Posts Made By: Tom Hole

Anyway, back to the observing. It was about 0415 and the star chart said that Saturn should be up in Gemini. I walked up the street to see if it was there, and sure enough, thar she blows! Only about 25 deg up, so I wasn't too excited, but let's have a look. Rolled the scope about 100 yds down the road and oriented the eq platform to North. The street lights were on and the house 50 ft away had their first alert 1,000,000 watt porch light on. Oh well, at least I can get the first look at Saturn this season. 250x was the chosen power (25mm plossls, televue binos, 2x corrector, 2x barlow). I lined it up with the Rigel, spied it in the binos and focused her up. Darn near fell off my chair! I have never seen a view like that of anything, let alone Saturn. Cassini, Ekne, fine gradients in the rings, planet's shadow on the rings, ring's shadow on the planet, color, myriad banding and as many moons as I could count. Plus, the binoview made the rings take on a 3-D look like they had thickness. I went up to 350x and the view got even better. I sat there and just stared for 30 minutes. It was a sureal experience. Words cannot describe that view.

Well, just then a nice fellow walks by on his morning jaunt. He looks at me warily and I invite him over. Well, does this guy ever get a treat. I showed him the best view of Saturn I've ever had and may ever have in the future. I slid over and showed him a spectacular Mars at 360x. Then I went down to 100x and gave him a face full of ole Luna. All through the binoviewers. If this guy doesn't buy a telescope from somewhere today, I would be very suprised. This is what I signed up for when I bought this XT10.

Now I have a new standard by which to judge my future viewing experiences. I hope there are many more all nighters like this in my/everyone's future. I wish everyone could have a night like this so they can see what these fine telescopes are capable of. I suppose a more expensive telescope on the same night could put up better views, but the ones I had tonight are plenty good for me. Seeing and transparency are everything. If they are great, your views are great. If they are poor, even a $10,000 telescope may not look good. So take pride in your cheapo Chinese dob and rest assured that it is capable of some amazing feats.

Clear skies,

Tom

Can we put the who in Company One?

Tom

Our club has a CGE1400 on a pier in our observatory. That setup is very solid. It is our CCD platform and seems to be working well. We didn't buy it with the tripod, so I can;t comment on that. The goto is nice.

Clear skies,

Tom

Steve,

My first night with the binoviewers in my 10" dob was disappointing as well. I definitely did not see what the big deal was. The moon was nice and all, but Jupiter was not any better than one eyed viewing. And deep sky, forget about it.

But three nights later, you couldn't pry those things out of my dob. I think for some folks, there is an adjustment period after you have looked at stuff cyclops for so long. Give them a few more nights.

I think the fact that the brain is much more involved in binoviewing makes it more subjective as well. When I let folks at my club look through the binos, there are some holy mareds and there are some ho hums. But by the end of the night, I ususally can't get my binoviewers out of the observatory's CGE 1400.

Clear skies,

Tom

Todd,

Again, thanks for the work.

Did you see any color difference between the two ep's in the Denk or Denk II? There have been a couple reports of that and I was wondering if everyone saw it.

Clear skies,

Tom

A little less depth of color, but almost right on for me and my 10" dob with binoviewers. Nice work.

Tom

HOLY CRAP!

I definitely do not see that in my ep. It's upside down

Tom

Ah, the semi-annual sonotube vs metal tube debate.

I've owned them both. I like them both. A lot of "facts" about how one is better than the other and you should certainly consider these inputs before buying. They may indeed matter to you. Here's what I think I know about both:

Metal:

1. It dings, but not terribly
2. Touch it and you will get a thermal reaction inside the tube (I've seen it at the ep)
3. Your tongue will stick to it in the winter (I haven't done this yet)
4. Magnets stick to it (very handy for all sorts of things, see pic)
5. Easy to chop up and modify

Sonotube

1. Doesn't ding so much
2. Less thermally sensitive (not thermally sensitive)
3. Your tongue probably won't stick to it
4. Magnets won't stick to it
5. Easy to chop up and modify

The sliding altitude hubs on the Discovery are nice, but the magnets on my XT10 are just as easy to manage. I, personally, would not choose a scope based on a metal or sonotube OTA, but others might.

For the rest of the questions, I can't add a lot. A 12.5" tube dob is big, very big. But it is worth the extra 2.5" if you can afford it and it doesn't keep you from observing as much as possible.

Discovery vs Synta vs Guen Sheng will be debated until the cows come home. I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed for eating cookies. Buy one and never look back. The joy is in the looking.

Clear skies,

Tom

Ron,

I seem to remember you have a Guen Sheng type dob, is that correct? If not, I apologize for the diatribe.

If so, stop by and visit the skyquest-telescope yahoo group and do a search for fans.

We have come up with a very effective method of getting air across the primary and up the OTA without drilling any holes. I use 2 fans in a push/pull (or blow/suck if you prefer) set up behind the mirror with a "baffle" installed just above the primary. The baffle directs the air across the face of the primary. This configuration will put a tornado on your primary with 2 fans running at 12 volts. It blows gently and silently at 6 volts. I have verified that it eliminates all of the warm boundary layer air on the primary as well as any and all tube currents. All without any vibration showing up at the eyepiece. I was skeptical at first, but when I saw it first hand, I became a staunch supporter. Makes a difference at the eyepiece.

So stop by and cop a squat. We can help with the flocking as well.

Clear skies,

Tom