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Posts Made By: Ron Sowers

May 4, 2002 05:41 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

equipment, seeing or what?

Posted By Ron Sowers

Hey all, question on viewing Jupiter, we have 2 scopes, both with good optics. A 6 inch f5 reflector, and a meade 90etx, I never get to see much detail on Juptiter BUT see a lot on Saturn. One night a couple years ago, the seeing was excellent, in our 6 inch, I was at about 280x, Saturn was tack sharp, showed an olive colored cap, a dusky band, even glimped the Encke divsion and the C ring. BUT Jupiter still only showed two major band and I could barely detect minor bands. What scope does it take to really see detail on Jupiter? It looked best this year in our etx at about 150x. But still not like the impression I get from others veiws. Thanks! Ron

May 12, 2002 06:04 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Brightness, coatings, optical design...etc.

Posted By Ron Sowers

Hey all, I just read an add in S&T, and thinking also about earlier posts on here about how a 9Omm etx is "dimmer" than an 8Omm refractor....makes me wonder, Is there a way to calculate approx. how "bright" a scope is or should be? The add I read was about Meades new ultra coatings, saying how the surfaces are upwards of 97% as opposed to regular enhanced coatings which are 89%. Then it said how on a CAT scope you have 4 surfaces. the front of the corrector plate, the back surface of the corrector plate, and both mirrors. My line of thinking is...if you have 1OO% light coming into the scope, then the front of the corrector lets through 89% now the rear of the corrector plate would let through 89% of the remaining which would be 79.2% of the original, then the primary would let 89% of that which is 7O.4% of the original, then the seconday would bring it down to 62.7% of the original, not mention the loss on the eyepeices!!! Now a doublet refractor would have 4 sufaces also, so would be the same? A newt only has 2 surfaces b4 focus so would let through 79.2% ? Of course we have the central obstuction....!!!! What is prompting me to this, is I read a few times that a 4 inch refractor is about equivalent to a 6 inch reflector, but that seemed kinda harsh towards the reflector, but the post about the 8Omm refractor being brighter than the 9Omm Mak, made me wonder? To any who suffered through this long post, thanks much! And sorry so long! Ron

May 12, 2002 08:59 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Peepsite

Posted By Ron Sowers

Hey all, Does anyone know of a better way to make a peepsite than the film canister thing? Those kinda wobble in my focuser and it doesn't seem like I could trust the accuracy, especially after reading the article about collimation in S&T. I have an f5 newt and would like to try to get it REALLY accurate, Thanks! Ron

May 14, 2002 03:11 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Freaking out on collimation

Posted By Ron Sowers

If I could only center spot the secondary!!! The article in S&T is still bugging me, just played with my scope and a film canister for 45 minutes, I have so much trouble trying to tell if I have the secondary centered perfect under the focuser! Wondering if I should get a chesire/peepsite/crosshairs eyepiece? I have a laser, but it said lasers can be untrustable for the collimation of the primary IF the secondary isn't centered perfect. Ahhhh any suggestions? Thanks! Ron

August 3, 2002 05:59 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Camcorder & mount

Posted By Ron Sowers

Hey all, Has anyone made or bought any hardware to mount a small camcorder to a reflector? Any tips on doing this? I've shot the moon and planets with our old humungous camcorder in the past, had to set it on a tripod and point it at the eyepeice. Now we purchased a small high 8 sony and would love to just mount it and get some good moon and planet footage. Any success stories? Thanks, Ron

August 17, 2002 04:36 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

veiwing Jupiter /Equipment

Posted By Ron Sowers

Has anyone seen Jupiter as good as it appears in the following link, and if so, what scope does it take to see it like that? http://www.astronomy.com/images/astrokids/content/jupiter.jpg Jupter looks maybe a hair better {and without the amber tint} then it appears in this link below in my scope. http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~uias/astropics/2000/20001114/jupiter.jpg Thanks, Ron

August 31, 2002 03:29 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Orion Steady Pix Camera Mount

Posted By Ron Sowers

Hi, Does anyone have one of these, and does it work ok? Thanks! Ron

September 14, 2002 10:00 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Astrostack

Posted By Ron Sowers

Anyone have much experience with this program? I downloaded it, and seems like I'm trying it right, I have 3 moon pictures saved as moonO1.bmp, moonO2.bmp and moonO3.bmp. I click on the load BMP, it say's "first pictures in series" I click on the moonO1 then it says, "last picture in series" I click on the moonO3, the window goes away and it says "range check error" I've tried just moon1 and 2 and just 2 and 3 tried backwards, forward, no matter what I get that error, any ideas? Thanks, Ron

September 19, 2002 09:40 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Moon pics

Posted By Ron Sowers

Hey all,

I finally got astrostack figured out and got a couple of "not too bad" moon pics, thought I'd post em here.

Take care!
RonS

September 21, 2002 10:44 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Hey Rolando...

Posted By Ron Sowers

I was just looking at the use photo section and saw your picture of Jupiter with your webcam, man, that is awesome! Does Jupiter look that good to your eye through your scope? I'm getting the "need a mak" urge again. What kind of webcam was that? Thanks, Ron