Posts Made By: Brian Risley

It appears that Joe Lavigne (coastastro) of Townsend, MT (Formerly from Fort Myers/Naples, FL) died 12-13-2007. He was 44. Carol Stewart notified me earlier this month that she hadn't heard from him and she just found notice of his death on the web. No information was given about his death. I worked with Joe for many years at the Calusa Nature Center Planetarium. He will be missed. If anyone knows any further details or has contact with his family, please notify Carol or me.

Brian Risley

The Chiefland Astronomy Village star party is back on for 2008.
Oct 24-Nov 2.
Details at http://www.chiefland.org/

Brian

The ISS did a very nice pass tonight. With the shuttle docked and the new cargo pod attached, I would rate it as bright or brighter than Venus. It went by both Venus and Jupiter and was dazzling! If you get a chance, take a look. I think the brightness estimates need to be updated on Heavens-Above.
Brian

I didn't think I had hidden forums, but I just received email on a forum that I no longer see (haven't for quite a while) but was modding/monitoring in the past. I can't find a hide/unhide option that was mentioned in earlier posts. The forum in question (Schmidt Cass) does not appear on any of the forum search lists. I was able to get to it by going to some old posts I had in it, then clicking back 1 level on the top section to reply to the post that was put there. Tried in Both IE and Firefox, and logged out/back in.
Brian

I have #458, which Celestron told me 20+ years ago that it was made in 1972 (at first they didn't beleive me with a 3 digit serial #, but after some research, the sent me a letter with the info). Unfortunately, 23 years ago, it was stolen from me and thrown in a lake, and not recovered for several months. At the time I attempted to clean it up, but had problems with paint coatings and was busy with school, so I left it. I have managed to keep it mostly together, and just went through the parts last night. I have about 85% of the parts, mostly missing some screws and of couse the motors. I am also missing some bearings and need a new dec threaded shaft.
I am currently waiting to hear on some recoating costs, as I may actually look at rebuilding it.
I plan to contact Celestron and see what parts I can still get and what I will have to have machined.
This is more a challenge than anything else, as I have another C8 from 1980, #809541. The only problem I have had with that one is a peeling problem with the orange paint. It is now mostly silver!

The real old C-8's with the RA lock beside the RA knob may experience a failure with the lock, that is not fixable. I had to have the original drive based replaced by Celestron, which was unusual in that they gave me a Schmidt Camera serial plate on it with my original serial number. Unfortunately, that is one of the items I appear to have lost.

I too had a good experience with Celestron Service recently.
I am rebuilding a C-8 and asked about replacement pointer labels. Once they understood what I wanted, they said they would send me some out, which I just received.

The Vesta 675/680/690 will take the modifications for long exposure, but it appears the toucam 740/840 are better for the planets and will also take the mods. The other toucam/vesta models are usually cmos based and not adaptable. There are some others available that can do good work. Go to http://www.qcuiag.co.uk/ for more details about modifying cameras. You will need an adapter, available from a lot of sources. Anacortes carries some from Scopetronix I believe. Adapters are available for 1 1/4" and T threads. T threads may be better suited if you already have camera adapters that use it.

The mods will allow you to do longer exposure deep sky imaging. The Toucam/Vestas have been tricked to do 1/5 second exposures without the mod (software only has 1/25 as lower limit).
Brian

Older Orange C-8 used 10/24 threads for the two holes on the corrector ring.

Sounds interesting.
I am just south of you in Cape Coral. I have watched the dark skies disappear around here, the everglades and the keys in the last 25 years. For this island, what is the anticipated growth going to be? I wouldn't want to invest in something that would have a major resort suddenly appearing next door! Is this at a latitude well below the keys, or is it at a similar latitiude? If it is a bit south and has good southern horizons, then you may be able to attract those that are interested in the objects such as Eta Carina or other nice southern sights.
Brian Risley

I found a paint at Home Depot that is somewhat close, not exactly a match, but as I was repainting the entire tube, it didn't matter. It is pretty close.
America's Finest by RustOleum HD2852 Popsicle Orange.
It closely matches my 1980 era finder.