Posts Made By: Ben Bartine

Looking for a nice new telescope - I have a 12.5 Dob, so I am looking for planetary images / sharper optics. I have two questions:

1. What is the difference between a Meade Schmidt-Newt 6" or 8" and an Intes Mak Newt 6" (MN61 ) or Intes Micro Alter (M603)

You can buy the mount and scope from Meade for less than the scope alone from Intes

2. How does a Celestron C9.25 of Meade LX10 compare to the Intes scopes- as they are in a common price point?

3. Would a research grade small newtonian (6" ,7", 8") provide better views? If so - which model would I look for?

I am going to purchase a mount separately, so that is not part of the equasion.

I have some decent 1.25" eyepieces, Several 2" eyepieces including a 27mm panoptic.

Thanks all, and Happy New Year

I just purchased a refurbished LXD55 mount from Meade's Factory Outlet.

The mount does not come with a Saddle Plate. I will be initially using a Celestron 6" refractor - a very nice Celestron CR150. I have heard rumours of different vendors selling an aluminum replacement that will bolt onto an LXD55.

Any ideas out there?

Thanks!!

Ben

Wednesday night was such an unusually clear night here in North Atlanta that I just had to write about it.

My old Meade 12.5 dob was well cooled and collimated and my neighbors had their lights out. There were more stars visible then I have ever seen from my home.

Highlight of the evening - I was observing the Orion Nebula and focusing down on the Trapezium with a 12.5 mm eyepiece. A satellite appeared and sailed right through the middle of the Trapezium. It was really neat. I hope others were able to enjoy the evening.

Ben

There were a slew of "lenses" that just sold on govliquidation.com out of New Mexico. There were some questars, a bunch of 12.5" cardioptic scopes, and some 6" refracting scopes.

Did anybody here get any of the above? I would love to know exactly what those 12.5" scopes are, and what the 6" refractors were like.

Ben

A question to the floor...

NOTE: Upon some good advice - I am moving this thread to the eyepiece area.

I came home from vacation to find out that my refrigerator had created a lovely waterfall in my basement. My telescope eyepieces, having been stored in protective plastic boxes that filled up with water, had all been under water for almost two weeks.

Insurance says I need to try to "get them dried out and fixed". I don't think my Televue Panaoptic will ever be the same -

Who could I send these to, or send a picture to to get an estimate for fixing the eyepieces?

Has anyone else ever gone through this before (insurance, adjustors, ect)?

My panoptic now looks like a kaleidoscope...

Thanks - Ben

A question to the floor...

NOTE: Upon some good advice - I am moving this thread to the eyepiece area.

I came home from vacation to find out that my refrigerator had created a lovely waterfall in my basement. My telescope eyepieces, having been stored in protective plastic boxes that filled up with water, had all been under water for almost two weeks.

Insurance says I need to try to "get them dried out and fixed". I don't think my Televue Panaoptic will ever be the same -

Who could I send these to, or send a picture to to get an estimate for fixing the eyepieces?

Has anyone else ever gone through this before (insurance, adjustors, ect)?

My panoptic now looks like a kaleidoscope...

While I understand I can send in the panoptic to Televue, I also have several $50 to $75 eyepieces that I have collected that were damaged, as well as some less expensive diagnals (20 - $40). I suspect that it would cost more to get these cleaned than they would cost to replace.

Thanks for any suggestions - Ben

I sold a 22mm Nagler to a newbie here on Astromart.

When I sent it, it looked good. No issues. I didn't really see any dust.

Then - the guy sends me back a picture - claims " I thought the Nagler 22 just needed a cleaning, but turns out it appears to have major coating issues." and he sends me back this picture.

I feel horrible, and offer to give him his money back.

I asked "What did you do" and he says -

" If you are wondering, it was cleaned the same way I clean all my TV EPs, using alcohol and cotton swabs per the instructions on the TV website. "

Realize - I didn't think it needed cleaned at all. But thought maybe I just missed it. Then in a later email he gives this thoughtful reply:

" However, I can promise you that I took the utmost care when cleaning, didn't do any hard rubbing on it, and stopped as soon as I realized the marks weren't from dew. "

I start thinking - how much did he "clean" it? Am I wrong to think he destroyed this eyepiece?

Ben

First - I enjoy Astromart. I have bought sold and traded numerous scopes here.

I have paid for support in the past as a thank you, but have not paid all the time. I will continue to buy support in some form every year, and feel lucky to be able to use the site.

In some ways, I always considered Astromart to be a marketing mechanism for Anacortes as well as a user's community.

I would be interested to know how many Astromart members have purchased equipment through Anacortes. How much is astromart worth to anacortes in advertising? I have purchased some equipment from them in the past, and did so because of this site.

What are the operating costs per month? How does that compare to an advertisement in Sky and Telescope? Is this being done to make money, or to cover overhead?

And - how many members might be lost if support becomes mandatory? Not sure. Anyone remember starry messenger? It disappeared because of Astromart and other free web based sites. I would hate for Astromart to disappear as well. CN / Telescope Reviews' membership numbers seem to be growing pretty quickly, as it is free.

I need to remove a rating.  Previously, there was a "delete" button or such next to each rating.  Now, it is gone.

Is there a way to remove a rating now?

Thanks!

Ben