Posts Made By: Mark Costello III

I can't make the offer to update Bill's website, but FWIW here is an exchange of e-meil between Burgess Optical and me. Burgess Optical gave permission to me to reprint their responses (cf. last note).

The first one was in response to my inquiry about the status of the 102F6's. It is dated November 7 (today).

Mark,

Thank you for your email. The 127s are shipping now and the delay on the 102F6 is the glass. We are waiting for the new glass and hope it will be in within the next week or two.

Thanks and have a nice day.

Michelle

Burgess Optical
7756 Oak Ridge HWY
Knoxville, TN 37931

865-769-8777
865-539-0345 (fax)

Office Hours:
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Eastern

End of the first e-mail. Here is my response:

Thanks for the info, Michelle.

Your estimate confirms a note I saw earlier this morning on the Burgess Refractor Forum in which the author stated that Bill was hoping to have the 102F6's shipped by the end of November. I'm assuming that your estimates are based on estimates from the factory remaking the lens as to when they will be done and have the lens shipped (correct?).

Y'all may want to post an update on the Burgess Refractor Forum with this information. Or would y'all mind if I post a copy of your note in an update on the Burgess Refractor Forum and / or the Burgess Optical Section on the Astromart Forum.

Again, all success on shipping the 127F8's. Like a lot of other prospective 102F6 owners, I'm waiting for "first light" reports from the owners of the 127F8's to see how they did. Based on what I heard to date about both the 127F8's and the 102F6's, I'm not worried, just real interested. Also, (and more dear to me) all success in getting the new 102F6's.

Thanks, again and the best of the day to you and everyone at Burgess Optical.


Mark Vincent Costello III

End of my response to the first note. The note below is the response from Burgess Optical:

Mark,

Yes, you are correct. We are patiently waiting on the new glass to arrive. We want to make sure what goes into our 102 is quality. We regret that our customers are having to wait but I think most would appreciate waiting a bit longer to get quality, then to be shipped something substandard.

You can post a copy of my previous email and this one if you would like.

Thanks again,

Michelle

Burgess Optical
7756 Oak Ridge HWY
Knoxville, TN 37931

865-769-8777
865-539-0345 (fax)

Office Hours:
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Eastern


End of notes. Hope this helps.

Yes and Yes. There're all sorts of notes on the Burgess Refractor Forum about the 150F8 achro. It may even be in production. Bill also has stated in the past that he plans to make "apomizers" (apo lens cells) for all of his achro refractors. I believe he has or has had prototype lens cells for the 127F8 under evaluation by Thomas Back. The apomizer order will be the 127F8, 150F8, and 102F6.

To follow up, how do those of you who own Meade 4" ED's like them? Thanks. Mark Costello

Just to let y'all know and answer the original question, Burgess Optical (a lady named Michelle) is now contacting 102F6 owners to officially list the three Options (BTW, Option 3 is now Option 1 and vice-versa and there a couple of other minor new pieces of information) and to get an official response from each. I just got finished looking at my notice. I asked a few questions to clarify things a bit but in the end will go with Option 1 (buy the scope as is now and get the replacement lens - used to be Option 3).

Michelle also stated that they will immediately ship the 1026's to everyone who picks Option 1. Seems as if their shipping is emminent.

One final thing: one piece of information wasn't so minor - at least to me. The replacement lens is a semi-apo designed by Thomas Back. FWIW (it sounds worth a lot to me).

Good night to all.

Mark Costello

Good Evening Jon:

My 102F6 arrived last Wednesday (January 28). The funny thing was the first notice I got that it was ready to ship was from FEDEX the Thursday before saying it was shipped. Maybe that was because I had sent a couple of notes just before confirming I wanted the OTA as is and had already given them my card ID for payment. I wound up paying $200 for the OTA, case, and 2 eyepieces (6mm and 40mm 1.25" barrel), and $20 shipping. No diagonal came with the scope. Evidently, they're still hung up.

I've had it out three nights now (including last night during the Superbowl halftime show) and really like it. I've used it to take long looks at the Moon, M45, and M42 so far. Here are my observations so far - FWIW _ I'm only a reconstituted newbie, this is the only scope I have, my last scope was a Sky Research 8"F2.9 dob (owned from 1981 through 1994). All three nights were from my driveway with no lights from my house, but some neighborhood and street lights nearby. The 102F6 rode a CG5 mount with legs fully extended. I left the limiting baffle alone so the refractor was working at 90mm F6.7.

1) M42 appeared as a large form shaped roughly like a seashell extending from the Trapezium. With prolonged study, I was able to see filaments again running roughly from the Trapezium. By comparing the size of the image with the estimated AFOV, I figured I was seeing nearly all of the shape 60' across. Again, with some concentration, was able to see 5 stars in the Trapezium. I remember the images with the dob, they were brighter and in some cases I remember the green being somewhat lighter in the 8" scope (where I lived from 1981 - 1982 the seeing was far better out in farm country). Finally back to the 102F6 there were lots of smaller dim stars in the field aroung M42.

2) M45 was lovely - the image had excellent contrast - diamonds on indigo black velvet. The main stars were white with just a tinge of blue. I recall that the stars in the Pleiades are hot blue-white stars. I could not see any hint of the nebulosity around the main stars - I do remember seeing some of that in the dob appearing as some flaring around the stars.

More in a follow-up note.

Great!! The words are going on my screen saver! I sure hope the administrator sees this and spices up his note the next time he "flips the odometer" on one of these forums. Mark Costello

Cf. Burgess Refractors Post 5805 from the gentleman who is the volunteer webmaster for Burgess Optical. He posted to say someone with "fake authorization" transferred the Burgess website to his name. (Sorry, I couldn't figure how to copy the message over to this forum.) There's an alternate link to Burgess Optical. It is

http:\\Knightcontrol\freeservers.com.

Have a good day.

Mark Costello

Ah, Mr. Administrator. You've provided the eye to the hurricane. Thanks. Mark Costello in Matthews NC

There are no new announcements from Bill on the Burgess Refractors Forum concerning the 1026 semi-apo lens (or complete OTA's). His last word on this was on February 27 in which he said he would have one of the 1026 semi-apos (as well as a 1026 apo) at NEAF. Hopefully, the 1026 semi-apos will be available by then - but that's just me hoping. Meanwhile, I'm making use of my 1026 (currently and for a long time my only scope). It showed me some nice views of a star field just north of Gemini (part of the Milky Way I'm guessing) as well as M41, M44, and M35 last night.

Yours Truly,

Mark Costello

Matthews, NC

Good evening all:

I've been contented to just lurk here occasionally, especially given the - er - fervor with which some of the topics are discussed. (I recently posted 3 notes on the Philosophy / Religion Forum but have gone back to just lurking there as well since that forum has moved way beyond the topics associated with my posts and with - umm - gusto.) Anyway, this question attracted my attention and seemed "safe." So here're my responses:


Age: 53

Married: Yes. Once since July 29 1989

Children: 4. Son age 23, and daughters age 18, 13, & 11. The older two are step-children.

Education: BS Physics, MS Nuclear Engineering

Military: No

Ever lived outside USA: Yes New York - :-) Actually, no.

Political Views: Conservative (especially social conservative)

Parents' political views: Conservative (especially social conservative). Their views and mine are very very close but not identical.

Economic status: Middle class, white collar. I'm an engineer for the area electric utility.

Parents' economic status: middle class, white collar. My Dad raised 8 of us on a yearly income of $15,000.

Childhood environment: rural (0-5 yr), suburban (other)

Current environment: suburban

Extra info FWIW

Raised in: Florida (North FLorida)

College education in: New York

Currently live in: North Carolina

Religion: Presbyterian (PCA). Was raised Catholic.

And around here most importantly ....

Telescopes I've owned in the past:
Tasco 40mm 10-50X refractor
Sears 60mm F11.7 refractor
Criterion RV6 Newt
Sky Research 8"F3 Newt dob

Telescope currently owned:
Burgess 102F6 refractor (unstopped). Originally looked at geting back in with an 8-10" dob but wanted something more portable and what the hey, I'm a refractor guy. Currently invested $550 in OTA, mount, and accessories.

Back to lurking - occasionally....

Good night.

Mark Costello

Matthews NC