Posts Made By: John Sellers

I have an eight inch mirror that I want to have its quality evaluated. What person/company could do that for me ??

John

I have an 8 inch mirror that I would be interested in having a ATM test for me. Is there anyone out there that could do this for me or would know someone that I could contact. I would be willing to pay a small fee, if required. Thanks ...........

John

OK, I guess I am mentally challenged when it comes to computering. I have tried on several occasions to upload a photo when advertising on AstroMart and it never works for me. How do you do it? I have Windows XP and I have my photos stored in My Document/My Pictures. Can I move a photo from there to the ad?

I'm thinking of purchasing either a Celestron 9.25 or the 11 inch Celestron OTA and mounting it on my CG5 equatorial mount. The equatorial mount will be fixed on a very study, heavy duty pedestal. Will the CG5 support either of these OTAs satisfactorly?

This scope is not giving me satisfactory views and I believe it is not collimated correctly. When I defocus a star the concentric circles are not round but rather bunched up on one side of the out of focus star. I believe the three sets of screws on the objective cell is what I use to make adjustments but I am not sure. Do I use an allan wrench to loosen these adjustments ??? I don't want to mess around with these if that is not what they are for. Also, can one use sight tubes or a laser to make collomations? I hope someone can help me on this one. Thanks

OK, I was dumb enough to buy a Meade. Even dumber to buy it used on AstroMart. After receiving the Meade 102 APO refractor, I noticed a flair to one side on objects viewed. I felt that the scope was not collimated properly and just let it set for awhile since I have many other scopes. I finally sent it back to Meade (going and coming it cost me $163)for collimation. After over a month a representative called me and told me that they collimated the lens, polished the lens, but that I would still see a flare to the one side because the lens is defective; the flair not as bad he said, but I would still see a flare. Well, I asked about replacing the lens and he said that particular model is no longer made and it would be impossible to replace the lens. I can't go back to the guy who sold me the scope because it has been well over a year since I brought it. It was advertised as giving APO images. I guess I am out in the cold on this one, although I feel as though Meade could do something a little better than telling me they are sorry about it. Any ideas out there ????

OK. I promised once I got the 4" Meade APO refractor back I'd report. You may go to the Defective Meade thread to get the background of this situation if you are not familiar. I spoke to Meade on several occasions and they told me that the scope could not be totally corrected because of a defect in the lens but they could improve it significally. The views are much better. Saturn did not show the coma as it had before. Venus had some coma to one side but not much. The moon looked great but the stars still did not have the nice concentric rings at high power but were bunched to one side. Inside and outside focus showed nice concentric rings. I don't get it!! Why would an in focus show the rings to one side while the out of focus star showed nice concentric rings? The people at Meade were nice and tried to be helpful. I shipped the scope on March 18 but did not get it back until May 19. Packaging was fair but it arrived OK. Maybe I am just expecting too much from this scope. This scope optically is not even in the same universe as my 8" Portaball. Interestingly I sent the scope without its dew shield but it returned with one attached.

Observing Comet Holmes with my 25x100 Oberwicks binoculars I definitely saw two points of lights in the center. Could I be seeing the nucleus splitting in to two parts ??? Has anyone else seen this ???

Is Discovery Telescopes not making their own brand telescopes anymore ? I go to their website and find the company advertising other brand telescopes, but not their own brand. Just wondering.

I have had two binoculars for about 25 years. An 11x80 University pair of binoculars and a 7x35 Nikon pair of binoculars. Both continue to give clear and sharp views although it seems as though both tend not to hold focus as well as they used to. My question: do people return binoculars for routine maintenance? If so, where would one send them? Is it expensive? Is it worth spending the money for routine cleaning, etc ?? I really like both of these binoculars and expect to hold on to them for years to come. Any suggestions here would be appreciated.