Posts Made By: David Simons

Before I bought my Sky 90, the previous owner had the 31mm Nagler in it. This eyepiece did a great job of cleaning up the edge distortions, and basically sold the scope by having it in there, it is also about as low a focal length as you can go before the exit pupil gets too large. This really is a fine eyepiece, and worked really well.

Someday I will get the 31mm ... someday.

Enjoy the Sky 90, it is a really sweet package.

David Simons

Hi Paul,

There is a 1/4-20 thread on the bottom of the clamshell. You should be able to use it to bolt the Tak clamshell to the Telepod head with a 1/4-20 screw.

Let us know what works.

David Simons

Anders,

I have the Orion ST120. It excels at wide field views. Any of the Televue Panoptic eyepieces will work well on this scope. I use a 27mm Panoptic which gives almost 3 degrees. However you need very dark skies to really see everything, otherwise you will just have a bright background sky. I use it on a heavy duty photography tripod, and it sets up very quickly. Top end power for this scope is around 75X-100X. Not really enough for planets and moon though.

David Simons

David Simons

Hi Ken,

I own the 10" LX200GPS, and the older style 12" non-GPS LX200. After having setup and used both scopes, believe it or not the old style LX200 12" is easier and faster to setup, and I am observing in about 5 minutes with the 12", while the 10" is still doing its GPS alignment dance. The 10" GPS is much heavier than you would guess. I also have a very early version of the 8” Celestron Ultima 2000, which is a very light SCT scope and sets up in a few minutes. I have not personally handled an LX90, but have seen others do so at star parties, and they seem to get up and running in very little time. They also are usually the first ones to be packed up also! So to test the waters, the LX90 seems like a good way to go. If you like to buy things used, a good condition used LX90 should be a good bargain, and with some chance it might come with a selection of ep's, as some folks completely bail out from this hobby after a little while. Just make sure they have saved the original scope packaging. Although the Meade $99 eyepiece deal is a good way to get a complete set of useful ep's also. Also you might read some scope reviews on the "Cloudy Nights" web page. Lot's of useful information there.

As far as the visual difference in what you can see in each scope, the increment from 8" to 10", or from 10 to 12" is not that much different, but the 8 to 12 is a big difference. So again, the 8” seems ideal to start with.

Remember to leave some $$ for star maps, binoculars, software, red flashlights and dew heaters. : )

David Simons

Hi Floyd,

You might look at the Discovery or Starsplitter website for a comaparable scope. If the scope is really well built, then maybe also look at StarMaster or Obsession.

Was this made from a Telekit ?

David Simons

The scope, looking at Saturn, on a somewhat flimsy mount !

Hi John,

I have bought a laptop over the internet, and also an 8mm VCR. Both of them had "issues" that needed repairs to get them functional. The total cost to get these items fixed was slightly higher then if I had simply bought the used items from a known dealer of used equipment that had somekind of limited warranty. Your experience with the seller has gone better then mine.

I would say electronics purchases without some kind of DOA or functional warranty should be approached with caution. Telescopes seem to be a bit hardier in that respect, they seldom "wear out".

David Simons

Hi Mike,

Hard question to answer unless one has spoken to the 3 fellows selling theirs.

I have a friend who did receive his with scratches on the lens, and immediately sent his back for replacement. So this is a confirmed issue that some scopes have.

The six month wait was not something known in advance, and a number of folks either bought other scopes during the half a year, or bailed on the list altogether.

The scope I have, #57, is doing it's best to add to the hype for me. I also have the Skywatcher 120mm f8, Orion ST120 f5, and Celestron 150mm f8 achro's as well as an AP Traveler and 130EDT so I had some reference points to work with. (yes I'm a confirmed scope nut..) I suspect some of these folks might have thought they were getting a higher build quality. Or just picked up other scopes in the interim. On the other hand, 6 months can change a lot of things in a person’s life these days.

I had no illusions here, and I feel with a little care the thin tubes of the Chinese scopes are fine for what they cost (Skwatcher 120mm 8 lbs ). However Burgess did manage to get a fairly heavy tube wall (almost 11 lbs) , and also very effective light baffling. Nothing special about the focuser, but the metal knobs are a nice touch.

So I think you have a little of both, some of these early scopes have QA issues, and some folks have moved on. But for me the proof was in the image, and with the few times I have had to use it, it has delivered a sharp and minimal false color image, no magic here just a doublet lense done well. I was looking for an inexpensive grab and go 5” refractor, and for now this is the sweet spot.

I hope somebody has clear skies !!

David Simons

Have you folks checked out Cloudy Nights binocular reviews. There is a lot of information there. Just don't read the reviews of the Fujinon 25x150's ....

David Simons

Hi Joe,

As for the CCD imaging and a C14, check out Ron Wodaski's book. He does not recommend such long focal lengths, until you really know what you are doing, and have super steady skies to go with it. You can have a lot of fun doing CCD images with a much smaller and shorted FL instrument for a long time. As for visual, I like to sit down while I observe, and the C14 lets me do that : )

http://www.astromart.com/messages.asp?message_id=162240&page=

But if you can do it right the C14 will give stunning CCD images, Wodaski's work:

http://www.astromart.com/messages.asp?message_id=22923&page=

But you owe it to yourself to at least check out the Starmaster. If it's a good deal, and you change your mind later, Astromart is always here ...

David Simons