I'd like to get some technical data on this unit, so any feedback would be much appreciated...thanks...John

I had my newly purchased Orion Argonaut/MK67 out for a test run tonight and using a generic 2" to 1.25" reducer and a standard 1.25" Televue diagonal I ran out of backfocus before Polaris could be brought to focus (using a 30mm and 16mm plossl)...I could almost get it if I backed the diagonal out....any suggestions??..most of my EPs are 1.25"....thanks...John