This is the first time ever I attended RTMC at 7000 ft. elev.
http://www.rtmcastronomyexpo.org/
Somehow, they always picked Memorial weekend holidays for this event and my family always wanted to do something else during this holiday. However, this time I managed to convince them and my in-laws that spending the weekend at Big Bear Lake (east of LA and NE of San
Bernardino, CA) would be a "family fun time"
.
I've been to many types of shows from camera, to home gardening, to computer shows. I thought there would be tons of vendors and dealers but there must have been about oh say less than 15 tents in the main area plus other many smaller tents/tables by individuals selling used
stuff or tourist souvenirs . The ones that I spent the most time with were: Tele Vue (of course , Celestron, Meade, Coronado, Hutech, William Optics and Stellarvue. The Meade guys were very nice and I've defected to the Meade hat . The Celestron guys were nice too and superfriendly and helpful at night (more later). I also dropped by Starsplitter tent and was surprised to see a truss Dobthere without the mirror, secondary or focuser (just the mirror box, the rocker box and the upper assembly). Gosh, I wonder why they even bothered coming to show! I was hoping to see the new Takahashi TOA, TEC, Portaball, Starmaster, Starbucket and some Russian MCT but they did not participate
. A huge 36" Dob was setup near Meade's tent with a shroud (I'm so glad I'm a small aperture guy but it was gone by nightfall
.
I dropped by to chat with Steve White (TV Rep) and was introduced to Brian (forgot his last name ), the Director of Marketing at Tele Vue, a super great friendly guy. Tele Vue had an NP-127, NP-101, TV Pronto (yes) and TV-76 on display. There was also the new Vixen Spinx EQ mount, a really lovely mount. I noticed that it (and the GP mount the NP-101 was riding on) had a very nice wood tripod leg (much studier than the Vixen Ash tripod) with bullnosed corners. This was the first time I saw the NP-127 in person and it was so incredibly small and skinny compared to the 4.5" SV/TMB 115 opposite from the Tele Vue tent! In fact, it seems no bigger than my TV-102, just a wee bit fatter that's all! When it was introduced, I wasn't sure why
TV didn't make a clamshell for it, but now I see it won't work very well and would have to be very thick and heavy to hold it. The new rings actually looked like a clamshell with metal removes from its central portion and is still locked down the OTA with the same gadget as the clamshell. Believe it or now, it had the TV-60 mounted as guide scope
. No blem being sold again
.
I went around and played with all of the focusers (my hot button at the moment . William Optics has very smooth focuser, though no better than Tele Vue but has a bigger knob. The Meades seem to have the smoother focuser amongst the SCTs. I dropped by JMI tent and played with their DX-3 focuser in the tent and I tell you all the hype you hear how much better it is than TV R&P (for visual use) is simply well overly active enthusiasms in my opinion. The one focuser I feel that was so far ahead of all was the Feathertouch on the Borg (yes the Borg!) and the SV/TMB. Being so surprised and never fond of the helical focuser, the Hutech lady told me they've gone to the Feathertouch this year!
The SV tent had a huge 6" SV/TMB on a giant G11 mount, a 4.5" SV/TMB on the company's CG5 clone and SV85. Later at night, they had the 80mm Night Hawk and the SV102APO mounted for people to look through. Celestron has this humungous 20" C20 that commands respect to any
one beholding it on a huge EQ mount with lots of counter weight. The picture on Celestron's web site does not do this scope justice! I spent quality time at the Coronado tent where they have a few filters showing the sun. Now I know I don't want the el "cheapo" Solarmax 40. Way too dim and lacking definition. I was too chicken to look at the Solarmax 90 for fear of being hooked and spent most of my time on the Solarmax 60. Gosh, it was gorgeous and I really want one someday. Before I left for the day, I snapped up a 5mm NT6 tax-free.
Night time rolled in and I was very anxious. I dropped by the TV tent first and the NP-101 was pointing at Jupiter. The seeing was fairly poor, improved to average but turned real bad before I left. The NP-101 is indeed a perfect 4-incher, no false color at all in or out of focuser. I had the 3-6mm NZ on it and the best view of Jupiter given the seeing was around 125x-150x. Interestingly, I went to see the 12" Meade SCT and the C9.25 SCT along with a few funky hand-built Dob as well as the 6" SV/TMB and the best view was through the NP-101 followed closely by the 100mm Borg ED. I think all of the other scopes were still trying to catch up with the temp. (from daytime of like 85-90 to around frigid 45-50 by the time I left). The NP-127 was also giving a good view of the Jupiter but the seeing prevented it from doing its best. No false color at all that I can tell (perhaps another perfect 5-incher?) which is amazing since it's f/5.2! Jupiter was true to its color of mildly yellowish white like the color through my 8" Dob. The Moon while looked great of course through the NP-101 but was jaw dropping through the NP-127. Gassendi looked so awesome. Later in the night, Brian put on the binoviewer and gosh, I really want a TV binoviewer really bad now! Though we point it on Jupiter too, I think it looked so much better with the Moon which seems to show "real" depth.
I also think it works so well at higher power with the NP-127 due to the larger exit pupil. The TV-85 was there but I only looked briefly through it which was pointed at M13 . Steve White wasn't there early in the evening and so I filled in for him, explaining to the customers the various features of the zoom and the scope quoting the specs from mentioned. In fact, I mentioned to Brian (Steve's boss) if I can have Steve's job and he was quite impressed and commented indeed I was doing so well ! Truly, truly, if Congress would pass a law limiting everyone with possession of only one telescope , I can honestly say it would now be the 5-inch APO!
Away from the TV boothes, there was a short line to look through the 6" SV/TMB. Seeing how big the whole setup was, hammered in my conviction that small is beautiful . However, the view through the 6" APO is gorgeous, no false color at all in or out of focus. In fact, the view of Jupiter was very similar to the NP-127 except it was slightly brighter. Indeed, going from 4-inch to 5-inch is a lot more noticeable than going from 5-inch to 6-inch! However, the view seems almost as bright as through my 8-inch Dob (just going by with the grain-of-salt memory) which is the strength of the APO light transmission. Jupiter's color is of high fidelity and looked mildly yellowish white like the view through my Dob. Alas, it couldn't give the subarcsec details because of the seeing
. The SV102APO was pointed at the comet and was given a nice wide view. The 80mm f/6 Night Hawk was pointed at Jupiter and I immediately saw purple halo when in focus (so I find it hardpressed when I hear some owners reporting no false color at all). However, it gave a very nice and sharp view and well worth the money in my opinion, though now I'd prefer paying slightly more for the Orion 80ED (IMO $300 for the Night Hawk would have been a perfect very competitve price point!). The Feathertouch focuser is unparallel and the fine focuser indeed make focusing on details much easier, especially with short focal ratio APOs.
There was a 6" Celestron CR6 achromat next to the 6" SV/TMB. After looking at the 6" SV/TMB, I diverted quickly for a look through the achromat. Indeed, the view of Jupiter had quite a colorful purple halo. Later in the night, I returned to it when it was pointing at the Moon. The shadow in the crater was purple not black! Nevertheless, it gave a very good and fairly sharp view of
the Moon despite the false color. Too bad, there was no Chromacorr to look through
