Posts Made By: Jay Emirzian

I think your on to somthing Floyd.....That's a great idea!!!!

Ivan,
Concrete is very similar in nature to the dental stones we use in the lab (calcium sulfate dihydrate). As the stone sets it creates heat and forms a crystal structure.....exothermic reaction. You can usually feel the heat from the stone when it sets. Once you feel the stone start to cool down it has set enough to remove it from its form.
There are actually a few ways to accelerate the stone crystallization process:

1. Use warm water when you mix the powder.

2. Use a Saturated CaSo4 solution or SDS. To make this solution mix some of the stone or concrete with water and let the powder settle out to the bottom of the bucket. The SDS will be dissolved in the water. Use this water to mix with the concrete. The stone will usually set in half or less time.


But then again....you were probably so hot from mixing 18 bags of concrete you wouldn't have felt the temprature diffrence in the stone!!!! I told you to call me......LOL

I'll help you with the roll off roof.

Talk to you soon my friend

PS I probably should have told you this before you mixed

Hi Gerry,
I just purchased an f/4.5 Obsession and was in a similar situation. My issue was exit pupil. I wanted to stay under the 6mm range. In theory the human eye is said to only dilate to a maximum of 7mm. There are many factors that keep your eye's exit pupil from dilating to its maximum. Light pollution and age are two big ones. So staying under 7mm will allow a full light cone to enter your eye.

You might already know this, but one way of calculating the exit pupil is dividing the eyepiece focal length by the focal ratio of the telescope. In your case the Panoptic would have a 7.1mm exit pupil and the Nagler 26 would be 5.3mm. The difference between the field of view between the 35 Pan and 26 Nag would be minimal so I would go with the 26. Plus your images through the eyepiece will be larger then the 35 Pan.

I am currently using a 20mm Type 2 in my scope. I would like to see how the 26 would preform in my scope before I purchased it.

Check out Televues eyepiece calculator on their web site. It will give you a better understanding of how those eyepiece will preform in your scope.

Clear skies,
Jay

Using a Paracorr will increase the focal ratio of your telescope making the exit pupil smaller. It will also reduce the true field of view through the eyepiece. Sorry if I didn't mention that earlier.

Drink lots of water Ivan.....that Florida sun is killer.

Jay

I use a clean designated microfiber cloth to remove any water droplets that didn't sheet off the mirror. Just touching the corner of the cloth to the droplet. It absorbs 100% of the excess water. This way nothing is left behind on the mirror to stain the coatings.

Jay

NGC 457 is also know as "ET". Its a Favorite with the kids. I have never heard it called the Space shuttle cluster, or an f-15. I'll have to take a closer look,

Ivan,
Epsilon and Delta Cassiopeia will lead you straight to NGC457.

Kwang,
This may be what your looking for. Its called a tripod deer stand. It seems to be light and portable.

Hope this helps,
Jay

http://www.backcountryjournal.com/podz.htm

Edward,
I have to chime in here and say the Pentax XL's and XW's are fantastic. If price isn't an option, I would say the 40mm would be great for wide field such as open clusters, large nebula and galaxy clusters (M81 and M82). The 20mm and 14mm for medium power, such as globular clusters and galaxy's. And the 7mm for planets. All of the eyepieces would be great for lunar observing, but definitely get a set of Neutral Density fliers for that.

thats my two cents.

Jay

Absolutely Roy.....I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else. Thanks for your input. I would still love to try out the UWA and SWA from Meade. There just haven't been to many reviews.

Although I would love to have an f/6 scope.....I'm already using a step to look at zenith with my 4.5. Now if I were just a bit taller.

Thats great David......Thanks. Let us know how it turns out.

Jay