Posts Made By: Charles Geiger

May 8, 2005 12:50 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

C-5+ with spur gear drive

Posted By Charles Geiger

I hope this is a resolvable problem. We have a recent C-5+ (1990's)which was donated to our group. It is in near perfect condition. However, someone must have forced the optical tube to spin with the RA lock on. I took the inspection plate off and found the 12 tooth brass spur gear to be spinning on the 9V? motor steel shaft. It is a press fit and now spins freely enough so that the tube assembly will not stay put. Also, of course, we do not have a drive as the gear spins. The motor operates as the shaft spins. The only marks on the reduction motor are '45K' and 94/3 and made in Japan. It has a phone connector type connection which goes to the speed control. It runs on a 9V alkaline battery.

Is there a fix such as soldering or is there someone who offers replacement motors? No, I have not contacted celestron yet.

Thanks for any guidance.

August 29, 2005 10:57 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Meade 4000 QX wide angle 70's

Posted By Charles Geiger

Does anyone have ideas about these new eyepieces? They sound too good to be true...how about eye relief? Pricing is $79 to $99. They are 5 element, fully multicoated and come in focal lengths of 15 to 36 mm. Advertised in Sky and Telescope for October.

August 29, 2005 11:02 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Celestron new 6" SCT

Posted By Charles Geiger

The add in Sky and Telescope shows this scope with standard XLT coatings. Would it be fastar compatible? Optical tube might be quite a value if it were fastar...also would require fastar lens which is probably not available yet...what do you think?

November 27, 2005 02:41 AM Forum: Binoviewers

C-14 Binoviewing

Posted By Charles Geiger

I have ordered and am awaiting a WO Binoviewer. I have a C-14 and it appears my 'low power' will be approximately 195X if the unit comes to focus without the OCA. With the OCA @ 1.6X the magnification will be 312X. (These assumptions are based on the 20mm eyepieces supplied). And it appears that 25mm oculars will be the longest one can use to get full illumination due to the prism size in the binoviewers...
Question 1) Has anyone experience using this binoviewer with the C-14 and what are your impressions?
Question 2) Will the standard f/6.3 focal reducer/corrector work with this system?
Question 3) Is there a focal reducer that will work if the above does not?
Question 4) Could one push to a 30mm with a C-14 and get nearly full field illumination?
Last Question) Can one stack the 1.6X OCA with a Televue 2.5X Barlow in this setup to get more options for power?

Thanks for your responses in advance.

December 23, 2005 01:54 AM Forum: Binoviewers

Chinese clone binoviewers on backorder?

Posted By Charles Geiger

I ordered my WO binoviewers about 6 weeks ago from Anacortes. I was informed they would be here before Thanksgiving and now it looks as if they won't make it before Christmas. Anyone in the same boat?

Also I have recently read the WO binoviewers come supplied with thick grease which can get on the oculars and that the compression ring set screws actually diminish the self centering aspects for oculars...anyone care to comment or advise? I have also read it would be good to orient the set screws in the same direction (both sides) so that at least your centering will be off in nearly the same amount on each side. Someone also said one can remove the grease using Q-tips and alcohol...what do you think?

January 30, 2006 03:28 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

RC like optics in a LX200?

Posted By Charles Geiger

It appears that Meade is putting their supposed RC optics in the LX200 mechanics and calling them LX220R's. Does that mean they are phasing out their SCT's?

And that review in February S&T just seemed too good to be true (RX400 12"). What do you think?

February 12, 2006 05:49 AM Forum: Binoviewers

WO Binoviewers, revisited

Posted By Charles Geiger

I received my WO binoviewers about 3 weeks ago and was able to first try them out last evening in my little C-5 under a gibbous moon and terrible seeing conditions. Firstly, the workmanship of the binoviewers appears first rate. The glass of the 20 mm supplied oculars seems very highly polished and all coatings seem flawless.
I started observing with a 26 mm Celestron Plossl and then changed to the binoviewers. Unfortunately, the wind came up and the seeing got worse. I played with the adjustment for interocular and find that my eyes are close to the 60 mark. Then I fooled with the individual diopter adjustments and found that my left eye is about a quarter of a turn off from my right eye. However, I had to play with the compression ring screw placement to get the images to merge. Again, the screws ended up similarly alligned. Funny thing is, it seemed to me the left eye AFOV appeared smaller than the right eye AFOV. Even though the images merged, the AFOV's didn't seem to merge. I adjusted the interocular distance all the way in each direction and just found it difficult to perceive fov matching. The moon did appear awesome as it seemed that I was truly hovering above it. Again, the fov seemed not distinct. And the left view seemed dimmer than the right view. Saturn gave the 3D effect as did the Orion nebula. Stars were definitely dimmer in the binoviewer although the field seemed darker and the contrast on the Orion nebula seemed better with the binoviewers. At one point, I could not get the images to merge whatever I did. So I took my eyes away and rested a minute and looked back in and got the images to merge easily...I suspect eye fatigue. If I crammed my eyes right up to the oculars I got the best merging of fov. I can't say the actual fov's appeared different in size at this point but they still didn't overlap perfectly. Again, the images did overlap. Maybe the best way to put it is the field stop did not seem distinct but more like two overlapping field stops.
At any rate, what do you think? I truly feel this binoviewer experience is awesome if one can get proper eye placement. I do have glaucoma and astigmatism so maybe that is affecting me. I did get good intra and extra focal diffraction patterns so I felt astigmatism wasn't too much of a problem. And since the image merged easily I feel the prisms are alligned well enough. Collimation in the C-5 is good. I need more practice but do I have a binoviewer problem or is it me?
One extra thing...the OCA supplied did work although it has a very small aperture...I could see no advantage using it and it further reduced light throughput it seemed. All the optics seem very good when comparing to a single ocular and also using a 2.5X Televue barlow but, again, seeing was very poor.

February 12, 2006 08:02 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

C-14 reducer/corrector

Posted By Charles Geiger

This may be a question for Roland Christen. Could a reducer/corrector be designed for the C-14 which would give it wide, flat field photographic potential such as purported for RC designs?...I am thinking in the f/6 to f/8 region to make it competitive with the RCX models. I suppose it might be cost prohibitive as it might be a low demand product. Yet it might be a cost efficient alternative for those who want greater visual and imaging capabilities for their existing scopes.

May 11, 2006 12:36 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Knight Owl Eyepieces

Posted By Charles Geiger

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I have not seen much on the quality of these eyepieces. If you go to ebay, you see unending adds for these eyepieces in many forms to include wide angle. Most of them appear to be plossls. They are super cheap so I doubt they are much account. Maybe they work OK in long focal length telescopes? Any opinions? Seems like a cheap alternative for binoviewers.

November 3, 2006 01:20 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Baader Hyperion Eyepieces

Posted By Charles Geiger

Anyone use the Baader Hyperion oculars? Are they as good as advertised saying they are good at f/5 I believe?