Posts Made By: James Benton

did you get the EQ-G? I have this mount on my wish list for next year.

James

Mike, I had an LX90 a few years ago, the non LNT version, It only takes a few minutes to point the scope north and level it your self. I dont think I would get this option in a scope now, it just seems like another meade option than can bug out on you. Nothing like a good compas and a bubble level. I only used the built in bubble level on the scope as a rough level. I had 2 small bubble levels I would level the tripod with and then once the scope was on the tripod I would put one on the OTA to get it level.

James

Nice shot Bill.

Big Bend is my favorite place to go. I absolutely love it out there and plan to take a trip there soon.

Big Bend is not like any of the other National Parks that attracts hundreds of thousands of people a year. It is actually the least visited National Park in the USA.

For those people who seek solitude and quite surroundings Big Bend is the place to go. It is not uncommon to hike a trail and not see any other people for several hours.

here are some of my photos from big bend over the years.

http://www.james-benton.com/adventures/bigbend01/index.html
http://www.james-benton.com/adventures/bigbend02b/index.html
http://www.james-benton.com/adventures/bigbend03/index.html
http://www.james-benton.com/adventures/bigbend05/index.html


James

what OS do you have on your PC? Windows XP?

James

20 times better than my first moon shot. a little pratice and patience will definatelly pay off

James

you are doing good and no need to really change a lot.

with the meade auto star you point the scope to north, make sure the tripod is level.
when you enter the date and time (dont forget the daylight savings time option) and then tell it to do the 2 star alignment, its ALWAYS going to be off on the first star by severl degrees. you will move the scope using the hand controller to center the star in the eye piece, then hit the ENTER key to "Sync" on that star. it will display "calculating" then move to the next star, it should be a little closer, but dont hold your breath. Then when it gets over to the second star center that one in the eye piece and then hit ENTER to sync. then it should say "Allignment Successful". THen you can begin your goto fun. the GOTO's will be close, but usually not dead center in the eye peice. Sometimes it will be dead on and other it wil be way off. this is just how it works.

now when you do a goto that will take you to the oposite side of the sky (going from east to west) you wil notice the "goto" is a bit off, hit the enter key to tell autostar you are adjusting the alignment and then just center the object in the center of the eye piece using the hand controller and hit enter to sync.

the meade manuals really dont explan this well at all. but once you get the hang of it its pretty easy to set up, align and star your observing

James

Im not sure but maybe the gallery software they use on this site is doing some sort of compression to the image, if its over 800pix on the long side. I have seen this in others photos and on other web sites.

try processing your image (crop and other adjustments)
resize to 800x??? (what ever the aspect ratio choses) and then do the sharpening as the last step. save the quality down a little so its not over 500Kb (usually 250Kb is decent) then upload it and se how it looks.

James

here is a link I found while searching the web. not sure if it has the detail you are looking for.

http://users3.ev1.net/~glennlray/Astro/Celestron_Disassembly.html

James

Im glad he was able to free himself. a few years ago the wife and I found a Tern at the beach who had gotten really badly tangled up in fishing line. we caught him and spent about 30 minutes or so getting all the line off of the bird. He did not want to be handled for the first few minutes, but then he just relaxed and let my wife do her job. We took him to a secluded beach to release him and it took him several tries to get off the ground. Im sure he was very tired and hurt.

the first 3 photos on this page are of the tern
http://www.james-benton.com/photos/animals/rescued/index.html

James

John, if i am not mistaken you can insert the correct image diag into the flip mirror assembly just like an eyepiece.

which flip-mirror do you have and which correct image dia?

James