Posts Made By: david elosser

July 8, 2006 03:52 PM Forum: Binoviewers

Have you tried this yet?

Posted By david elosser

Anyone tried this yet? On a waxing/waning gibbous or full moon, put an orange filter on one eyepiece and a green filter on the other. 8O

David E

August 4, 2006 12:10 AM Forum: Insects - Flowers and Other Small Stuff - Photos

Lillies.../

Posted By david elosser

Hi Everyone,
I took this photo of one of my lilies a few years back:
David E

August 10, 2006 07:44 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Congradulations Floyd!!!

Posted By david elosser

Great work on your eyepiece article, and congratulations for making a winner for this week.

grin David E

August 13, 2006 11:58 AM Forum: Birding Optics and Photos

Tough little tuftie.../

Posted By david elosser

This juvenile tufted TM totally ignored me as I was able to get within a few feet to snap some digitals.

David E

August 14, 2006 10:30 PM Forum: Chinese Optics Imports

BO/TMB 4mm planetary.../

Posted By david elosser

Floyd Blue has an excellent article on the BO/TMB planetary lineup here on AM. smile I just want to relate a short but rewarding viewing session I had this morning. I used a 4mm BO/TMB with my Stellarvue 102/f7.75 doublet apo. I get 200x with this eyepiece, a perfect 50x/aperture. A 20.2 lunar day gave me a rilly good time grin I resolved rimae Ariadaeus and Hyginus (always easy) and Hypatia and Sosigenes (I've been trying for that one many months now.) Treisnecker was disappointing with only part of one rille visible, but... Hadley gave me an usually good show with nearly all of it visible winding its way through the Appenines. I rounded up the rilles with Plinius and Sulpicius Gallus. I resolved Catina Davy Y about as good as I ever have, with the smallest craterlets nearly resolved. The mounds Arago A and B were very prominent and I could just make out the pit at the summit of one of them. The 4mm performs extremely well as a lunar eyepiece. No flaring or lateral color could be detected and as Floyd reported, very sharp at the edges too. I could have used an ND or polarizer filter, as the image was quite bright in the SV102ABV. I felt like the outer edges were closing in on me with no filter in place to reduce the light intensity, but I prefer viewing au natural.

David E

October 17, 2006 11:30 AM Forum: Insects - Flowers and Other Small Stuff - Photos

Cosmos blooms with SV66.../

Posted By david elosser

Here is one of my first photos taken with my Stellarvue SV66 at prime, taken with Fuji 100 film and scanned with an Epson flatbed. Appropriately they are Cosmos blooms.

David E

October 21, 2006 11:05 PM Forum: Landscape Photography

Blue Ridge Mountains in October.../

Posted By david elosser

I took this picture just yesterday from one of the overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Hope you like it.

David E

October 25, 2006 12:39 PM Forum: Reflectors

My Zhumell went cometose.../

Posted By david elosser

I had an absolutely awesome view of comet SWAN last night. It's was my first look, and I've never seen a comet this bright since I started the hobby a few years ago. When I started viewing about 8pm eastern time, the 9th magnitude type M red giant HIP78016 was nestled just inside the northern edge of the halo, making the comet look like it had two "cores." I put my IDAS V3 nebular filter on one of my low power eyepieces and the core and halo popped out even better. I had a lot of light pollution and the tail was barely visible. It appears from the photos that I have seen that it is rather dim. After 30 minutes or so it moved away from HIP78016 and a higher power view showed me stars below magnitude 11.5 in the immediate area. Four stars formed a "trapezium" with the star in one corner being a dim visual double. It was nice to watch the comet move through this trapezium. I also took a look through my smaller refractors for a wider field of view, and the comet had quite a few type K and M giants keeping it company last night.

David E

November 12, 2006 03:06 PM Forum: Refractors

Recommended accessory for your 66mm

Posted By david elosser

I purchased the Meade 5000 series 5x TeleXtender for my short tube 80mm, and it works equally well on my 66. I paired it up with a 25mm and 20mm Erfle, and a 16mm Konig. With the the 25mm I did a star test on Sirius, and I could detect no noticeable degradation in the diffraction rings. All three eyepieces showed a sharp, color-free image of the Moon. The Hyginus and Ariadaeus rilles were tightly defined. Catina Muller was easily resolved with the 16mm, and Catina Davy Y could be seen as a rille-like feature. Subtle differences in the lava flows inside the crater Plato could be seen. With the 25mm I easily resolved Sigma Ori and Struve 761, all seven stars visible in the same field. Rigel's pretty little companion showed up in all three. Analtak was a bit more challenging. With the 16mm, Analtak had a dim, perfectly formed diffraction ring, and when the air steadied out, I could just see it's companion nestled inside the ring. All in all, the Meade 5x TeleXtender performed very well boosting the power by five times with these simple eyepieces, giving me, IMHO, a quality high power view.

David E

December 5, 2006 04:11 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Mystery crater behind Smythii.../

Posted By david elosser

Hi everyone,
Last night libration was great for the area to the east of Mare Crisium. Mare Smythii could be seen in entirety. I though I spotted a crater behind Smythii, about 1/4-1/3 the diameter of Smythii, just to its south. Here is a link:

http://www.lpod.org/index.php?s=NEPER

It was about at the position of crater Kastner, but on the other side of Smythii. Did anyone else see this or know what it might be named?

David E