Posts Made By: Tom Lacovik

Remember the photo of earth and jupiter in alignment (along with about 4 moons between the two of them)? Well I thought it worth revisiting, and suggest you all take a moment to re-discover it... Here is the one that really gives you pause. Imagine the sound of an AM radio tuning up and down the dial times 6 billion to get a sense of how loud it is 'down here'. Then look at this picture and it's startlingly quiet. Imagine what it sounds like around this camera. Sometimes I notice that observing is enhanced by this sensation of silence. Serenity I guess you'd call it... I haven't had an all night observing session in about 8 months and I think I'm aching for my next chance to do that! Enjoy.

TomL

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/22/R05-00763.gif

that's a big black field out there, its fun to hunt around with your scroll keys as if star hopping through your finder.

hi. i need to buy an ep or just meet up with someone and share a telescope on or near satellite beach, fl. i'll be here til the 6th (thinking about changing my flight to see the transit on the 8th, but don't have solar filter either).

basically i'm here for a wedding, and my hosts have a 4.5" bushnell newt, with a 5mm ep. (help!)

well, if they had a 25mm, that would be okay, if not, i'll buy one (hmmm maybe i'll buy a pentax from of you guys here and overnight it!) my hosts are RIGHT on the beach with big horizons, so i find myself with a great opportunity for stargazing...but a so so scope that could be okay with a decent EP i bet. shoot i forgot to mention. no finder either so, that pentax idea starts to sound good.

anyway, any help, advice, star parties, or shops in the area...i know about ITE south of here, and may just drive down on a pilgrimage to see where my MK67 started it's american life.

so yeah, basically...HELP!
TomL

Hi.
The idea of a binoscope is very exciting and interesting. However the idea of building one and alligning all the optics for two scopes to get two images to merge is very daunting.

Naturally, just dropping in a binoviewer into a 'normal' scope is much easier.

My question is this: is an 18" dob with an 10 square inch obstruction due to secondary and a binoviewer any different really than a binoscope with two 12.5" primaries and two 5 square inch secondary obstructions?

Aren't the 2 12.5" primaries really just the same (more or less) as one bigger 18" primary. Isn't an 18" easier to build and collimate? Isn't 1 secondary preferable to 2? and isn't the binoviewer paid for by not having to buy 2 spiders (never mind 2 diffraction patterns...but I bet you could align those if you are carefull...still, you might be adding them), 2 secondaries and 2 moonlites? Plus if you want to go back to full aperture monoscope, you have an 18"-er.


Thought of the day.

TomL

For one of my scopes, a small, commercial goto, I have made an onboard 12V battery pack out of ten 2300 mAH NiMH AA batteries for when I don't feel like lugging a car battery or looking for AC power.

The only thing is, that it isn't quite fun to remove these 10 batteries and recharge them all the time so what would be nice is to leave them in there and charge them whenever the wall wart is connected.

This will obviously have to be current limited at the batteries minimum (trickle) charge. So What I want to do is put a little connection from the DC in jack to the battery pack with an appropriate resistor to limit the current to a trickle. But what value is appropriate for 12 AAs in series? The wall wart is 12V 1A.

Thanks.
TomL

Has anybody done this? Regearing etc?
TomL

Ok, I'm going to take my first steps into photography. So, what is the difference between the older (beige) ToUCam and the newer (silver) ToUCam PRO II?

Which should I get. I understand it is hard to find it (just model number 1 I presume). If so, where do I buy it? Street price?

By the way is anyone doing this on a mac?

Thanks.
TomL

So I have a Nikon FG SLR (manual film camera w/ detachable lens)

AND I have a big-a** digital SLR camera which is actually a Nikon Pronea 6i camera mated with Kodak DCS "digital film" body (ie. a CCD where the 35mm film would go and the firewire and hard-drive based body).

Now I also have a Intes MK67 1500 f/12 Mak Cass with 2" visual back (and all relevant diagonals/adapters/EPs).

So... I am wanting to get my feet wet with astrophotography and it only seems natural to somehow introduce one of these cameras to the Mak.

"Mak, meet Nikon, Nikon meet Mak"

SBIG is out of my reach, but looking at ToUCam is kind of the opposite extreme here. I was hoping to somehow make use of my decent cameras somehow instead of a webcam, but shy of plunking down 7K for a specialized CCD cam (as wonderful as they are, it's a little owie on my pocketbook).

Advice?

If I use the film camera. I can use it in bulb mode for long exposures for DSO (provided good mount and tracking I know)

If I go for the digicam, I am limitted to 4 second exposures, which presumably I can process and stack later (I am good in photoshop, I should be able to figure it out).

then there is piggybacking. I am just a little unsure of which of these forks I should pursue, knowing that my expectations are reasonable (not magazine SBIG type work, but hopefully better than funcam type stuff too). Which path should I take...ADVICE???

Thank you.
TomL

Well it's nearing the end of 1/3/05 the day the earth stood still for Meade's announcment. Boy that sure was a doozy wasn't it. Whatever it is (and I think it's obviously a solar scope from coronado in a blue meade case maybe with solar tracking....), it can't be a good sign for delivery dates when even the announcement of the product doesn't meet it's promised date.

When the announcement itself is late, don't expect the availability date to hold water either.

Cynically yours,
TomL

Hi. I don't remember being really surpised by the weight of a binocular. Are there any surprises out there? Another way of asking this is have you ever picked up a pair of 20x70s and thought wow, these feel like 7x35s.

I like grab and go for binoculars, otherwise if I'm setting up, I may as well set up a scope. So hand held use is important (but a parallel bino mount is not out of the question for future either).

I guess 30 magnification would be nice too if it meant throwing saturn's rings in the realm, that would take steadiness I know, not just light weight, but I hope you get the picture of what I'm after here?

Thanks,
TomL

Speaking of questioning everything
( http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=294641 )

I am about to cutaway my bottom corner, a la K-B page 192 (diagram p.191). If you don't have your bible in front of you, I'll paraphrase: they say to scribe an arc centered on the center top edge of the side panel (ie. what is assumed to be the center point of the pivot) starting at the bottom edge where the tailgate ends and up until it hits the edge that would join the front of the box.

I'm sure you follow me. Half the boxes I see out there are just 45° cuts, but KB say a curve looks nicer (and I'm inclined to agree). But looks aside, the arc I scribed struck me as quite shallow. Though geomtrically correct (it would minimally clear the rocker box when rotated about that pivot point). I realized that a LOT more material (and hence weight when using BB Ply) would be removed by that plain 45° cut.

For that matter, my questioning continued: why not 60°. Or more?

I am not bottom heavy or anything, it's just a thought experiment that happened when I wondered about how little this arc was and should I just do a 45 instead?

Should I? Pros? Cons? Set me straight*!!!

*or curved

TomL

PS maybe the choice would come down to not just weight removal (if that's at issue) but also how you would cover that hole afterwards. 1/8" thin ply for a 45, but what about a curved cut? Veneer? Open?