Posts Made By: Mark Holden

itz marcus said:

Hi,
Has anyone tried the orion 100 mm ed apo? I have an etx 105 supercharged by doc clay. I was wondering if anyone compared the 105 to the apo. Are the views better in the apo or should I stick with the etx which I realy do like?

The 100ed apo is a nice scope for the money, and without a central obstruction it'll give a higher contrast image and gather a little more light than your etx 105 - but I don't think I'd change from a scope I really liked to get one with roughly similar capabilities without comparing them myself.

My advice would be to see if you can find the 100ed at the next star party you attend and see how you like it compared to your etx.

Each will have advantages over the other. Any two people could reasonably chose one over the other depending on what their interests and goals for the scope are.

Hugh Peck said:

Hi Mark,

Thanks, but what I'm really looking for is something the person can use without having to rely on anyone else. It would need to be something that could hold maybe 80mm binos or a 100mm Mak or C-5.

Hugh

I don't know how much thought you've given this, but anything based on a traditional tube on a traditional mount will need a fairly complicated mechanism to keep the eyepiece at a comfortable location for the observer.

At Stellafane this year, Kelly Jons had a 3.5" F9 folded refractor where the eyepiece was always at the same height.

Here's a photo:

http://www.stellafane.com/images/2005_conv/scopes/scope23a.jpg

The user would need to rotate the wheelchair to change azimuth.

You could probably use lots of counterweights to be able to shift the balance point of a commercially made tube, or brute force it with a threaded rod, but I do think keeping the eyepiece more or less stationary with respect to the user is a worthwhile goal.

And I think the design of the scope at Stellafane would be an incredibly good place to start.

John Meiners said:

My New ScopeTronix MaxiView II EP states it will adapt directly to a 58mm. camera lens such as the *Sony DSC F707/717 also a 37mm. adapter will work, I am a little confused. Is anyone familar with this *camera? and secondly can I adapt my 35mm. OM-1 to this EP? thank you, John M. Astoria, OR.

The eyepiece you have is intended for afocal use with a camera where you can't remove the lens.

For your camera, you'll probably want to use a T mount in place of a camera lens, and an adapter so the eyepiece can screw into the T mount.

Robert Poeske said:

I'm about to place a permanent mount pier in my back yard for my fork mounted sct. but since I may switch to a GEM mount in the future I need to leave enough space between the position I will mount the pier and the fence of the back yard. I am working in tight spaces. My question is how long is the counterweight shafts on most popular mid size Equatorial mounts. ie. vsp,vgp, cg5 lxd55 and75 ect. thanks.

If you leave enough room so a normal sized person can fit between the mount and the fence while observing with your scope you should be fine.

jim beck said:

I just bought my first scope LXD-55 10" scmidt newt F-4. What barlow would work the best to bring in planets and deep space objects?? Help me someone. thanx Jim

If you want a 1.25" barlow, the two best ones I've tried are a Clave 2x, and a TMB 1.8x.

On a 2", the best I've found so far is the AP Barcon.

I use a TMB 115 CNC with a GM8 mount.

The dew cap, extension and secondary focuser are removed from the tube so it'll fit in a Stellarvue C8 case. This is just small enough for carry on with the airlines I use.

My mount goes into the case Losmandy sells and it gets checked as luggage. If I was buying it now, I'd get a slightly larger case as I need to remove the servo motors to fit it in.

I keep a spare tripod, counterwieghts, and a 17ah battery at the location I fly to most often.

When I'm driving, I use a larger case for the OTA so I don't need to take things apart, and I bring my G11 tripod, and a 100 amp hour deep cycle battery.

If I'm flying, some eyepieces and a barlow go in with the scope in the carry on case. If I'm driving I take 2 eyepiece cases.

I hope to replace the mount with a Mach1GTO as soon as my name comes up on the list.

Other than star parties, my vacations are usually to Naples Florida or Stone Harbor NJ.

Of the scopes you've identified, for photography, I'd go with the LXD-75 with the SN8.

My second choice would be the ETX -

And the dob would be dead last because it won't track, so it'll be useless for photography of anything beyond the Sun, Moon and Planets.

But I'll also agree with the premise you would be better off spending some time checking out scopes at star parties, and seeing what other folks are using to take the kind of photos you'd like to take.

Tim LeVane said:

Are scopes with ED glass apos or just really good achromats?

The scope market seems to be flooded with terms from semi APO to semi ED.

Newcomers such as myself are over whelmed when trying to make an informed choice on what to buy.

ED glass doesn't guarantee what kind of optical performance you'll get.

You can use ED glass to make an apochromat, or an achromat.

And for that matter, not all apos are created equal.

The best advice I have is get yourself to your local astronomical society, or attend a star party or two and spend some time looking through different scopes and take notes so you'll know what scopes you liked.

john raymond said:

Hello

I had my first unpleasant dealing on Astromart. I replied to a for sale ad. In the reply:
1. add 3% paypal (not mentioned in ad)
2. send money to a yahoo email, not the astromart email.
3. Was insulted for asking about alternate shipping option

From now on I will only deal with perfect 5 star people.

John R

The seller may not have their paypal account linked to the email address they use for astromart. Or they could have two paypal accounts - one free that can't accept credit cards and one premium that can.

If they don't already have the astromart email address linked to a paypal account, they could add it.

On shipping - it depends on the details. For example, I resist sending things overseas by surface mail. I also won't send high valued items without insurance or in a way that can't be tracked.

Mike Dedon said:

I know we can now setup "other" email addresses but I would like to be able to have two locations. My work computer and my home computer. I would expect there is some type of cookie or IP verification that is done to isolate the default location.

I know it's trivial to have to login at one or the other locations but was wondering if there was anything I'm missing or is there anything in the works to allow this? Both locations are legitimate non-commercial/not-free ISPs.

I don't think your location matters - as long as you've got a valid account.

I routinely log in from home and the office, and each has a different ISP. The only glitch is every time you log in from one location, the system will forget your log in at the other location so you have to sign in again.