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Posts Made By: Don Wyman

January 28, 2003 04:22 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Anyone ever looked through a Coultier 13" ?

Posted By Don Wyman
The quality of the Coulter mirrors was basically a crap shoot. You just hoped you got lucky and got a decent one. One friend's 10" is one of the nicest 10's I've ever seen and another had a decent but not outstanding 13.1" mirror. My 17.5" suffered from horrible astigmatism and never performed worth a crap. Unfortunately I bought this mess from someone else second hand and had to live with it.

Don W

January 31, 2003 02:24 PM Forum: Celestron

Anyone recognise this controller?

Posted By Don Wyman
It is a dual axis drive controller for the Vixen Super/Great/GPDX series of mounts. It (and the proper motors) would also work on the CG-5 mounts.

I think I see the Celestron logo there. Celestron sold the Vixen mount with their name on it for years until they decided to clone the Super Polaris/Great Polaris mount. The Celestron clone is the CG-5.

I have a similar controller with DMD-3 on it. It's a Vixen dual axis controller for the GP's.

Yours has a couple extra knobs

Don Wyman

May 19, 2003 11:10 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Coronado versus Thousand Oaks

Posted By Don Wyman
The Coronado is a <.7Angstrom system which will allow you to see not only the prominences, but very good surface detail. the Thousand Oaks (and nearly identical Lumicon) work at 1.5Angstroms which will show only the prominences. Surface detail is nil. As the Angstrom rating goes lower, the surface details become more visible than the prominences. It's also more expensive to make the lower Angstrom filters.

So, if you want to see prominences, the 1000 Oaks is good. You can always get a white light filter (mylar or glass) for sunspots and surface granulation. If you want the best of both worlds, the SolarMax 40 on say an Orion or Celestron Short Tube 80 refractor is great.

Don Wyman

May 21, 2003 05:25 PM Forum: Pictures of Me and My Telescope and........

Portable Solar Viewing

Posted By Don Wyman
Here's my portable setup. Its a Televue Pronto with Coronado Solarmax 40 on a Celestron Nexstar 80GT mount. I leave it set up in my den and can be viewing in minutes. This pic is from Astronomy Day 2003, about an hour before the crowds came.

Don Wyman

June 3, 2003 06:58 PM Forum: Pictures of Me and My Telescope and........

My humble dob

Posted By Don Wyman
Well, glad you enjoyed it, Christine. Although I was there I don't recall meeting you. I had the Celestron Nexstar 11GPS and the right hand drive Jeep Cherokee with US Mail on the side . I'm one of the founders of both NEWSTAR and WOW.

Don Wyman

June 3, 2003 07:02 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Ok has anyone cleaned their Coronado yet?

Posted By Don Wyman
I used a Lense Pen to brush off the dirt and remove a small smudge. No problem.

Don Wyman

June 7, 2003 08:20 AM Forum: Pictures of Me and My Telescope and........

The upper limit of my aperture fever...

Posted By Don Wyman
Hey, Mike. Looks like a bunch of WOW attendees are in this group. I'm still drying out some of my stuff from all the dew on Saturday night .

Don Wyman

June 7, 2003 08:36 AM Forum: TeleVue

Which mount?

Posted By Don Wyman
The Losmandy G-11 is a good choice. If you want more bells and whistles and easy setup, the Celestron CGE mount has been getting excellent reviews.

Don Wyman

July 13, 2003 01:31 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

C11 on deep sky

Posted By Don Wyman
Umm.......about the same as the views in my friends excellent 10" dob. Under dark skies it does very nicely on all the Messier objects and brighter NGC's.

Don Wyman
Nexstar 11GPS

August 31, 2003 10:08 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Nexstar and Losmandy GM8

Posted By Don Wyman
The original Nexstar 5/8 did not have tracking that was good enough for astrophotography. The newer 5i/8i are much better and feature an autoguider port. They would be ok for some casual imaging but that's about it.

For the second part of your question, yes, you can remove the OTA and mount it on a Losmandy G8. It would be a much better imaging platform.

Don Wyman

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