Posts Made By: Roger Cole

One reason those old observatory refractors have a built in iris is for reduction of chromatic aberration. Remember, those are achromats and very large ones at that. For bright targets that didn't need the full aperture the iris let the observer stop down the instrument to effectively longer focal lengths and greatly reduce the chromatic abberation.

They're waiting to test 'em with an LXD55.

Fine with me and I can't blame you. Will non members be allowed to read? That seems reasonable to me. Anyone can read but you must register as a member to post. However, if you have to be a member to get in at all - well, it's ok with me, but it might help get other people to register if they could see and read messages so they'd know whether it's worthwhile to them.

I tend to agree. Occasionally I see a deal and wish I could afford to spring for it at the moment. More often it seems used late model good condition astro stuff goes for about 80% or more of new price. If the sellers can get it, I can't blame them. OTOH, unless it is something not available new without a long wait or there are some other unusual circumstances, I don't see myself paying 80% of new price. For that difference, I'll buy new and get the warranty and so forth virtually every time. However, I suppose it's a not unmixed thing, since I am somewhat more willing to try new things if I feel like I can sell it of for 80%+ of new price if I don't care for it or it doesn't suit my needs. So there's two sides to the story.

I haven't read the article so I do not know the situation. But, have you? Could it be the kid did "pay his dues" and had a succession of lesser scopes and learned a great deal and proved his commitment and dedication? Maybe, maybe not, but it's clear a lot of people are jumping to conclusions out of sheer jealousy.

If I had the money I'd build myself an observatory, though admitedly not with that scope. If I were really loaded and were not interested in astronomy but had a son who was, who had shown he was serious and comitted enough to make use of such a facility, I might build him one. I wouldn't do it to get into the society pages. The only way I'll ever get there is as an example of an opinionated, vaguely barbaric sort to be avoided, and I wouldn't have it any other way. ;-)

This is great news and an awesome buy, though I wish the LX90 was discounted $500 like the LX200s. I'd snap one up at that price. Anyway, I had just about decided to buy a Nexstar 8 GPS and get Celestron's $500 rebate. Now.. this is clearly in response to that. I wish it lasted through October like Celestron's, though. Anyone think Celestron will counter either with an eyepiece offer or (drool drool) by extending the $500 rebate to the Nexstar 11 GPS? A Nexstar 11 GPS for $2499 and a complete collection of eyepieces for $100 more. Man, that would be awesome. The LX200 10" is not QUITE that cheap yet, not with the UHTC which most people seem to believe are competitive with Celestron's Starbright.

Wanting to find something else in Scorpius before it sank lower into my southwestern sky murk, I next located M4. In spite of being only 1 deg 18’ from Antares, I manage to glimpse it only with averted vision. Listed as “Easy” by the AL and mag 7.50, this speaks of how my sky at this location gets even worse to the west.

Next attempted target was M28, listed on my League list of M objects for binos as “Tougher.” I never convince myself I have a glimpse of it, not surprising given it’s magnitude wich SNP lists as 8.5 and considering it is not a point source.

Next I manage to find M22. My notes read, “Nice globular, showing as a prominent fuzzy patch. Triangular asterism to lower right.” Lower right would be WSW. If I needed confirmation, checking this indoors later gave it. There’s my triangle made up of 24 Sagittarii (at mag 5.46 the only one of the three that showed on the crude roughly mag 6 charts I was using,) 25 Sagittarii at mag 6.5, and HIP90953/TCY6857-628-1 at mag 6.78. I also saw some of the other, dimmer, stars within this neat little triangular signpost.

Back to the west for another sweep for M28 without luck. Moving on to a few degrees north and west from there I go to M23. Notes read, “fairly easy, within another triangular asterism.” Humm, lotsa triangles tonight. But setting up SNP later and playing with limiting magnitude and setting it to mag 9 duplicates it beautifully. My triangle this time is TYC6258-534-1 (mag 8.19,) TYC6258-511-1 (mag 8.65) and HIP87782/TYC6258-94-1 (mag 6.46.)

It’s interesting how different some objects and their fields look with the limiting magnitude set differently on a computer program. This may be one of the less proclaimed but useful advantages over paper charts as it seems some tinkering can usually get remarkably close to the actual view without either leaving out too many stars for recognition or crowding the chart with so many dim ones as to obscure the patterns we see at the eyepiece.

Looking at M24 later convinces me I saw it, as I definitely recall a very pretty open cluster that reminded me of a miniature Cygnus flying with its neck outstretched right toward the teapot. Since I wasn’t sure until I checked later I don’t know whether to count it or not, but I’m sure I can nail it immediately next time. It’s only a couple of degrees north of Mu Sagittarii anyway, and a very prominent pattern.

Similarly with M25, I’m pretty sure I saw it but was never totally convinced that I knew for sure what I was looking at. No score but it should be easy next time.

and M45. But that’s a much shorter tale for another

Well, bear in mind you can order an XT10 or one of the clones today and have it in a few days. A Discovery may take a few weeks. Unless you buy used, any Zambuto scope will take from several months to a year or more to receive, and if you do buy used you may have to take what happens to become available and/or pay a premium for getting it NOW.

If you have the money for a Zambuto equipped scope, what I would do is buy an XT10/clone/Discovery NOW and put some money down to get on the delivery list for a new premium of your choice. Use the import or Discovery until you get your new scope. You will gain a lot of valuable experience, and be able to sell the cheaper scope for little loss when you get your new one. If you don't turn out to like it, I don't know about the policy on returns of deposit money - I'd think the makers would do it since they have more than enough customers for all the scopes they can make - but if not you can still sell the premium scope with no loss, or very little.

Discovery's web site does not list an 8" PDHQ:

http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/PDHQ.html

Are you talking about the 8" DHQ with the $125 pedastal and bearing upgrade? The one at the top of this page:

http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/DHQ.html

That upgrade seems to be available for any of the DHQs, but doesn't look to make them into a PDHQ. For one thing, it appears the bearings are still the small DHQ sized ones.

Got a web link? What part of NC? Since I'm less than 30 miles from the TN/NC line (in TN) it might be relatively close to me, or might not.

Roger Cole
Johnson City, TN


(I am going to Bays Mountain Astronomy Club's "Starfest" - hardly an original name, but here's the links. Anyone else going to be there?)

Bay's Mountain Club, Kingsport TN:

http://home.naxs.com/baysmtn/planetdept/astrclub.html

Starfest 2002:

http://home.naxs.com/baysmtn/planetdept/starfest.html