Posts Made By: Joe Conway

Why would anyone pull their ad after a sale? Is this common?

Not for center line Herbert, but focusing small aperture pin holes. Can't sell it since it belongs to the company.

I've tried to find some info on it and there's not much out there on it. What I did find is most of the larger ones are really long f/l, like 12.5 and 15. Not sure what it's claim to fame is but it's been a standard that we use.

So I assume I'm looking for a really long focal length achro with a 3 to 4 inch objective, again, with a locking focus.

Probably 40 or more years ago this Gaertner scope was one of the best, but now scope optics are better corrected, at least in some.

I did see one website that showed images of the moon taken with a 6 inch version of ours and I must say it was impressive.

From the looks of this heavy beast we have, all of the optics are adjustable and probably why this thing was rated for scientific use. It weighs at least 30-40 lbs. I don't want to take it apart to clean it and go through trying to re-collimate it. Rather just buy a new scope.

What brand of diagonal are you using?

I hope you don't mind this short story.

When driving over the mountains between Ridgecrest and Bakersfield though the small town of Glenville, my friend and I encountered one of these snakes laying across the narrow road. The road was between some high grass meadows and the snake's tail was off one side of the road and its nose off the other side. The diameter of the snake could easily reach approx. 6 inches. It was the largest snake I've ever seen in the wild.

So we pulled over and got out of the car. My friend decided to pick up a 3ft long stick and approach the snake. I yelled to him that it didn't get that big by not having good instincts.

I'm a good distance back at the car and watched my friend approach the snake. I could actually see the snakes big eyes move toward my friend from the distance I was standing.

I'd say my friend got within 7-8 ft of this beast when it struck at him straight out, mouth wide open and only a foot and a half of tail staying on the ground. Its mouth almost made it to his neck and seeing the size of its mouth next to his neck I realized its wide open mouth was about the same size as his face.

My friend dropped the stick and ran back to the car. He couldn't speak for a minute. When he did he said "I'll never do that again"!!! I said, "Why do you think I stayed by the car"? Then I asked, "What's that smell"?

This is a true story my friends. Now I can't say for certain it was a Gopher Snake or a Bull Snake, but I wasn't going to get close to it to find out. Joe Conway

Cage, usually metal or ball separator, usually phenolic are used to keep the balls separated and evenly spaced. Races, inner or outer are what the balls roll in, e.g. grooves.

You know a picture would be great of what you're taking apart. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.

Thrust bearing used like you described sounds nuts or cheap. But then if no contact is made in the center shaft all the weight is pushing down on the plastic separator and that's gonna fail quick.

Give us a picture and some dimensions. That will make it easier for us to quit guessing. Glad to know who you are. I'll PM you sometime when I get my mod done. Joe

That's a question that's easy to answer. The single best investment I've made in this hobby is ASTROMART.

The friends I've made here. The information I've collected. The savings I've made in astronomy choices and purchases, whether used or deciding to buy new from the info provided in threads.

Here's your ep cleaning kit parts list. Let's keep it cheap. Print this out since it's long winded.

From McMaster Carr you need these items. The part number for the "solid rubber cork" is not the size you need, it just gets you to the right page on their site.

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Solid rubber cork - 9545K51, size determined by your vacuum cleaner hose.

Surgical tubing - 5234K76, get black color since it looks cool and same price as amber. Not cheap per length, but buy a long enough piece to get your vacuum cleaner away from you because of the noise. Maybe stick the vacuum cleaner in a closet next to you. I hate noise.

A (1) inch long piece of 1/4 inch O.D. metal tubing. 1/4 inch copper water line's cheap.

Now you need some magnification. Head band magnifier with an extra eye loupe.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_612263_612263

Vacuum pickup probes are next. It doesn't matter where you find them, just keep it cheap.

http://www.howardelectronics.com/virtual/images/3_8,1_4,1_8,S3_8,S1_4,S1_8.jpg

http://www.howardelectronics.com/virtual/vacuumcups.html non-esd silicon set for $12. Gives (8) cups to work with. You still need to buy the needles separate so call them.

Now you have your parts so what's next. First, drill a 1/4" hole in the rubber cork. Next put your metal tube in the cork. Then push your surgical tubing over the metal tube. Cork is now ready to push into your vacuum cleaner hose. Make sure metal tube fits tight in rubber cork.

Now you have a vacuum pickup system that's pretty powerful.

So you want to get the nasties out of or off of your eps. Find a clean area to work, no, not a clean room. Don't push this thread to that discussion. Remember, magnification and vacuum gets you there.

If taking an ep apart, unscrew the clamp ring(s). Put the ep top up or bottom up, depending on how it comes apart, on your bench. DO NOT HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND. Insert a vacuum probe into the surgical tubing. Use the largest tip cup size that fits over the lens. Try lifting the lens straight up moving it just a little. Use two hands to hold the surgical tubing. Don't pull the lens all the way out until you see you have a good grip on it with the vacuum. It's very important to test the suction on the first lens, usually not a problem though.

So now you see you can hold the lens without touching it with your hands. Don't squeeze the surgical tubing or you'll break the suction and drop the lens. I do recommend "powder free" finger cots or surgical gloves though. Invariably you may end up needing to handle the lenses with your fingers and bare fingers are a no no, so don't even think about it.

What you do next is up to you. You can clean the lenses while holding them with the suction using cue tips and solution. This part is where you can make a mess and I don't recommend this unless you have soft clean room towels and can remember which side is up on the lens. Beginners can screw this up very easy. Most lenses on the inside of the ep are clean and all you're doing is sucking up dust or lint with your probe. You don't have to make physical contact with the lens. One thing I've noticed on most lenses is the clamp ring or separator will leave a faint ring in the coating and you can use this to identify which side is up, but not always. Lightly blow the lens with a duster can before re-inserting. Don't tip a duster can or vapor deposits will form on the lens. Blow them from a distance.

I number metal tins to put my lenses in. You can put them on lens paper or whatever that's clean. Number the papers with a sharpie (1) thru whatever. Now that you're holding the lens with your vacuum probe suction cup, you move straight over to the first clean paper and pinch the surgical tubing. This releases the lens onto the paper. You pick them up the same way.

Let's say you're not taking an ep apart and want to just clean the outer lenses. Take one of your vacuum probes and pull the suction cup off the end. Find something like a plastic coffee stirrer stick or small diameter plastic tube and slip it onto the needle. Test it to make sure it doesn't melt with acetone. Cut it short. Now you have a plastic vacuum tip to suck up around the lip edges. Put a drop of acetone or ethanol on the lens and quickly, I MEAN QUICKLY SO IT DOESN'T FLOW UNDER THE LIP, suck up the solution at the "outer edge" of the lip, not in the middle. I prefer ethanol for this because acetone evaporates too quickly. You'll be amazed that the lens will be almost perfect without even touching the surface. Now all you have to do is lightly swab the lens with your breath and a cue tip. Don't rub hard.

I hope you folks can follow this long thread. Good luck. Don't handle the lenses with bare fingers. Use the suction probes instead. Finger prints have an acid in them, not good for coatings. Joe

ps> when you put the vacuum probes in the surgical tubing make sure they make a tight seal. If they don't, wrap electrical tape around them, no not on the needle too, so they make a tight seal.

Oh yeah, a duster can. Do not blow down into an ep with loose lenses. THE LENSES CAN TIP OVER.

A few have PM'd me about the needles and suction cups I suggested.

One, you don't really need the metal needles. The suction cups will fit in the surgical tubing, but it's up to you to make sure they fit tight and don't fall out.

Two, I also use syringe caps to do fine point suction. Just drill a hole through them. You can ask a hospital to give those to you for free since they just throw them out. The bigger ones fit pretty tight in the surgical tubing and are already nice and pointed, but not hollow at the very tip. Not hard to drill out or stick a finishing nail through to open.

Sports ball needles are cheap. Just file off the end until it's nice, remove the burrs.

http://www.swastikenterprise.com/inflating-needles/sportsballs.html (shown for the picture)

As you see, lots of stuff work. You can also buy needles at the pet store.

Folks, you can be creative. Just make sure it's plastic touching the lens when fine point suction is used. Never use the metal needle only.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Sorry to Phil Holt. Just another re-run. Thank you for posting. I'll leave now since I don't belong here either. Joe

Some have asked about the needles. I use hypodermic needles and grind the ends flat. To give you a picture here's a site with a picture.

http://www.stanleysupplyservices.com/product-group.aspx?id=12359

Now mind you, I can't remember which gauge is the bigger diameter but assume the smaller the number the bigger the needle, put please correct me on this. You want a pretty big diameter needle for good suction.

So if you buy the suction cups from the one site I gave you, you still have to buy the needles separate. I use glue dispensing needles from Techcon that are made out of polypropylene and won't scratch the lens when doing fine point suction around the lip of the ep. Look at the red colored needle in the picture and you'll see the needle portion is made out of polypropylene. This is what you want for simple fine point suction cleaning.

Also, in the picture you'll see to the far right the needle looking cover or syringe cover that's pointed and not a needle. This is what I'm talking about if you want to go to a hospital and ask them for a syringe cover. These all fit into the I.D. of the surgical tubing I told you about. Joe