Posts Made By: Dmitri Kulginov

Is there anyone here who can use a 6 mm ortho without putting lash oil on the lens?

Well, that's what the vulcano top is for - to blink upon, isn't it? At least that works with 4mm ortho.

Dmitri

Guys,

You cannot compare diagonals based on the views, at least if not side-by-side. Only a junk diagonal will have noticeably inferior views.

Even the reflectivity doesn't matter.

You have to look at the collimation and astigmatism only, for example by means of a star test.

Then there are issues of cleaning . . . but you cannot judge them from the views, can you?

Dmitri

Market. If the buyer and the seller are happy, it's perfectly moral.

Dmitri

Inge,

You had small scope plans, what's become of them?

Dmitri

Mike,

While we are at it, how do you compare the two? Does Nagler 9mm make Burgress 9mm redundant? (I think you've got both.)

Dmitri

Inge,

I'll give up my 10x50 any day if I keep my ST80. The binocular is a good add-on, but no more than that.

Dmitri

Thanks Ron! Ordered one book today, the other one is already ordered.

Dmitri

I believe I saw it with naked eye plus UHC filter from a dark place last winter. Without filter only the cluster was seen, but with the filter I got a blinking effect.

Dmitri

I saw the conjunction from the top of the Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro; the sun had just sat behind one of the peculiar mountains that surround Rio and the first lights went on in the city far below. The Moon/Venus were right up above the sunset point. The beauty of this is hard to describe!

Dmitri

Now I'm ready to finish my report from Brazil. I stayed over the weekend with my friends; the weather was unstable and in spite my going out at 3 a.m. to check the clouds I was only able to observe very few objects with Moon interfering, most notably the Tarantula nebula (where I could see only the central part at 100x) and NGC346 in SMC that got behind the clouds even before I could identify it on my charts.

However, I managed to show my friends what telescopes are good for: the crescent of Venus, features on Mars, craters on the Moon, the great Orion nebula and the Pleiades which were a real shock for them when compared to six stars seen by the naked eye. They were impressed, so perhaps I won't need to bring my scope next time I visit them!

Best time to do astronomy in Brazil is April-May; the air is clear and transparent. If I ever get there at this time of year, we'll go to spend several nights at one of the small hotels in the mountains where coffee grows on the slopes, the nights are very dark and the stars are many.

Dmitri