Posts Made By: Stephen Nolin

I've been looking at replacing my TV 8mm and 10.5mm plossls with the 7mm and 9mm Naglers for the extra eye relief, but I don't know anyone who has one that I can look through. I've found a couple for sale in Astromart, but I don't want to spend the money unless I know I'll be happy with the views. I've had the chance to look through some of the high power Orion Epic EPs and they were pretty nice, and I wanted to know how the 7 & 9 Naglers might compare. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This morning, I brought out my Orion XT8 dob for a real quick peek at Mars. Initially, I was viewing with a 3x-barlowed 17mm EP (approx. 212x mag.), but then I wanted to switch to a 2x-barlowed 25mm EP. I removed the 17mm from the 3x barlow, and mistakenly inserted the 2x-barlowed 25mm into the 3x barlow. When I realised what I did, I wanted to see if I could bring Mars into focus, and to my surprise, the planet came into perfect focus and was absolutely huge. The southern polar cap was just as plain as could be and the divisions between the darker and lighter areas were very distinct. Now if my math is correct, for my scope, a 2x-barlowed 25mm EP becomes an unbarlowed 12.5mm EP, which is then 3x-barlowed and thus becomes an unbarlowed 4.166666mm EP, yeilding a total magnification of 288x. Is this the correct answer or have I missed something?

Steve

I have an Orion SVD 6" reflector w/EQ mount and as you can see in the picture, I have an Orion AccuTrack drive attached. Since the AstroView mount is similar to the SVD, is it possible to mount the Orion EQ-3M drive. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I've been looking for software to process images from my LPI and my digital camera. Here is a combined and processed stack of 6 captures of Jupiter I got while using my LPI. I'm using RegiStax 3 for stacking and minimal processing, but I was wondering if Adobe Photo Elements 3 will give me the extra kick I'm not getting with RegiStax. Are there any better software packages than Adobe? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a pic of the Grand Canyon taken near the El Tovar Hotel, on the South Rim, around the middle of July. Haziness in the distance is smoke caused by a fire on the North Rim and two other fires not far from the canyon. Temperature on the rim was 97 degrees, in the shade, but at the bottom of the canyon, the park rangers were getting temperature reports as high as 128 degrees. But hey, it's a DRY heat!!

I took this image of the Tycho/Clavius region of the moon using an Orion StarMax 90 Mak-Cas on a GEM and a Meade LPI imager. I captured 25 stills and stacked them using RegiStax 3. Very little processing or sharpening was needed. Seeing was roughly 7 out of 10.

I have an Orion StarMax 90 Mak-Cas (1250mm F.L.). I know you can use focal reducers on SCTs for astroimaging, but I haven't heard anything about people using reducers on maks, and I'm just wondering if it is possible. If not, what is the reason for why it won't work? Thanks for your help.

I bought a new Canon PowerShot A1200 HD, to replace my old Canon A95. I don't really do any deep-sky photography, although, with the specs on this new camera, I might take a crack at Andromeda and the Orion Nebula. Until then, I thought I'd give it a try on something we're all familiar with. I attached it to my Orion XT4.5 dob and here's what I got...

Brendan Sheehan said:

I've been using a telescope for the first time in many years and have noticed an awful lot of man made satellites crossing the FOV. Was wondering if anyone with more observing experience could comment on if this is something that has greatly increased over the last few decades, or if it is just chance that I'm seeing alot of them...

This is what I was able to find after a five minute google search...

http://www.windows2universe.org/kids_space/sat.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-many-satellites-orbit-the-Earth

My aunt owns an Orion StarBlast 4.5 reflector.

http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Dobsonian-Telescopes/Mini-Dobsonians/Orion-StarBlast-45-Astro-Reflector-Telescope/pc/1/c/12/sc/28/p/9814.uts?refineByCategoryId=28

As she has gotten older, using her short eye relief EPs has become increasingly difficult and uncomfortable for her. She asked me if there was something that could be done to fix this problem, and that's when I decided to get her a 2x barlow. But, when it comes to choosing between a long or short barlow, I've been unable find any conclusive information on which would be better in a F/4 telescope.

Any help and words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.