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Posts Made By: Ed York

September 9, 2005 04:52 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

which telescope NOT to buy?

Posted By Ed York
Bob,

Do not overlook setup and transport. A 15 minute drive by yourself may be a much different thing then loading up (or failing to be able to load) a big scope and driving 15 minutes. Long setups tend to kill frequency of observing.

Ed

September 9, 2005 11:35 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Extending Aluminum Tubing?

Posted By Ed York
Find someone building a scope that needs 4-5' poles and plit the cost of the new poles.

Ed

September 11, 2005 04:16 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

First light, finally!

Posted By Ed York
Floyd,

It's a very clean looking scope. I like the black poles including the black on the cage - nice touch.

I made a run on the moon the other night. I recently switched my secondary from a 2.14 1/20th to a 2.6" quartz 1/22. Sweet optics. I had the moon at a little ove 300x and had the same feeling you did. It was like a huge photo. I dragged it out this morning as the sun was starting to come up for a quick preview of Mars - sweet!

The f6 is a bear on balance, especially since your mirror is fairly light, I would opt for a light tailgate and move the pivot point up as high as possible. This would minimize as much as possible the moment arm for the top, thus buffering the EP wieght swing issue from Orthos to the UWA's. When your moment arm ratio is like 4.5:1, small changes make it tough to keep the movment silky smooth.

Ed

September 12, 2005 12:36 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Collimating 14" Tscope

Posted By Ed York
For the laser, the Kendrick is a better fit for the truss dob.

- On the Orion, if the primary is not real close, the dot does not hit the hole and does not show up on the face. The Kendrick gives you a much bigger face to hit so you can live with a lot more slop (inherent with truss scope setup).


- The Kendrick is 2" versus the 1-1/4" for the Orion. You will get extra slop from the 1-1/4" adapter.

I have both and use the Orion on an 8" with a solid tube and the Kendrick on my truss.

Ed

September 18, 2005 04:35 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Picking the right second scope

Posted By Ed York
If your planetary viewing is high on your priority list then I would choose an EQ mount over the dob. The dob will be a faster setup and more mirror for the money. The EQ mount (with a ra motor) will give you tracking so you can bump the power. On the dob their are alternatives for tracking - dob driver, servocat, eq platforms and plain old hand chasing.

If you start gravitating to DSO's you'll hang out a little more in mid power so a dob works nicely for this.

The 4.5" to 8" jump is probably a good jump to make. Anytime I jump for aperture I try to jump 2 sizes. Jumping one doesn't seem like it would give enough to really feel like you jumped. I started with a 4.5" and moved to an 8" and later added a 12.5". Since I "tweaked" my 8" to get every last photon out of it that I could, looking through a stock 10" doesn't feel that different then the 8". The 12.5" gives me a much much different view then the 8". Why do I keep the 8": it is on an EQ and it totally rocks on planets.

Ed

September 19, 2005 12:38 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Low-profile tripod platform for an 8" truss dob?

Posted By Ed York
Milk crate. Any you can use it to haul accessories.

Ed

November 12, 2005 02:24 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

changing spider ( HELP)

Posted By Ed York
Your spider is fine. Your tube is indexed improperly. I would pull the spider, paint it flat back and turn the tube 1/8" to re-install.

The only reason I would consider an upgrade is to add the built in dew heater option, if dew is a issue.

Ed

November 30, 2005 07:34 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Help me to justify 4"

Posted By Ed York
Dmitri,

I reworked my 8' (Orion) to give me a great combo. At an f5 it gives nice rich fields. With the refiguring and the premium secondary, the planetary views are astounding. I've pushed it to 500x when seeing allows. Usually seeing is the limit, not the scope. For me it makes for easier storage and I used to always pull the same scope out (then I built a 12.5" dob).

Ed

December 31, 2005 06:13 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Impressions of Orion Skyquest XT8

Posted By Ed York
Doug,

Congrats on the scope. An 8" skyquest can show you and your son plenty of things.

The star charts idea is a great way to go. The Orion one is good. I really like and used the ones in Terrence Dickinson's NightWatch. He has some seasonal cartoons to help the beginner identify a few things plus some pretty detailed charts. You could knock off most of the Messier list with average skies, your scope and a good star chart. With dark skies, you can knock off the whole list and see some beautiful things.

Way to go in teaching your son.

Good luck and enjoy.
Ed

February 11, 2006 05:04 AM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

How's This For A Photo "Gremlin"?

Posted By Ed York
I didn't think the Bug Nebula was a dark nebula.

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