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Posts Made By: Paul Ste. Marie

February 28, 2010 07:45 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Nebular filters?

Posted By Paul Ste. Marie
What's the verdict on the various deep sky general purpose nebular filters? Essential, reduce light by too much? The offerings I'm looking at are:

* Meade Nebular Broadband 911B
* Orion Sky Glow 05658
* TeleVue NebuStar BFH-200
* Thousand Oaks LP-1
* Lumicon Deep Sky LF3020

going roughly from cheapest to most expensive. What's your experience been with these?

May 14, 2010 05:19 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Right-angle finders

Posted By Paul Ste. Marie
Any suggestions for right-angle finders? I currently have an Orion 9x50 with illuminated reticle, which I like, but I'm breaking my neck looking at anything overhead.

Orion's right-angle 9x50 doesn't seem to have an illumination option. The Stellarvue F50M2 looks nice, but by the time you add in a new set of mounting rings and an illuminator, you've doubled the price. Any ideas if the Orion mounting rings (2.5" ID) or illuminator with work with the Stellarvue?

Other good options?

May 23, 2010 04:46 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Reducing vibration in fork mounts

Posted By Paul Ste. Marie
Has anyone had success trying to dampen vibration in fork mounts by adding some sort of non-elastic (in the technical sense) material to the fork? I'm thinking of trying some of the squirt-in expanding foam in the channels of the fork on my LX50 to absorb and deaden vibrations.

I figure anything adequately mushy should reduce the tuning fork effect I seem to get whenever I touch the scope to focus.

May 27, 2010 07:04 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Meade focuser upgrades

Posted By Paul Ste. Marie
Any thoughts on the relative merits of the Peterson "EZ Focus" upgrade for Meade SCTs vs the Starlight Microfocuser that replaces the Meade knob with a two speed focuser? Getting higher-power eyepieces (<10mm) focused correctly is very twitchy.

One of the Crawford focusers that screws onto the SCT threads is another alternative, but it seems to me that the focuser plus diagonal leaves you with a huge amount of stuff hanging off the back end of the scope.


February 9, 2010 07:23 AM Forum: ASTRONOMY

Need help on a road trip-Western Wa

Posted By Paul Ste. Marie
Having just returned to observing after a long hiatus, I'm suffering from the same problem.

The usual advice I've had is to hop on I-90 east and drive until it gets clear and dark. Not much use for keeping the wife and kids happy, I'm afraid.


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