Posts Made By: nick tsakoyias

Well it looks as if I did it. Called Astronomics and had them pencil my name in for the new 152mm. f/6.5 TMB signature series. Should start shipping out about Jan. 2007. From what I was told this scope will be well under 30lbs, and well under 40" in lenghth for a very portable and light 6" APO. and will have the same features as the new TMB 130mm. all for around 5 grand or a little less. I just hope optically it will be typical TMB quality. Wish me luck :S

Nick T.

Hi all,

I've been doing some thinking, a dangerous thing I know. But I've come to the conclusion about the affects of seeing when it come to small vs big appeture scopes. Small scopes ie. I have labeled them Sports cars, large scopes Buses. The reason for this is because I think of scopes as in the abilty to carry X amount of photons, just as a sports car and bus can carry an X amount of passengers. The road that they travel on I call SEEING. If the road that they travel on is very narrow and twisty the bus will have a much harder time getting the passagers to their destination, and may not be even able to reach it at all. Where as the sports car though only able to hold maybe only 4 passangers will have no problem getting them to their destination. Now if the road (seeing conditions) is wide and straight the bus will have no problem with getting the passengers to their destination.

That is my analogy, I wonder if I am correct in my thinking, your comments and insights are most welcomed.

Nick T.

Hi,

I just ordered the solarmax 60, I curently have the PST which IMO is a very nice little scope. I was thinking of getting the solarmax 70 which is lees expensive, but was told that I'd be happier with the 60. Can anyone comment on the differences between the 3 scopes, and why would the 60 be better than the 70? If there are any threads on these I'd appreciate reading them, thanks for any and all input.

Thanks
Nick T.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the info. on tak. 1ST on the new CG-5 mount Max payload is 30lbs, the scope I believe weighs 22lbs, with diagonal and heavy EP's total weight approx.25lbs. I use 2 11lbs couter weights which is more than enough. I normally don't crank up the power more than 200x execpt when I'm trying to split doubles, and thats with any scope I've ever had, even though the TAk scope seemed to be begging for more.

Finally on faint fuzzies, I mean what I said, on what things I saw that night. Because of the serious sky glow in my area (san francisco-bay area)even big newts on faint fuzzies in general don't fair all that great. so what I CAN see thru a small refractor, though dimmer,seems to me IMHO more pleasant.

Nick T. Concord Ca.

Ok, I guess that is what I heard, that only the 152 will have some changes. Still I wonder what those chages will be?

Thanks Nick T

Thanks Mike I'll try it out, took it out only once, the day I got it (last mon.) and the seeing was awfull, so eveything seemed blury (we had a heat wave that day)but there were a couple of moments when things settled down and things looked ok, it looks like the scope has alot of potential.

Nick T.

On a good night with my NP127 I can see between a 4 & 5, but on a really good night I see at 6. With my 11" V11 Starmaster on a good night I see between a 6 & 7, and then again on a really good night I can see at a 8. All these numbers are far from being common in my area, though the skies may be relativley dark and clear the seeing rarely allows for those numbers usaully it's much less.

Nick T.

William Green said:

I see nothing on Astronomics' website about this new 152mm TMB apo. How did you get the details? Has the price been set?

Bill

Mike from Astronomics just E-mailed me and straighten some things out that were incorrect that Pete had told me over at Astronomics. 1st. it will be f/7.5, price will be about $5490.00, should start shipping out around May or June. Sorry for any mix up.

Nick T.