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NGC4216 with supernova 2024gy

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Posts Made By: Ed York

June 22, 2005 03:11 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

low power of for my 12.5" f4.7

Posted By Ed York
Andre,

Check your fov jump. The 24 pan is too close IMO to the 14mm UWA. I had the 24.5 Meade SWA and thought the fov was almost the same - stuff was just smaller. In my 12.5 f5.9 scope the 27 pan was a nice jump. I recently swapped it out for a 22 T4 Nagler. I really wanted the 20mm T5, but sometimes you have to take the deal that comes along.

Ed

June 25, 2005 06:07 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

First light for Tscope 14!!

Posted By Ed York
Anthony,

Congratulations and enjoy. I somewhat know the experience in the jump. I went from an 8" to a 12.5". WOW! Globs, Nebula, and Galaxies. Hit M5, M57, M4 and everything in Sagitarius. M22 will top M13. The lagoon in a 14 will fill the EP with pretty crisp detail. M57 in a dark sky looks 3D. Surf the glaxay clusters on Virgo and Coma. I've seen 7 in a view under mediocre skies. My 8 is underutilized and is relegated to planets. My viewing buddy has a discovery 8" f7 that he sets up next to me. Beautiful scope, but no comparison on DSO's. I hate to say it but aperture, aperture, aperture!

Ed

June 30, 2005 09:00 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Is it worth it to refigure?

Posted By Ed York
Orion makes an OK mirror. I believe (but you need to verify) that they switch to pyrex at 10". I would tweak in a few other ways first:

1) Replace the secondary. Run through newt and check the size. On the 8", they are way oversized. I picked up a top notch secondary from Antares. You could hold the 2 up and see a definite brightness difference.

2) The Orion focuser stinks. At a minimum, change the grease. At best, replace it with a 2 speed crayford. Don't underestimate hitting the sweet spot. I personally think the focuser is what Orion does the worst. They have good customer service, an attractive product, reasonably solid build and acceptable glass. Their stock focuser is a piece of junk.

3) Flock, Ultra Flat black - check everything for stray light.

4) If you still want more and have the cash - do the primary. It's expensive, but if you plan on keeping the scope a long time and using it alot, it will be money well spent. I did my 8" and love it. The only downside is I turned around and built a 12.5". The 8" is underutilized and I have guilt because it is such a fine instrument now.

My 2 cents (before taxes).

Ed

July 26, 2005 01:44 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Contrast boost in a truss dob?

Posted By Ed York
Dan Huang said:


Is the strong light pollution in my neighborhood just mean it's really not worth observing here. Should the Ultrablock filter be able to overcome the stray light from rampant light pollution, or am I expecting too much out of it. I mean stray light is still light pollution which is supposed to be blocked by the filter, right? Will results dramatically improve with a shroud?

Dan,

An 8" Newt compared to a 5" SCT will give you much better views in a dark sky. In a light polluted sky the difference isn't so much. The light pollution is killing you. The shroud will help, darkening your poles will help on bright objects, blocking the bottom (if need be) will help, but taking a trip to a dark sky will do the best.

BTW, on bright stuff like the moon and planets, the bigger aperture will help you go to higher magnifications. At say 100x, they will look pretty similar in a 5" or 8". They're so bright you need a big jump to see a big difference in detail.

The ultrblock is best for certain Nebula. It isn't designed to really help on anything else (but it will help a little).

I would still observe from the backyard - I do. Just schedule the occassional dark sky no moon trip every now and then. You will really appreciate those trips and get to chase the faint stuff and still get to find the brighter stuff from your yard.

Ed

July 28, 2005 11:14 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Big Dob Mirrors

Posted By Ed York
Steve Swayze make a beautiful mirror and he is up in your size range.

Ed

August 12, 2005 12:51 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Will I need to move my Spider?

Posted By Ed York
Redrill and plug the old holes with plastic plug with waterproof glue. Move it about 3/8" or 1/2" to give yourself some slop.


Ed

August 20, 2005 03:12 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Most Disgusting Objects...

Posted By Ed York
The things that bother me the most when the some is out - toss up between 2 objects:

1) Clouds

2) The jac_as_ just down from me with the out of control white flash light and the ditzy chick singing to herself at the top of her lungs and out of tune.

My wife hates the second one the most because it drives me to talk about purcahsing the 100 acres in the middle of nowhere.

Ed

August 23, 2005 03:33 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Help me test my new 22

Posted By Ed York
I would go with all the Globs and there are plenty right now. The stuff in Sagitarius, if it is not too low. The Veil, North America, and the Helix (I really like the Helix). I think I would also get the widest field EP that works in that scope and check out M31 for about 3 hours. I know, it's easy, but 22" should give it great detail.

Of course you can chase some of the easier things like the Ring and Dumbell.

What the heck, I would look at eveything.

Ed

September 4, 2005 03:30 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Dew on primary-help please

Posted By Ed York
Tom,

I'm not surprised at the dew. I live in Houston and have been shocked that I haven't had a problem with my 12.5" truss dob. I planned on it and built in 2 fans; one on the back and one on the face. The fans should take care of the dew issue. Just insulate the mounting well so you don't introduce a vibration issues.

On the battery issue, look at the Obsession site. You can add a 12v sealed battery into the tail gate with some velcro and simple wiring. I built a simple control plate like they have using sheet metal and flat paint. Just add a place to plug in a charger and plug in when the scope is not in use. You can get away with small batteries and even run 6v batteries in series to get to 12v's.

If you are shying away from batteries, it leads me to one thought. How sure are you that your primary is dewing up? Typically your seconday will dew up long before your primary will. If you do not have power then you do not have a dew heater on your secondary. I'd add this one first and check out the results before any other mod's. Check out the spiders from Protostar. They seem to work pretty well.

Good luck with it.

Ed

September 9, 2005 01:04 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Finding NGC7293 Helix Nebula?

Posted By Ed York
Judson,

Use a wide field and a filter. It's pretty delicate and it is in a fairly open area. I found it in an 8" with about 4.5 mag skies. Without the filter it was a whisp and I almost missed it. With the filter, it was very visible and some of the structure on the rings started to show up. I really liked it.

I have to admit, I used manual setting circles. It was just outside the fov and I did a spiral search to find it.

Ed

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