Posts Made By: Larry Thaxton

Hi Mike,

Every once in a while I drop in to see what imaging folks are doing. This one took my breath away- what a stunning photo! I have an old book that is a collection of Moon photos taken during the Apollo era and your image is better! How would you compare the processed image to the visual image through your 18" Starmaster?

Hi Benjamin,

The 15mm TV plossls are a nice bino pair. Pretty reasonable in price and very sharp. Floyd is correct about eye relief though. I have a pair of Nikon 14mm widefields and like them the best of all I have tried in 14mm to 18mm: 20mm eyerelief, 70 degree field of view and very sharp. A bit costly new from APM but very reasonable used. Best view of the Moon I ever had was through a Baader MK V, 14mm Nkons and a Takahashi FS-152.

Larry

I recently picked up a Takahashi 40mm Ortho and other than the need for an adapter, it is an excellent performer and sharp as heck. A 40mm Pentax SMC Kellner suffers the same adapter issue but also yields excellent optical performance in F/8 and above scopes. Both are very nice eyepieces.

Try these folks:

http://www.foamonline.com/index.php?cartID=844741ce8cb5daa2b0ee0818b1d80fec

This thing actually works:

4 October 2006

Just a bit after midnight. I was out with the 10” Mak looking at the Moon and have to say “WOW!!” I ran the range from a 55mm TV plossl (57x) to a 5mm Pentax XW (625x) and several in between. Great performance with an instantaneous transition from the brilliant lunar edge to pitch black sky. Like someone drew a line between darkness and light. Beautiful! With the 55mm Plossl the Moon was razor sharp and I could easily have been looking through the FS-152 as far as resolution, sharpness and contrast were concerned. It seems like a minor insult to say “refractor-like” as this scope’s performance stands on its own. I think my favorite views were in either the 20mm XW (156x) or the 14mm Meade UW Series 4000 (223x). Sky conditions were not up to really high power and the image softened a bit when I went beyond the 14mm. A 10mm XW (312x) gave softer detail and at 625x it was softer still though quite pleasing nonetheless. Clouds were passing across the sky partially obscuring the Moon and frequently enveloping it.

I think collimation is very close but still needs a little work. Defocused star images had the CO ever so slightly off center. I am going to try to get it closer once I am sure what the best way to adjust the secondary is. The fool thing has six screws and I am not sure which are the actual adjusters. Not really interested in dropping the secondary down the tube.

Hi Floyd,

I owned a 127ED that had an absolutely excellent objective lens. Planetary performance was very impressive- one night I had it out next to an MN76 and the Meade provided slightly sharper planetary detail and superior contrast. The MN was putting up a brighter image, but the Meade was more pleasing. Mine was on the old 600 Goto mount. I found the need to program in time, location, etc. a bit slow but when I did my part, it certainly did its too putting everything I asked it to find in the FOV. After a few years I took mine to Meade which is near me and had the newer lense cell added. They also centered and collimated the objective and when I got it back, I was convinced I would keep it forever. Of course that was several refractors ago.......

Looks like you could save a lot of money on warm clothing if properly used.

Hi Gregory,

I agree with Ron that you can't go wrong with any of the scopes mentioned. In my experience, a big jump occurs when you go from 4" to 5" especially on planetary viewing. I have owned a number of APOs from 4" to 7" and highly recommend the TEC 140 or an FS-128. Both give excellent performance and can be had for reasonable prices used. I have tried several smaller (85mm to 102mm) APOs from Showa, Televue and Takahashi and liked each so it is really a question of the best deal you can find, they will all perform.

Larry

Check with Art Ciampi at TNR as they may have a new tube available for a reasonable price.

Hi Kevin,

Don't know about the Astele, but I have owned a couple of MNs including an MN76. The MN76 was probably the best combination of performance and value I have ever found. Collimation was easy and rarely needed, optics razor sharp given good seeing and cool down seldom an issue here in California. Downside - weight, the crappy focuser you mentioned, a crappy finder and occasional dewing. I often wish I hadn't sold the MN76!