Posts Made By: Dan Lamoreaux

I will roll out my TMB refractor tonight to pay tribute to his passing and scan the heavens in his honor. I will look at things a little differently from other nights. It will be an emotional time. I will be saddened he will no longer be able to contribute to our magnificent pastime yet inspired by what he has created for those fortunate enough to have observed through one of his instruments. Perhaps I will catch a glimpse of his spirit soaring amongst the stars.

You will be missed

Dan Lamoreaux

I thought I would share my first light experience with the Ethos since we're on the subject. I actually got mine 2 weeks before I was to leave for the Okie-Tex star party. I decided to wait and gather the first photons under the ultra dark skies of Black Mesa. It was difficult, but I resisted looking through the light polluted skies of my urban environment in fear of forever tainting the pristine optics with a permanent stain. I decided to start with my 13T6 on the Double cluster to get a baseline then switch in the Ethos to see if I got a tingle down my spine. I did not. That's not to say it wasn't a fantastic view. It clearly was. It just wasn't a magnitude better. In the 13T6 I am just aware of the field stop when looking straight ahead. With the Ethos it is not noticeable so it really is a portal into space. I think what stood out the most was how much more comfortable the Ethos is to use over the T6. Eye position was less critical with no tendency to black out which the T6 can do to a small degree. You can move you eye and tilt your head about to take in the edges if you wish and not loose the view. It is the best Televue eyepiece in my collection for this comfort factor. I think it is a fantastic eyepiece for certain targets, but not for everything. I feel some objects, say the ring nebula for example, actually get swallowed up in the expansive view and appears to look smaller than it would in an a orthoscopic of the same f.l. Open clusters seem to be its strongest suit, however dob users will love it for all objects because you don't have to nudge the scope so often. The funny thing is I had a Meade 14mm UWA in my eyepiece case that I never used. This focal length is just not one I would reach for with the scopes I use, so I am not sure how much use the Ethos will get. Oddly the 13T6 is one of my most used eyepieces, but paired in my binoviewer, so I will be keeping both of them. It seems a little excessive to have 3 13mm and a 14mm in my collection. Oops, check that, I just remembered my Pentax 14XW in my other case. Wow, this is a bit crazy. 8O

Oh yeah, I forgot I was going to mention about what happened when I took my Ethos over to a large group of my fellow club members at the star party. It was one evening when the wind was kicking up so I decided to go over to where they had a TMB 152 on an AP 1200 mount. I knew this scope could take another 40 mph before it started to shake. Everyone lined up and we swung the scope to the double cluster. This was the perfect object for this combination. It framed the cluster perfectly filling the Ethos with stars. It was a hoot to hear the first words as each took a turn at the eyepiece. There were several "holy s...", a couple of "oh my" and one " Damnit Dan, you just cost me $600".

I don't think it is a collimation issue. If they had lost collimation then you would just see a double image of whatever you were viewing. The steep light cone of the f/5 dob will amplify any problems the binoviewer has. To demonstrate it is not a collimation issue, what do the images look like if you just look through one eyepiece at a time? I don't know how solid of a focuser your dob has on it, but there is the possibility that the added weight of the bv and two eyepieces are causing the drawtube to tilt in the focuser body which would cause everything to be off axis. Is the flaring in the same direction across the entire field of view or do they radiate out from the center? Make sure the OCA is properly threaded and is setting square and flush on the bv sleeve. If that got cross threaded on I could see where that would cause this problem. Check these things before you start throwing money at the problem.

DanL

Those are the kind of details I like to see a seller state in his ad, however one should never assume anything in a transaction. As the buyer you have the ultimate responsibility in asking these sorts of questions of the seller such as how soon will you ship after receiving payment. I agree if one is to make an assumption about such things, I myself consider USPS money orders to be good as cash, but I would imagine one could be forged using modern computers and scanners. Plus there is the fact that some Astromarters are just harder to deal with that others. He could be using this as an excuse to ship the item when he gets around to it. I would try to pin him down on whether the bank put a hold on the funds and when he expects it to clear.

DanL

I suspect he will be putting that one back in his eyepiece case at that price, but who knows, there may be someone out there dieing to own one of these.

DanL

Well the seven o'clock position can mean different things depending on what you are using to view the moon. Binoculars give you a correct image orientation while a refractor with a mirror diagonal will reverse left and right while maintaining the correct top and bottom orientation. A Newtonian reflector will give still another upside down image. I will make the assumption you were using binoculars or even you unaided eye. If so, I suspect you are talking about Tycho. It is by far the brightest crater in the position you are referring. Here is a very useful link you can use to get the names of many of the features of the Moon. It shows the Moon as a hole and is then broken down into smaller sections where you can mouse over craters and other objects and the website will show you the names of them.
http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/index.shtml

Hope this helps,
DanL

I have used the 21XL in the past, but recently upgraded it to the 20XW. I have the 20T5 as well as the 22T4 so I think I can present a reasonable case. I think you would be perfectly happy with the 21XL provided you never looked through either of the Naglers for the rest of your life. I thing if you did then went back to the 65* afov of the XL, you would feel constricted. As far as the difference between the two Naglers goes, I will say it depends on which scope I am using. Since I wear glasses, I find it much more convenient to use the 22T4 in my dob where I am constantly looking up at the sky then back down into the eyepiece because of its long eye relief. If I used my 20T5 I would have to remove the glasses to get close enough to see the full field. However if I am using one of my goto SCTs, I usually leave my glasses off. In that instance I prefer the 20T5. It just seems more comfortable to use and I just prefer the views through it over the 22T4. So as you can see, it's not so simple a question to answer. I actually have a nearly full set of the Pentax XW series, but almost never use them. I always end up with a Nagler in the tube. Kinda weird I guess. :S

DanL

There was one other thing I forgot to mention that Floyd made me think of. That is the exhilarating feeling (to say it kindly) you get the first few times you pull your 22T4 out of the diagonal in the dark and get it in the near vertical position and have the insta-adjust eyepiece cup ADJUST to its fullest extension on you. I still haven't gotten fully used to that yet. It will make you suck wind. 8O

DanL

Well maybe they will start showing up on Astromart as those that like the latest and greatest will want to upgrade.

DanL