Posts Made By: Howard Nielsen

Can anyone tell me anything about this what appears to be an older Soligor refractor? (see link below) The owner is not even certain of the objective diamter but I suspect it is 63 or 83mm. I understand the lenses were likely made in Japan? Any opinions on quality? Thanks for the help.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/clt/203214577.html

I recently found a new Dob enthusiast's description of why he switched to a Dob from a 10" SCT:
"Drag out the tripod, set it up.
* Level and turn tripod to point north with a compass
* Manhandle OTA onto tripod, fish screws out of pocket in dark, drop screws, cuss, sweat, finally get it onto tripod and relatively stable.
* Try batteries. They're dead. AGAIN.
* Find a power source.
* Now find an extension cord.
* Hook up the laptop.
* Find another extension cord.
* Finally remove dust cover.
* Fish around in the dark for the power switch.
* At this point, the wife's gone inside for bed.
* Get it turned on, adjust contrast on paddle.
* Unlock, turn, relock, swing, relock some more, tighten, aim.
* Search for a star in the database that I recognize. (*scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll scroll)
* Wait for the scope to jerkily slew it's way over to nowhere near the star.
* Try to line it up in the finderscope, using the keypad. In the dark.
* Try to line it up in the eyepiece, using the keypad. In the dark.
* Center it in the eyepiece. Phew. Only TWO left.
* Repeat for 3 minutes on each additional star, if I can find them.
(Go in and get more coffee. It's going to be a long night of beautiful viewing!)
* Finally, I ca-CRAP! I tripped over the extension cord!!!!
* Start over.

Continued:

"(10 minutes later)
* Ok, It's set up. It's aligned. Now...Let's see. How about a nice "Tour"?
* Beep, Beep, Beep. BELOW HORIZON.
* Ok, Ok - not that one...Let's see. How about another one?
* Beep, Beep, Beep. BELOW HORIZON.
* Crud. Ok. How about a Planet?
* Beep, Beep, Beep. BELOW HORIZON.
* Dang. What about another planet?
* Beep, Beep, Beep. BELOW HORIZON.
* Ok, how about this one?
* Slewing.
* Ahhh, finally!
* Slewing.
* Slewing. CRAP! GRAB THE CORD! IT'S GETTING TANGLED! DAMMIT!
* Oh, Look. Dew on the OTA. I can't see anymore.
* Screw this. I'm going to bed."

And finally, the Dob experience:

"* Bring out scope and base together.
* Set on ground."

Dynascope enthusiasts in Indiana area might be interested in this. http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=2569645

I would like to mount my Meade LX50 optical tube assembly to a new goto equatorial mount I am ordering. Can anyone provide some instructions or point me to a website that can tell me how to go about doing this? Thanks in advance.

This seems to be handy tool to calculate limiting magnitude of telescopes.

http://www.cruxis.com/scope/limitingmagnitude.htm

The website for Universal Astronomics seems to be down. Has anyone heard anything about the status of the company?

I am considering purchasing the 16" ultra light scope being offered by Hubble Optics. The price right now seems too good to pass up for what is being offered. Just wondering if anyone has had any dealings with this company in the past and if so, what their experience with the company was like. I can't seem to find an address for them on their web page or anywhere else and it always worries me if a company is unwilling to tell you where it is located. The only contact method appears to be email and no phone number.

Close. Orion just began offering a 120 ED for about $2,000.00.