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Posts Made By: Larry Thaxton

December 6, 2006 05:21 AM Forum: Refractors

6 f/15 = 8 f/? equivalent classic achro

Posted By Larry Thaxton
Hi Pat,

Not a direct answer, but I went from a 6" F/15 D&G to an 8" F/12 D&G and did not find the color in the larger scope to be any problem. I did not have them side by side to compare, but the color in the 8" was just a bit more pronounced than the 6". Much less than I expected. A fellow out here added a Chromacor to his 8" D&G and never looked back. He said the 8" gave views similar in detail to a 16" Newtonian he owned.

I still envy your observatory. By the way, I went from the 8" D&G to a 10" Mak-Cass.

December 12, 2006 02:38 AM Forum: Takahashi

Mewlon 300 vs. 203mm refractor

Posted By Larry Thaxton
You might ask Mark Beale. He has used both and is very knowledgeable.

December 27, 2006 03:51 AM Forum: Refractors

where to buy a 12-14" achromat?

Posted By Larry Thaxton
Having looked through my pal Al George's 15" F/12 D&G, you need look no further. Barry can- if he is willing- make an excellent objective in the size range you are looking at. It will not be "off the shelf" but it will be a great performer. My 8" F/12 D&G is still one of my all time favorite scopes.

January 7, 2007 12:50 PM Forum: APM

130mm F9.25 TMB zero color triplet

Posted By Larry Thaxton
When will the 180mm be available?


February 12, 2007 04:37 PM Forum: Reflectors

portaball/lightbridge?

Posted By Larry Thaxton
A British astro magazine just did a review of the 12" Lightbridge and found the optics tested quite well and performed excellently. There was a quote about how such an inexpensive scope would embarass many high end instruments in visual performance so it sounds like at least the test scope was a winner optically. I own a 12.5" Portaball and had a 10" PB before. The Portaball is my absolute favorite all-around telescope of all the scopes I have owned or tried. The PB and a dedicated planetary scope - a 10" Mak at the moment - are all I need. So why are there six other scopes crowding me out???

February 26, 2007 07:33 PM Forum: Telescope Making

What Do Amateurs Do For a Living?

Posted By Larry Thaxton
Criminal defense lawyer, primarily homicide cases fomerly though mostly in management now. Being able to sit behind a telescope and look at things is a big stress reducer. Guess I stick to visual observing becasue it, unlike most of my life, is pretty uncomplicated.

March 7, 2007 02:45 PM Forum: Refractors

FS 128 vs AP superplanetary or TMB 130

Posted By Larry Thaxton
HI Mary,

I have owned the 6" F/12 AP Superplanetary, TEC 140, Takahashi FS-152 and a couple of other APOs as well. My interest in purely visual observing, lunar, planetary and globular clusters. For lunar and planetary, the AP SuperP is a fabulous telescope but needs a hefty mount to cope with tube length. Mine was on a G-11 and worked fine. The FS-152 and TEC were very nice, but the SuperP's longer FL allowed use of more "relaxed" eyepieces to obtain high power.

The added inch of aperture is a big advantage, more than I would have guessed when I stepped up from a 5" APO. Other folks answers are true in my experience, all of the scopes mentioned- including the Mewlon 210 (I owned one for a while) will do the job, but of the scopes you mentioned and primarily planetary viewing- the AP 6" F/12 would be my choice. Every now and then I am tempted to buy another one, but the 10" Mak I presently own is fine for the time being. Now a 7" or 8" APO just might.......

August 26, 2007 06:18 AM Forum: Refractors

Some help on triplet collimation please

Posted By Larry Thaxton
Collimation of a triplet is not hard. Take a look at the TMB 130 manual at this site. It will help you figure out how to collimate your triplet:

http://www.astronomics.com/main/documents/tmb/tmb130%20manual.pdf

I have a TMB 175 and had to adjust collimation after a bumpy shipment from the previous owner. Using a cheshire was OK but the Takahashi collimation telescope really makes it easy. Lens centering is another subject altogether- if one of the elements has shifted in the cell so the elements are not centered you may want to send the scope, or at least the objective, back to the place you bought it or to the maker directly. Centering can be done by a careful owner and the Meade user groups can give you an idea how it is done.

Tak collimation scope- read the customer comment:

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?pid=1729


August 26, 2007 06:24 AM Forum: Takahashi

Tak Collimating Eyepiece

Posted By Larry Thaxton
Hi Brian,

I use the Tak collimaton scope on my refractors and downloaded the manual from Anacortes website. They mention use on a cassegrain:

http://www.buytelescopes.com/container.asp?dest=/manufacturers/takahashi/manualfortce0100.htm

September 3, 2007 03:42 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Celestron 4 1965 f15

Posted By Larry Thaxton
I am attaching a picture of my C-10 with the C-4 guidescope attached. Interesting little scopes- I had to completely disassemble mine to work on the focuser and make sure everything was aligned for collimation. Let me know if you have any questions about the scopes internal workings.

Larry

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