Posts Made By: Larry Thaxton

Hi John,

I have been plagued by crappy seeing and I am waiting for a dew shield as we are having really wet skies. But I did get a pretty good look at collimation and it is really good. One morning over the weekend I pointed it at a satellite dish nearby and the lettering was razor sharp, just like the FC-100 sitting right next to it. So I think this is going to be a winner!

Also have a cooling fan in the works. The small fan and power source have been ordered and I will be sending them off to a machinist (Jon Savelle) to duplicate the original as closely as possible. I need to call Art to talk about those details, but it will be very close!

larry

Hi Jeff,

I have purchased from these folks many times.

http://www.foamonline.com/

Larry

HI Markus,

I was holding out for an 8" F/10 for visual but a 7" F/10 to F/12 would be of interest to me as well.

LArry

Try the FC-100 or FS-102 or their equivalent from other makers. With the Taks, one can add a 1.6x extender making it essentially an F/12.8. Like many others, I prefer long focal length refractors for planetary work. Since there are but few long FL APOs, using the Tak extender solves the problem rather elegantly. Fabulous images of Jupiter and more detail than one would expect from a small scope. Jupiter and Mars are challenging targets and a large scope helps in pulling out great levels of detail.

If you really want to stay under 4", the FS-78 is a fabulous little scope and does a surprisingly good job on the planets for a 3" scope. A Televue 85 falls into the same category, superb image, a bit more resolution and still very light. I am sure there are other superb 3"s out there, but I feel uncomfortable recommending scopes I have not actually used.

I agree with the comment about using an APO, no disrespect for large achromats, but both planets were challenges for the 6" and 8" achros I owned as color is present. It is not a huge problem, but an APO puts that same light back into the image and improves planetary detail. Of course, a Newtonian does as well and an optimized planetary reflector is a hard scope to fault.

Another picture.

Take a look at this as it mentions Tom Back's AP 6" F/12 and a comp with a newer AP:

"I had my 6"f/12 setup next to the new 6.1" f/9 EDT, and at first glance cast on Saturn, I knew it was all over. This scope was a knockout, and in color correction and contrast, clearly beat my 6" f/12 Super Planetary. This was a prototype, was airspaced and not even coated."

http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/tmb/tmb1.html

I once owned an AP 6" F/12 and loved it. Many times I have wished it was still here - the TMB 175 softens the loss though!

Hi Jim,

I own a UTI-8, but it is the one F/6 version they made. It is absolutely ingenious and not only sets up in a matter of minutes, but Bob Royce's optics give excellent performance. Mine does not have the encoders so I have no opinion as to push-to location, but the scope is stable, light, easily packable and includes a fitted shroud and all the tools needed to adjust and collimate. My use is for camping trips and an annual Baja beach camping jaunt. It is perfect for either and I highly recommend Vince and his scopes.

Larry

Hi Greg,

I owned a D&G 8" F/12 a few years back and had a set of Pentax XLs and Pentax SMC orthos. Both were superb as was a Meade 14mm UWA (series 4000, not the newer versions- which are probably fine too but I have never used one). The long focal length is very easy on eyepieces. You will find with something like a 3000mm focal length that simple eyepiece designs will give excellent performance.

Since selling the D&G, I replace the XLs with XWs and the SMC orthos with two sets of Zeiss 1.25" Abbes from 4mm to 34mm. Both are - in my experience -as good as eyepieces can get and your XWs will be fabulous in the big refractor. A friend who has a D&G 11" F/15 also owned Zeiss Abbes but sold them and bought two complete sets of UO orthos. He found the performance so close 90% of the time that he felt the substantial savings were better spent elsewhere. One place you might consider spending the extra cash is on a high quality binoviewer. The Moon and planets through good orthos and a binoviewer are stunning!

Baader orthos are a very good choice as well. I had sets of them for a while and liked them a great deal. But the UO volcano top orthos come up more often on AM and are really hard to beat!

larry

Well heck, I have done a lot of shooting over the years, though lately it has been mostly sporting clays and upland bird hunting. My list of must owns:

Pistols:

A good 22 cal : Ruger Mk II with 5" bull barrel is a great choice;

A good 9mm: currently a Glock 19. The Glock is good around home and makes a nice trail gun for back country carry

A 1911 type 45ACP : currently a Colt series 70 with a bit of work to make it reliable and King-Tappan sights

S&W .357 Mag wheel gun: S&W Mdl 19 comes to mind but no longer easy to locate

Rifles:

A semi-auto in 223, 308 or 30-06: Garand is my current favorite

Hunting: a pre-64 Mdl 70 Winchester in 270 works for me with Zeiss 4-14x 40mm

Stopping rifle: admittedly a little specialized and not "must have" for most, but after spending a lot of time in coastal Alaska and having weathered one brown bear charge and another challenging us for territory, a 375 H&H, 416 Rigby or 458 Win Mag would be comforting. I have all three.

Fun and plinking: a high quality 22- I have a few and like all of them

Shotguns:

Around home: a short-barreled 12 gauge, Ithaca Md 37 or Remington 870 (great when salmon fishing too)

Upland hunting : an Italian or Spanish SxS in 20 gauge, presently a Fausti DEA round body

Sporting Clays: was a Beretta DT-10 in 12 ga, now waiting for an Arrieta 12 gauge SxS as I like consistency between field and club shooting.

Semi auto: 12 ga Beretta with plastic stock and water repellant metal finish for bad weather days when beautiful wood prefers being in doors!

That should hold me for a life time of shooting activities!

Parallax HD 125 I assume? I had the HD-150 and really liked it, very capable mounts. You should be very happy with its performance.