Posts Made By: Darrell Hensley

March 28, 2007 05:59 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Found a unitron telescope

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello all, I had been reading here on astromart now for a year about the unitron telescope. I found one on the shopgoodwill auctions and may have paid a little too much, who knows.

I finally got it for $223.00, it had all three wooden storage boxes, 4 ep's and tripod ofcourse. From the photo's it looked in very good condition. Also with original finder and dew shield.

I probably could have put that money toward a mount but I just had to have a unitron. It's untelling how long it will be getting here but I'm really anxious to have something that is no longer being made.

Its the 60mm, I'd actually like to get an adapter to use 1.25" EP's but not in that big of a hurry. I suppose everyone thinks I went too high but I wanted this scope so bad that I was absolutely gonna own it. I wont even tell you my maximum bid but I did get a Unitron telescope and it's on the way!!!
Cheerful and hopefully not burned, Darrell

March 31, 2007 05:46 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Is Unitron still in business?

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello all, I wasjust googling around for a 60mm F15 objective off of a Unitron telescope and ran into a story where someone found their grandfathers old 2 Unitron scopes.

To shorten the story someone told him that they are still in business to some extent.

The website is www.unitronusa.com . They even advertise an automatic celestial navagational system. They can be emailed and have phone numbers too

I clicked on instruments and components and they show that they have objectives. It also shows todays date at the top of the page. I'm probably not telling anyone here something new, I just did'nt know they existed any longer. I sent them a message asking about a new objective, who knows, maybe I can put a unitron objective on my Unitron scope when it arrives-if it needs it.
Regards, Darrell

April 2, 2007 08:20 PM Forum: After Dark

New Green Comet

Posted By Darrell Hensley

We will have another comet traveling north this time instead of south. Bad thing is ,it can't be seen with the naked eye but with Bino's and small scopes.
www.space.com/spacewatch/070330_ns_comet_lovejoy.html

April 13, 2007 06:57 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

My mount made it back home

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello everybody, As most of you know, I had a lot of trouble out of my LXD75 mount and had to send it in for repairs.

It made it back after only around 5 weeks, they could'nt repair it it as I told them. It had broken pieces on it that came that way out of the box but I dreaded sending it back because I knew it would be gone for so long. So I made due and kept it running till it finally fried out.

It was replaced with a new one and a new autostar as well. I trained the drive at about 1am and started using the old autostar and I thought they had sent me another lemon. It was so jerky and would find stars in the ground and would try to ram the tripod legs. So I tried the new autostar and it centered everything I asked it to goto after the 3 star alignment.

I have never had this much luck before. It centered each and every object 100% of the time. If it would stay like this I would be so happy. Theres no slop in it whatsoever and with the new autostar it is as smooth as silk, it don't make as loud a noise as before. I know I'm boring you guy's to death but I missed my mount so bad and I was getting tired of the DS 2000 series goto mount as they arent as consistent. But I'll have to admit that I had one doing pretty good after I got about a pound of green grease off the plastic parts and used the best parts from 3 DS mounts to build one good one.

Thats all over now I have my LXD75 back now and I will shut up for a while about it except to admit that Jon was right again. They eventually give you service and I was happy with the outcome.
Cheers and clear skies, Darrell

April 27, 2007 08:07 AM Forum: Telescope Making

how to strip a mirror

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello all, I remember a couple months back there was a thread about what to use to strip a mirror. Can someone refresh my memory on what it was that was the safest way to do this without using lye?

I'm thinking it was something you could buy at radio shack? I just don't remember. I need to save a few dollars by doing this myself. Im wanting to have my 10" mirror recoated and I really don't want anyone using lye on it besides saving a little money.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Sincerely, Darrell

June 15, 2007 04:59 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

found an objective for unitron-Finally

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello folk's, I finally found a very usable objective for my unitron. I bought the entire telescope to get it, along with a very usable Equatorial mount. I got it from the same website as I got my Unitron, the shopgoodwill.com website. The telescope was the Meade 289S. I have'nt changed them out yet but checked out the view's with the scope and was very acceptable.

I looked at Jupiter and it looked like a diamond bracelet with no weird colors like you get on some of the cheaper lenses, the brighter stars also looked great. Everything was very contrasty. It also came with 3 EP's and a diagonal, and nontracking slomo controls on the mount. It did'nt have the tripod which was listed in the manual as being a hardwood tripod, darn it. I got it for $11.00, the mount alone would be worth much more than that let alone a good objective.

I've been building a telescope for a friend so have'nt had time to change the glass out but all I lack on the mount is the alt. bearing's then I'm gonna have my unitron out on Saturday night.

Whoever owned the telescope used what seemed like 50 weight oil on the focuser on the Meade. I wiped off what I could without taking the focuser off. I was afraid that it would run down inside and get on my objective, it was almost dripping.

But I did get a decent clone finally. Just wanted you to know that I had'nt given up and it will be used a lot.
Cheer's, Darrell

June 16, 2007 06:15 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

another unitron

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Hello all, For anyone that may be interested there is another Unitron 60mm F15 telescope on
www.shopgoodwill.com

Does'nt seem to have the mount and they don't show the objective. Someone could email them and ask them to show the objective if you thought you might want it. It seem's to have several accessories with the case. It still has 6days left to find out a few things about it.
Just thought someone may be interested in checking it out.
Regard's, Darrell

July 6, 2007 05:50 AM Forum: After Dark

Before the Big Bang

Posted By Darrell Hensley

Look's like we're possibly getting closer to when time began!! Check it out.
www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070702_mm_big_bang.html

Cheer's, Darrell

July 11, 2007 02:59 PM Forum: After Dark

Gravitational lensing find's oldest galaxies

Posted By Darrell Hensley

An interesting atricle about gravitational lensing that find's galaxies 13.2 billion light years away.
That's 6 trillion mile's!
www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070710_distant_galaxies.html

Thought it was pretty interesting.
Cheer's, Darrell

July 24, 2007 05:06 AM Forum: After Dark

Rover's are still alive!

Posted By Darrell Hensley

After a global dust storm on Mar's what could have happened did'nt after all.
www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070723_rovers_update.html

Thought it would make a good read, I was glad to see that these little guy's are still ticking with a full charge and still can send back some interesting new data,
Cheer's, Darrell