Posts Made By: Dan Lamoreaux

March 5, 2008 04:56 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Ethos and Paracorr

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

Those of you that have or have used an Ethos are aware that when using it in a 2" device whether a diagonal alone or Paracorr that it requires considerable refocus travel from most any other Nagler. (I have not tried them all). Because of this I have placed a 2" parfocalizing ring on it to get it in the neighborhood. My question is how is this likely to affect the recommended paracorr setting of Mark 5 that Televue recommends for the Ethos? :S

DanL

March 12, 2008 03:57 PM Forum: Reflectors

MCT vs SCT

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

MCTs have a general reputation as being a good choice for lunar an planetary observation while SCTs seem to be less valued for this purpose. Not being an optics design expert, my question is if both scopes are built to the same basic specs. say an 8" f/12 with a 34% c.o. is there an inherent design advantage for the mak that makes it better or is the difference in reputations because the maks are usually built by smaller specialty optical shops that use better components as opposed to the mass produced SCTs out there?

DanL

March 18, 2008 12:40 PM Forum: LUNATICS

Lunar X

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

Does anyone in this group have a 2008 schedule for the Lunar X appearances or know where it is posted on the web?

Thanks in advance,
DanL

March 20, 2008 03:45 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Re: Pricing?

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

If this is the ad I remember seeing, he was touting it as somewhat of a collectors item as it is no longer being manufactured. Maybe he is trying to get the escalation started. shocked

DanL

May 11, 2008 05:24 PM Forum: Reflectors

Question for the experts

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

Over the weekend it was discovered that our observatory housed club RCX400 14" has mold growing on the primary. One spot is about the size of a nickel with a few other smaller spots. My question is whether this causes permanent damage to the mirror coating and will require recoating or if it can be carefully cleans off with no long term effects.

Thanks in advance,
DanL

January 30, 2009 04:44 PM Forum: LUNATICS

Lunar X

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

A request for Dana Thompson or anyone else that has it to post the Lunar X schedule for 2009.

Thanks in advance,
DanL

July 20, 2009 08:52 PM Forum: Reflectors

Celestron Nexstar vs. CPC 11"

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

I am contemplating the purchase of a Celestron 11" sct. I would like to here from the Celestron experts out there about the quality of the mechanics and the optics of the new Celestrons since they have been bought out compared to the older stuff. Should I look for a good used Nexstar system or are the CPC 1100s as good or better?

DanL

August 12, 2009 01:06 AM Forum: Reflectors

vignetting on a C11

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

So I picked up a nice NS11. Thanks again for everyone's help in my earlier post to help make a decision. Upon examination of it I noticed a pretty small opening with the stock visual back. I checked and Peterson doesn't show an eye opener for the this scope. Is vignetting an issue with 2" long f.l. eyepieces? If so, at what f.l. does the vignetting start?

Thanks in advance,
DanL

August 19, 2009 03:44 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Far infrared astronomy

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

One of our Physics faculty just approached me with a question about far infrared astronomy in the 30 micron wavelength range. He is in need of a detector to make some measurements. Anyone have any ideas as to what to use for this and where to obtain one?

Thanks in advance,
DanL

August 19, 2009 06:18 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Io shadow transit on Ganymede

Posted By Dan Lamoreaux

For those who have not heard about this yet, check it out on spaceweather.com. Christopher Go captured what must be an extremely rare event and created a video loop of it. I can only imagine what has to all line up for this to even be observable here on earth. Congrats Chris. grin

DanL