Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

I have noticed that I have been able to get about 42X per inch in my NS8GPS without loss of detail or clarity on a reasonably good night in the valley at 360' alt. I know that they state 50X per inch is the max for any scope. Do any of you out there get any more out of your SCT than I am on a given night of reasonable seeing? I am just curious if I am in the normal range with this scope or better than normal. It seems to be an exceptional 8" SCT as far as optics are concerned. I usually have people comment about my scope having a better view than their larger aperture SCTs. We have a few 10" and 12" SCTs in the club.

Swayze mirror and home made scope. Excellent views and stays in collimation with a 5 minute set up time. JMI DX3 focuser and 80mm Russell spotter scope. Weighs 115 lbs total. Not exactly a ultralight! :^)

I have read a lot about 3 vane curved spiders and 4 vane spiders and how the curve spiders cancel most spikes. How ever if your scope already has a 4 vane spider then you would have to do some modifications to the secondary cage to give it the mounting bars for the 3 vanes.
I am wondering if there is not a 4 vane spider that will do a better job of eliminating these spikes so you could use the same mounting hardware? Just seems to me that there should be some one that has addressed this issue.
Also I have read where most 3 vanes will not support the larger diagonal mirrors well and tend to sag with the weight. So this make me not too sure about the 3 vane solution.
Has anyone done anything with a spider that has given better results.
Thanks
Floyd

I find it interesting that some one would buy a scope that needed several aftermarket items to make it useful! I hear all the time how "This is a nice scope once you buy this part and that and install them"! Why would you not consider these to be faults with the original scope. I would be a little miffed to find that I needed to add a few $100's of dollars in "upgrades" before my new $3,500 scope was easy to use or setup!

Maybe I am just picky?

I am currently using a red dot finder (a 32mm shotgun type) with an 80mm finder scope. I use the red dot to get me to the general area and then the finder to center the object desired.
My question is, is the a real advantage to the Telrad or Rigel over the red dot, or are they all just a way of getting close?
I am considering getting a Telrad for the DOB and just using the red dot on the SCT. But I am wondering if it would help that much or whether the Rigel would be the better choice.

James,
As a man once said "You can't please all the people all the time".
You can only do what you are doing, offer a refund or to take care of the problem.
Anyone that buys something for $2000 is silly to not demand it be insured. It could be lost, broken, or stolen in transit.
Hope you work things out!
:^)
Floyd

98" Long, assembly is more difficult. Higher ladder to climb. More effected by winds.
But it would make a nice look. Longer focal length = more magnification with a given EP.

Well, I am heading out for Mt. Pinos for the evening. I hope to try out a new EP and a aperture mask that I made after reading the Cloudy Nights article on its use. It is basically a "Easy Focus" aperture mask. The guy made some big claims of contrast and better views, so I decided what the heck and made one. It is for my f/4.9 15" DOB. I will post after I try it and let you know my opinions.

I am also trying out my new cooling fan system to see if it works better than just letting it sit there.

I also made a complete cover for my scope out of aluminumized material to keep it safe from sun and the elements. I used a material that blocks UV and is waterproof. Only cost a few dollars in materials and a little sewing time.

I am hoping for good views of Mars and all the other objects tonight. Clear Sky Clock is predicting good conditions, so here I go.

Dark skies to all tonight.
Floyd

Just a picture of me and the scope at Mt. Pinos Saturday night. Later there were so many people and scopes there you could not swing the scope to sight a new object!

Went to Lockwood Valley observation point last night to do some observing. There were about 10 scopes there which is pretty busy for this little known site. We had 15", 14.5" DOBs, AR6, NS8, NS5, and a few of others, I didn't take note of the type, at the site.

Mars observations were at best fair. I am still disappointed in the Mars views for the last 4 weeks.

Did get to see about 20 Messier and NGC objects before I became too tired to stay up longer. This was my 3rd night and 2nd night in a row for this week!
Views were quite good for The Veil, North American, Swan, Trifid and all the other Nebulas. Andromeda was awesome and dominated that part of the sky. M13 was nice as well.

Took a few looks through others scopes and enjoyed the chats with new people.

Tear down was at 12:30am and I was pretty beat. I took a few minutes to watch the TV where one of the guys was showing Mars. Still a bit soft on the view.

My 15" DOB was working very well and I shared it with a man that had no scope to use. He enjoyed driving the DOB and said he was amazed at the fine optics of the scope and the great movement of the bearings. Made me smile, it is always nice to hear someone else say your scope is top notch. I think he is convinced that TV Naglers are the thing to have now! ;^) Look through them and you might as well pull out the checkbook.

Hope everyone had a good weekend with dark skies like we did.
Floyd