Posts Made By: William Russell

Read this....... I have a 10d on order....

http://panther-observatory.com/Review_Canon10D.htm

In short

"After owning the D60 for one year I decided to exchange it against the new 10D model.
The main reason for this decision has been the better noise behavior during long exposures of the 10D compared to the D60 (Review)

Some other short cuts of the D60 have been improved too:
* nearly complete elimination of the red amplifier glow at the right side of the image;
* higher ISO settings up to 1600 (3200 not really usable);
* higher review magnification of up to 10x for analyzing images via the internal display;
* improved remote capture software allows multiple interval exposures each max 30 sec (but no bulb mode!);

The new cheaper Canon Rebel (300D in Europe) supplied in a plastic case shows similar results for deep sky applications, 2 major drawbacks: no mirror lockup, no connection to remote interval timer posssible! "

For mine, Cold weather combined with a immobilizing accident (i'll be fine ) has provided me with the time to put a gauge on the mirror of my 12" Lx200gps. For years it has always bothered me that I can’t tell where the mirror is. Between Focus Train setups and cameras It’s a pain to get the mirror in the general vicinity of correct focus.

I was surprised on how well this works! Combined with the Thrust bearings on the focuser and almost no backlash from proper lubrication. I installed this brass rod to a threaded spacer attached to the mirror. through a Al bearing in the Mount (Very careful Drilling ) Ouch!!! . I then took a digital caliper and machined the brackets to the rod as well as the caliper itself.

This provides surprising accuracy! down to 2/100th of a mm.

for example my St2000xm W 5mm spacer and a 3.3fr with my JMI SCT Coupler is allways 15.5mm with the NGFS set at 0.

Bill Russell

Its purely a matter of demand. The Manufacturing Lot of a Astro CCD is <= 1,000 + or - and the lot of a DLSLR is 10,000 + or - 100,000. so the Marginal + variable cost is minimized. Additionally If you haven’t dealt with SBIG or Starlight Express there customer care is extraordinary! Try getting that kind of service from Nikon or Canon

Additionally Pelter cooling requires considerable bulk and Electrons to cool and fans to carry away additional heat. Not too popular for your average paparazzi.

But I feel for ya. I have both


I always said if Sony made artificial Hearts, We would all have one!

Bill Russell

Scopestuff.com: Bobs Gears. about 99.00. Need some skills to change out. But not that big of a deal.

But before you do... Take my advice. If your having backlash issues ( Not striped Gears) Then there is a host of solutions before you change out your gears. Please see my previous threads on the issue.

Bill Russell

SAO 118636
GSC 847:1271, HIP 54057, PPM 157464, HD 95848, B+08 2452
Spectral: K0
**** Data from Hipparcos Catalog ****
Proper motion (mas/yr): RA = -15.87, Dec = -24.52
Magnitudes Bt: 8.556, Vt: 7.333
Parallax: 5.790 mas, 172.7116 pc
Distance: 563.31 light-years, 35624383.08 astronomical units
Magnitude: 7.25
RA: 11h 03m 54.947s Dec: +07°33'31.842"
RA: 11h 03m 41.293s Dec: +07°34'55.083" (Epoch 2000)
Azm: 223°59'07" Alt: +49°48'54"
Rise: 17:52 Transit: 00:23 Set: 06:50
Hour angle: 01h 47m 29.3s Air mass: 1.31
Position error: 1.02 mas