Posts Made By: John Kuhl

If I remember right, Tak lenes are made by Cannon. The TMB's are made in Russia by LZOS and a few are made by LOMO.

If Carl puts his name on it, that is all I need. I have never seen or heard of a bad Zambuto mirror.

The different mirror and lens makers all seem to have different ideas on how to get the "numbers". They never seem to agree on how to get them. So I gave up on the numbers game, I just don't care anymore. What I do now is buy my scopes from compaines that I feel this won't be an issue. If you buy from the best you know you are getting the best. The numbers don't matter, the scope will work to the highest standards. I also feel that even with great numbers what is of the utmost importance is the micro polish. You can have great numbers, but if you don't have that great polish, contrast will suffer. In a mirror without that great polish you won't get that nice black background we all love.

Hi Gregg,

I have had a lot of scopes over the years. From 80mm to 20". My most used scope by a large amount is my 14.5" Starmaster. It does everything great. If I could only own one scope this would most likely be the one. I would get one if you can swing the money. You will never be disappointed with this scope.

As far as I know, all mirror coatings have pinholes in them. Don't worry about it and just use it. If it takes 20x to see them, I would say you have better than average coatings.

I forgot to mention, I would never put standard coatings on a secondary mirror. I can't think of one company that make secondary mirrors that don't use some kind of enhanced coatings.

Hi Gary,

I agree with Linton on this one. I would get a UHC, but skip the 0III all together. I think at 5" and f/15 the OIII will darken things up way to much. I myself would not use a OIII filter on a scope that small.

Hi Floyd,

A couple of things to think about. A friend of mine got a Starmaster scope and was going to use a ServoCat system with it. When he mentioned this to Rick, he was told that he would void any warrantee on the scope if he did this. With the ServoCat system the rocker box stays with the mirror box because of the cable used in the drive. If you are like me ,I take all the pieces apart when I move my 14.5" Starmaster around. I don't like to mess with ramps and wheelbarrow handles. With the Sky Tracker you can still separate all the components. Being this is your number one scope I would go with the Sky Tracker and send it to Rick for him to install. I have a couple of friends with the ServoCat, that they installed on their own. They have not been able to get the system working real good. One friend is going to drive over to Azizona and spend a couple of nights with Gary just to get the system working right. If you have Rick do it, it will work right from the get go. If you have any problems with it you know he will fix it. Good luck with your decision.

Nice pair Floyd. I was kind of suprised that the rocker box sides and the altitude bearings seem thicker on the Astro Sky than the Starmaster.

A friend of mine has one of these scopes. For what they cost you get a lot of scope, but it is a fixer upper. The mirror mount is particle board and will pinch the mirror. The spider is weak and sages from the weight of the secondary mirror. The secondary is to big, 4" if I remember right. The mount is not strong enough for imaging. The optics are what I would call good. Now I know this sounds like it has a lot wrong with it and it does, but for the money you get quite a lot of scope. Which is why my friend got it. This was the most scope he could get for the money he had. If you don't mind doing some upgrades after you get it, I feel it isn't a bad deal. Oh yea did I say that it is heavy.