Posts Made By: Dan D DuBal

Darren, it's great to finally see both you and Heep.

I trust you're continuing your valiant efforts to "wear out" the coatings on those mirrors via "photon erosion" -- observing as often and as intently as you can, yes? :-)

Best wishes and neverending celestial delights.
-Dan

As Jim noted, eye relief for the 5mm UO is right around 4mm.

Expect a traditional Abbe orthoscopic design to yield eye relief in the realm of ~80% its inherent focal length, but keep in mind that the actual (realized) eye relief will depend on two other major factors: field stop diameter & eyelens recess. A smaller field stop allows for greater eye relief (at the expense of field). Eyelens recess can "gobble up" valuable eye relief, too -- especially so with short-f.l. eyepieces.

Best wishes.
-Dan

Anything and everything "south" of Canis Major.

Carina, Vela, Lupus, Crux, Centaurus, etc.

You simply *must* stay out and observe past local midnight. Around 1am (if you can manage), the southern horizon will be dominated by the southern Milky Way -- between Lupus in the SE and Canis Major in the WSW. Scorpius rises during this timeframe (SE again), and around 2am, you'd find me "touring" the sky between Scorpius and Canis Major. There are clusters galore, there -- particulary along the sector between Sco and Crux. You'll find Alpha & Beta Centaurus, the Eta Carina nebular complex (huge and brighter than M42), Canopus, and plenty other jaw-dropping, grin-inducing wonders.

The weather will determine seeing conditions along the coast. If things are calm, seeing should be fine. Just find some place dark (easy enough to do).

By all means, take a pair of binoculars, if you can. Anything in the 8x40-to-10x50 range will likely bring you more giggles than you can imagine.

Also -- Jupiter and Saturn will be *high* overhead. Give them a look-see, if you can -- especially if the seeing is excellent.

I envy you, David. I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather in Costa Rica. Are you going to Puntarenas? Quepos? Tamarinda?

Be prepared to go through Southern Milky Way Withdrawl, once you return to Maryland. :-)

Best wishes and mind-blowing views, sir.
-Dan

Clave 10mm

Best planet viewer I've ever used...so far.

Cheers.
-Dan

I've seen most end-user OTAs sell in the $1,400-1,800 range, with ~$1600 being fairly typical.

Nice SP mounts, around $350-500.

I would expect a C102F/SP package to sell for $1,800 or more -- especially if condition is excellent. Other factors (i.e. condition, accessories, demand) may warrant $2,000 or even more.

Best wishes.
-Dan

Skilcraft 40mm f/15 Newtonian.

If they were mine, I'd keep them. Perhaps I'd let the Silver Top go, but the rest would stay with me.

They are by NO means "trash." You'd have absolutely *no* problem selling any or all of them. Quickly. VERY quickly.
Best wishes.
-Dan

What application(s) are you pondering? If you're thinking dewshield, then yes -- polyethylene sheet will work fine. Just keep it out of the sun. Over time, UV will degrade its flexibility and make it brittle. Of course, that's *significant* time.

If you don't need chemical resistance and/or flame retardance, then flexible Kydex is expensive overkill.

Best wishes.
-Dan

Tough choice, but I'd probably keep my 6mm Pentax Abbe, 10mm Clave, and 25mm Zeiss 3-element orthoscopic.

Cheers.
-Dan

(drool... drool...)

Woof.

My hat's off to you, Pat. Any chance you might show us a couple shots of the interior?

Best wishes and thanks.
-Dan