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Posts Made By: Mark Hansen

August 11, 2002 01:18 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Premium Dob or Not?

Posted By Mark Hansen
I would get the Discovery or the Orion 10" dob. Use the difference in $ to purchase a set of premium eyepieces. 27mm Panoptic, 19mm Panoptic, 14mm Pentax XL and 9mm Nagler. Just my .02$

August 27, 2002 12:39 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

f question

Posted By Mark Hansen
In layman terms...

After hitting the first mirror or lens, it's the length the light has to travel to come to a point. The number is not in inches or millimeters, but rather compaired to the diameter of the lens or primary mirror.

Example: an 8" telescope that is F5 takes 40" for the light to reflect off the mirror and come to a point. 8x5=40.

Works for metric too: a 100mm refractor that is f8 takes 800mm for the light to come to a point after passing through the front 100mm lens. 100x8=800.

Just be careful not to mix inches and millimeters. BTW, 25.4 millimeters equal one inch if you need to convert.

Hope this helps.


January 5, 2003 09:48 PM Forum: Eyepieces

EP for 8" LX200 f/10

Posted By Mark Hansen
I'd rather have a set of 4 or 5 plossls than just 2 premium eyepieces. I'd suggest picking up a 32mm 1/4" Meade 4000. Also add a 19mm Panoptic (considered a premium eyepiece). Keep the barlow as it will work with all the eyepieces.

January 7, 2003 03:11 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

meade lx 50/8sct

Posted By Mark Hansen
Marty is referring to a late 90's Celestron 8" SCT OTA fitting a Meade LX50 forkmount. Is there any drilling or tapping of holes required?

Any help is appreciated.

January 18, 2003 05:44 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

The future of amateur astronomy

Posted By Mark Hansen
1) Continued price drops on telescopes for one thing. Even APO refractors have been dropping in price lately.

2) Better advancements in light pollution filters. Possibly a filter that gives the contrast of an Olll with the light throughput of a deep sky filter.

3) More affordable CCD cameras. Finding a better way to reduce noise without the cost involved in cooling the chip.

4) Obviously we've seen continued advancements in eyepieces year after year. That trend should continue.

5) People pleacing moor adds on astromort with tearible speelling airrs! :-)

February 2, 2003 04:55 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

GM-8 munt on G-11 tripod?

Posted By Mark Hansen
I thought I'd mention it is also possible to mount the GM-8 EQ head on a Meade Heavy duty field tripod. I'm 6'4" and the stubby GM-8 tripod was way to short. The Meade tripod gets instruments up to my standing height for observing and provides a very stable platform for long exposure photo work at sitting heights. Losmandy sells an adapter to make this possible. Here is a pic of my setup. The ota is an MK-66. Clear skies!


February 4, 2003 11:34 PM Forum: Maksutovs

6.3 Reducer for Mk66

Posted By Mark Hansen
I have never tried my Celestron F10 to F6.3 reducer on my MK-66. The next clear night I'll give it a try with a 27 Panoptic and report back. The math works out to F7.6 and should drop the power of the 27 Pan from 68x to 43x.

Clear skies!
http://pages.pathwaynet.com/~mhansen/astro/

February 5, 2003 02:25 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Which eyepieces go best with a big dob?

Posted By Mark Hansen
I have a 16" F4 dob and am very happy with the following eyepieces: 27 Panoptic, 17mm T4 Nagler, 14mm Pentax XL, and 10.5 Pentax XL. I just bought a 7mm Nagler T1 and am anticipating a "trial run" when it arrives and skies clear. Note, be careful to not get too low power of an eyepiece. You will start to see the secondary in your FOV. I used a 35mm Konig a few times and the shadow of the secondary was very annoying on bright objects! The 35mm Panoptic might do the same in your 4.5 scope, so maybe try before you buy.

Clear skies!
http://pages.pathwaynet.com/~mhansen/astro/

February 11, 2003 04:27 AM Forum: Maksutovs

6.3 Reducer for Mk66

Posted By Mark Hansen
Finally clear skies here in Western Michigan so I tried my Celestron 6.3 reducer on the MK-66. I could not get a 32mm plossl or a 27 Panoptic to reach focus using the Intes SCT 2" diagonal. The scope just barely ran out of focus travel. I removed the SCT diagonal and tried again this time using the 27 Pan directly in a Televue adapter threaded on the back. It did reach focus and the views were sharp/correct to the edge. I observed M42 and the double cluster to confirm functionality. I did not have an 1 1/4 diagonal with me, but believe that would reach focus with 1 1/4 eyepieces using the 6.3 reducer.

December 28, 2003 11:19 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn on Boxing Day

Posted By Mark Hansen
Beautiful picture. The color is nice and natural. That is interesting that you align some pics with ring detail and others with the planet disk. I'll have to try aligning with ring detail and see what I get for results.

Clear skies,
Mark

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