Posts Made By: Tom Lacovik

pics? details?

For whatever reason Oregon seems to be a hotbed of ATMing. Richard Berry. Mel Bartels. Steve Swayze, Dan Gray, and Chuck Dethloff (I'm omitting others I'm sure, but you get the idea... I felt it very compelling to become an ATM myself in this atmosphere).

Anyway, amongst all the innovations, I believe Chuck Dethloff was the first to hit on this idea of hiding a fan in the shadow of the secondary, however his execusion instills no fear and as to michael's comment abou this being insane, I think it can only apply to Ron's sticky tape version of Chuck's otherwise solid idea.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Have a look at my local groups projects, in particular noting Chuck's scope from a couple years ago (seen here at last years OSP)...

http://members.efn.org/~mbartels/osp2003/OSP2003.html

The fan blowing down on the mirror is a very direct and perhaps radically so way of eliminating the thermal barrier. However, Ron, you really should consider screws and not tape for something this precarious or look at the solid way Chuck has done it.

TomL

Doesn't Orion sell that 10" on an EQ mount OR a dob mount? I would bet you could buy the dob, and the eq mount they sell.

Just checked their site. They say the Atlas is for 10" newt, but they also say up to 40 pounds. Usually they list the absolute max. when you are really close to max load that usually means, good for visual but not optimal for photography.
TomL

p.s. looks like someone just posted getting a 10" EQ Orion Newt tonight in the Equipment forum. You should ask him how he likes the Atlas mount for that big scope.

WTF?!? By the time I reached the last photo, all the previously bewildering ones started to seem normal, and all of a sudden, the last one seemed totally surreal and unconnected to the experience had inside that NORAD movie set of an RV. It made the coastal shot look llike something that was about to be struck by missiles, you know what I mean? It didn't look like a natural group of photos of happy camping in the RV and then enjoying the outdoors. Who is this for? I can't see an 'outdoorsy' type as their customer can you?

Wow! WTF!
TomL

I love it Ron!

Here's my take:
1. Not bigger whites, but bigger pupils: Of course!
2. The inside of a bucky ball (glass geometric dome) perhaps. Or maybe they put little eyepatches over all but one of the eye bubble things they have like when we close one eye and look in the EP, they close 63 and use one to look.
3. No. Light doesn't CARRY particles, but exhibits properties that are particle-like. It doesn't hit Jupiter, pick up some stuff and fly into your eye depositing jupiter-stuff. Nice try.
4. If you are talking about putting the two pupil to pupl, then you would see the same thing you see when you close one eye and look really really closely into a mirror with the other (pupil to 'pupil') (you know you are going to try it!)

If you are talking about putting the 'out' eye farther out observing yourself then I'm with Neil!!

Breaking stereoscopic vision like that is hard to conceive of or hard for your mind to put back together the stimulus it is receiving. I have recently noticed that at the eyepiece (right eye), if I don't close the left but open it and allow it to look at the tube or ground (you know you are going to try it!), I get a distinct feeling that I"m not seeing ANYTHING. or if I am, I would say "ground" (i think they get 'added' as in photoshop terminology) so somehow you think you see a star on the ground, but it's lost in translation.

Fun. Thanks Ron.
TomL

In truth, I don't know why there is SO much fuss over cooling. But then, I keep my scopes in the garage which is almost the same temp as outside the garage. I suppose I could put my Mak in the fridge for 5 minutes to cool it too, but I suppose the idea is not to just COOL it, but to make it the same temperature as the outside air.

Also it seems increasingly that people want to remove the thermal boundary layer, proven to exist and to linger on there even when a rear fan (or heat sync, which is the term you are looking for) does nothing about. Glass needs to come to the outside temperature. Tube currents and thermal boundaries need to be blown off or out. A heat sync won't do that, but it might produce a measurable increase in getting the glass temp to = the air temp. I don't see why not even though it is a weird idea

PS. My wife sticks forks in sweet potatoes to make them bake faster..leaves them in while baking I mean, for pretty much the same reason.

TomL

Okay it's an RC (somebody else put out an RC recentlly didn't they? I can't remember who though?) oh yes, and they have now innovated a carbon fiber tube... although I think somebody else was doing that as well, but I could be mistaken, it's all new. ta da!


I'm sure they're great scopes, i just think that marketing is cheesy. don't you?

TomL

PS I know C follows M's lead sometimes and sometimes M follows C. It's all very spy vs. spy. anyway, whatever spurs them on.... i guess... innovation is good and competition is probably driving that. too bad the marketing department isn't innovative.

People speak of kydex like it's holy. It's not. It is unnecessarily heavy, often hard to find, and not cheap when you do.

What is it's function? To block external light? Any opaque material will do that.

As reflection reducing flocking? Remember the tests done here a while ago... it was quite a scientific affair and kydex was at or near the worst of the potential materials.

Is it light? Nope.

Is it weather proof, yes, they say it can warp in the sun/heat, but come back to its shape...

I thnk the reason KB push it so much is that it is an all-in-one solution. Tough, looks good outside, not bad for reflections inside (but really not great, not like velvet or anything) and moisture proof.

Use anything you like then flock the inside. One suggestion I have would be a roll of wood veneer and put that flocking paper on the inside. Or do the same with any light or freely available plastic you have. People have even used formica, but I prefer the lightest thing I can find plus the best flocking I can get. Mine combo came out lighter than kydex (1/10th weight thin polyethlyne) and better flocking (that black velvet that won the test here --- name escapes me) to boot.


Question everything.

TomL

8)

Ha. Yeah, that was Tuesday. Do I win any prize?

TomL

Though not as commonly seen this year (due to NHL strike), I took 3 pucks out of my equipment bag and put them under my N8 medium duty tripod, and sure enough the 'thwak-the-tripod-leg test' (very scientific!) made the images settle down in one second instead of five without the pucks. A five fold difference (and more importantly turning it from unacceptable to perfectly acceptable dampening) for zero dollars out of pocket.

TomL, Portland, OR
(Formerly of Vancouver, BC, so for what it's worth, I can tell you that Canucks pucks seem to work the best