Posts Made By: Thomas Holst

I'll agree that the TV85 is a great scope but my vote for the perfect small scope would have to go to the TV76. (Admittedly, the TV85 is by far the most popular, according to the TeleVue Yahoo Group Poll.)

My reasons are:

- It's 2 lbs. lighter and 4.5" shorter than the TV85.

- It has a field of view 1.1° wider and is brighter than the TV85.

- It is $425 (1-1/2 Naglers) cheaper than the TV85.

While participating in a public "100 Hours of Astronomy" event last weekend, I had my 6 year old (Nagler equipped) TV76 set up among a group of much larger scopes, including a 10" Dob, 8" SCT and a 6" (Achromat) Refractor, giving people views of the Moon and Saturn. People tended to gravitate toward the larger scopes, but when they finally got around to looking through my little TV76, most of them were shocked. The most common responses were "Wow!", "What kind of scope is this?" and "Why is the view better than the big scopes?". (I have no doubt that a TV85 would have generated the same responses.)

I guess it all boils down to personal viewing preferences.

John,

Thanks for the photo. I always wondered what those things looked like. I don't remember ever seeing one in my area, but we seem to have plenty of Black Widows, which favor the cool darkness of my basement.

Ivan Ong said:

...to a Losmandy plate? The camera ball mount has a 3/8".

Ivan,

Here's a simple way to do it without having to do any drilling or machining of the Losmandy plate.

Most all ballheads and other camera tripod heads have a 3/8-16 female thread in the bottom. If you have a standard Losmandy plate with lots of holes already in it, there should be at least two holes with 1/4-20 female threads.

You need two parts:

1. A 1/4-20 threaded set screw, about 3/4" long. This is a full length threaded screw without any head and a hex key hole in one end, into which you can fit an Allen wrench. These cost about 25~50 cents at any hardware store.

2. A 3/8-16 to 1/4-20 reducer bushing. (See attached photo.) This has 3/8-16 male threads on the outside and 1/4-20 female threads on the inside. These are made of either brass or steel and can sometimes be found in well equipped hardware stores but are most often found in camera stores for adapting newer tripod heads to older tripods. Usually cost about $2~$3.

Once you have these two parts, you should be able to figure out how to screw them together and connect your ball head to the Losmady plate.

Rod,

Several others have made some suggestions to help you with your pistol problem. I'd like to reinforce some of those suggestions and add a few others.

1. Unless your pistol has been damaged somehow, it's unlikely that a gunsmith could sight-in your pistol any better than you could on your own and you could probably do it for only the cost of a few targets, some ammo and an hour at a range.

2. Start with a thoroughly clean and properly lubricated gun. This should only require simple disassembly (field stripping) by hand, requiring no tools. I only mention this because I've helped a number of people with malfunctioning guns and the only problem I could find was gunk build-up in the wrong places and lack of lubrication in the right places.

3. The type of .22LR ammo you're using can cause two types of problems:

a. Some .22 semi auto pistols will jam with hollow point bullets. (Mine is one of them.) Stick with regular 40 grain solid round nose bullet ammo.

b. A short barreled pistol will tend to shoot low with high velocity (and/or lighter hollow point bullet) ammo. Try some standard velocity .22LR ammo and see if this makes a difference. (There's about a 150 fps difference between standard and high velocity .22LR.)

4. As others have mentioned, you need to find out if the bullets are hitting all over the place or in a tight group away from the point of aim. (I believe that this is the first thing a gunsmith would ask you if you took the pistol to him to repair.) The only way to determine this is by carefully firing 5~10 rounds at a paper target, starting at about 10 yards and again at 20~25 yards. This would need to done from a sandbag rest on a table or shooting bench, with careful concentration on sight alignment and sight picture, slowly squeezing the trigger to obtain useful information. (See attached graphic.) If the bullets are all hitting in one particular area, then you only need to adjust the sights. If they're all over the place, then you have a problem with the pistol, which may or may not be reparable.

5. Depending on how old your Llama .22 pistol is, it may or may not have adjustable sights. On the later models, the rear sight was adjustable for "windage" (left-right) via the screws on the sides of the rear sight notch. I don't know if there's an elevation (up-down) adjustment. You adjust the rear sight notch (left or right) in the same direction you want to move the point of impact on the target.

6. Your Llama .22 pistol has a relatively short "sight radius" (distance between the rear sight notch and the front sight blade), probably much shorter than your .357 revolver, which will make it more difficult (but not impossible) to hit what you're aiming at. That's just the nature of a small pistol.

7. Your Llama .22 pistol has the sights attached to the slide, which is separate from the barrel. The necessary looseness between these parts to allow it to function is a detriment to the pistol's inherent accuracy. (True target .22 pistols have the sights rigidly attached to the barrel.) If there is enough looseness to affect accuracy, it could be "accurized" by a good gunsmith but that type of work would be pretty expensive. Again, it's just the nature of that pistol.

Good luck.

Samuel DiRocco said:
Can a few of you please post the O.D of the dew shields for the Televue scopes in the 60mm-80mm range.

Sam,

The widest OD on the dew shield on my TV76 measures 94mm, but the front 17mm of the shield tapers slightly, down to 93mm.

The dimensions on my TV Pronto dew shield are similar, but about 1mm less on both dimensions.

Note: The filter threads are on the front end of the scope, not the sliding dew shield.

David,

If it were my project and I wanted a good looking finish that would last a long time, here are my suggestions.

1. There is no quick, easy, one-step finish that is really durable and will protect the wood.

2. Unless you want to change the color of the wood, I wouldn't use a stain. It only colors the wood and offers no protection. I kinda like natural wood colors anyway.

3. Use canned finishes that you brush on rather than sprays.

4. Apply at least two coats of Flecto Varathane Sanding Sealer, sanding with #150 sandpaper after each coat is dry. This helps seal the wood and gives the final finish something to bond to.

5. Apply 4 coats of Flecto Varathane Diamond Spar Urethane, letting it dry and smooth with #220 sandpaper after the first coat and later smooth with with steel wool between coats. This stuff is made for exterior use and provides moisture protection, UV protection and is non-yellowing. Make sure you get good coverage on the wood's end grain, on both plywood and solid wood.

This procedure will take some time and effort but the result will be good looking wood that is well protected. It will last much longer than sprayed on one-step finishes.

Andreas,

Don't worry. That 20% sales tax increase will be offset by a Federal tax reduction as soon as the money starts coming in from the the 8 extra states we acquired when Obama took office.

Ya gotta love Democratic Math!

Peter,

You're not alone. Here in the Northwest we've had the same problem, having cancel several scheduled school and club star parties. We've got one club member who used to live in Phoenix and I think he's beginning to wish he was back there.

As I'm sure you're aware, there are no guarantees in buying and selling on venues such as Astromart. That's why they have feedback postings to allow you to get some idea of the type of person you're dealing with. Still it's only an educated guess. Your success, buying or selling, usually boils down to communication.

In the situation you described in your post, those (however lame) excuses could be true and the seller might just not have all his ducks in a row. There could also be a hiccup with UPS or whatever carrier is used. In view of the time period you describe, either of these problems could be the reason for the delay, so I'd be hesitant to lambaste the seller with bad feedback at this point.

Keep in mind that the only tool you have at your disposal to deal with this situation is communication - either email or feedback. If you verbally punch the seller in the nose with your communication, you have probably closed your only window to a successful resolution.

I'd suggest continuing your attempts to contact him with constructive (not flaming) emails explaining the situation from your side and encourage him to respond from his side. Getting into a two sided flame war solves nothing. It could be that he's actually experiencing unexpected personal problems. Are you using the correct email address? Could his responses be intercepted by a spam filter? It could also be a glitch with UPS, in which case I would contact them to determine the status of the package.

If you eventually realize that the deal was a bust and you lost, then the negative feedback should consist of facts, not name calling. Ask yourself what feedback information is more useful to you; calling someone a jerk and a rip-off artist or explaining that the package received contained a rusty piece of 4" iron gas pipe instead of the promised TeleVue NP101.

I know that it's frustrating dealing with someone who doesn't treat the transaction as carefully and seriously as you do, but taking a deep breath and using all your patience in dealing with this situation might just pay off. Otherwise, you're just throwing rocks at fog.

That is a classic. (Did you come up with that one on your own?)