Posts Made By: Peter Glus

You need to check out mcmcaster-carr at mcmaster.com....they have like EVERYTHING on the planet. So far, If gotten wonderfully cheap knobs, rubber for isolation pads, cheap foam of all sorts, etc. If you have any problems ordering, shoot me a private email...I can put the order in from my company and you could reimburse me.

The last thread was very interesting, and this is a topic that is very rich. Out of curiosity, I crunched some historical data on the Panoptic 35mm to illustrate its price stability and ability to hold value over time...I consider this the "gold standard" and almost as good as cash! Check out the attached chart...basically, the Pan 35 recently had an average sale price of 286, or 75.3 percent of the new sale price of $380. This value is very stable, and only slightly dropped from a comparable sample 12 months ago (when the average price was 292). A quick scan over the last 5 years or so indicated that this price raneg is pretty constant. Now, I would expect -- maybe -- some drops when, say, a competing EP shows up. However, there's not much competition for this (e.g., the Stratus 35 and 34 Axiom are really no matches). Maybe when a new paragon comes out in this size??

As a final thought, I have tried to sell my Meade 5000 30mm UWA and in checking the logs saw only two sales for this EP (290 and 310) at 66 percent of the new price ($449). This reflects the generally low standing it has, although I have always wondered why this EP gets such a bad rap. Anyway...I'll stop crunching data, lest we all divulge all the "market inefficiencies" and can no longer snatch up any "good deals"

Here's a dumb one...

Can I put a f/6.3 focal reducer on a larger SCT (12" Meade)? I am assuming that it will not help the larger fl EPs, but probably the smaller ones due to vignetting.

- Peter

Floyd and others who were involved in this...

Remeber those great spreadsheets that were developed to standardize reviews...how are we doing with the project? I am optimistically hoping that there is a slow but steady growth of reviews using this new tool and you will release the results when you have a critical mass...too optimistic? Is there anyway we can help with this?

- Peter

Just bought a Vixen A80SS from another AMer and am planning a trip to Joshua Tree, CA with some friends. The scope is VERY travel friendly, but what does everyone do with tripods? Are there any home-built jobs that do the trick? I was, for lack of a better idea, saw off the legs of an EQ1...there must be a better way.

Last night, after much hard work I managed to spot M51 from 5 miles outside of Times Square...just a note of encouragement to those city dwellers that struggle as much as I do. Im following Rod Mollise's new urban astronomy book.

Im looking forward to the "flood of imported EPs" that promise a lot (and probably won't deliver 100 percent). Specificlly, anybody get their hands on:

The new celestron axioms and ultimas?
The smartastronomy EF eps?
Anything coming down from the paragon line-up?

I am just very curious...even if the performance were less than perfect their prices would be tempting.

- Peter

Very cool...would add a new dimention to viewing. It would be cool if you could take a few projection pics of some usual suspects and let us see the differences.

I just bought a AJaegers 110mm 495fl achro and was surprised that the two lense elements were cemented together. I use to have a Vixen 102Ed and the elements were loose and spaced by small tabs. Should I have seen tabs on the AJaegers? Is the cemented design from the mfr or did I get sold a bill of goods from the seller?

Dumb question that probably has been asked before -- when I use binos on bright stars, it is impossible to merge images. However, dimmer objects and clusters are perfect. Is this to be expected?