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Posts Made By: George Golitzin

August 3, 2006 08:49 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

baader "semi-apo" filter

Posted By George Golitzin
Apparently Baader has come out with a new filter (see link below) combining the fringe-killer and moon&skyglow specs--the S&T review highly recommended stacking these two, so this is kind of interesting. Anybody look through one?
http://www.alpineastro.com/filters/filters.htm#SemiAPO
--George

June 20, 2007 05:35 AM Forum: Refractors

stellarvue 102ed

Posted By George Golitzin
Any news on the SV102ED? I'd love to hear any first impressions.
--George

October 5, 2007 05:37 AM Forum: ASTRONOMY

encke's tail ripped off by CME

Posted By George Golitzin
have you checked this link from APOD?
(Oct. 3rd.)

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071003.html

pretty cool movie.

--geo.

December 11, 2007 05:01 AM Forum: After Dark

You know the seeing is bad when...

Posted By George Golitzin
Mars is twinkling. Even though it's 35 degrees up.

:C @#$&%!!!

December 14, 2007 05:59 AM Forum: Eyepieces

dioptrx question

Posted By George Golitzin
I'm thinking of getting a dioptrx for my 27 pan--I've got about 2.25 diopters of astigmatism. My question is, should I really go for the 2.25 diopter or scale back to say 2.0? Reason I ask is because someone, I think maybe Kim Colter, reported having better results when he backed off a quarter diopter from his prescription. Any thoughts from you more heavily astigmatic types?
thanks!
geo.

February 12, 2008 07:47 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

another friedman gem on apod

Posted By George Golitzin
surprised nobody picked this up yet...
thanks, Alan, for another great image!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080208.html

--george

February 26, 2008 05:08 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

polaris alt-az vs. giro et al

Posted By George Golitzin
I've got a mounting dilemma. :S

I've been very happy with my C80ed riding on a vixen polaris in alt-az mode, having taken Ed Moreno's review of that mount to heart...(in fact I took care of the tail-heaviness of the c80 by making an adapter plate that allows my rings to sit closer together, creating room to shove the scope forward...)

BUT now I've gone and bought an SV102ed and it's too much scope for that mount--the decay time is pushing 3 seconds and focusing is a bit delicate...

So--would I be a lot better off with maybe a giro 3DX (or WO eztouch) on say, an oberwerk wood tripod--you know, the ones that look just like the tripods in the WO EZ-touch rigs? Part of me (the cheap part) looks at $450 for an alt-az rig and thinks, "I could maybe pick up a nice vixen GP here used..."--then another part (the one with the sore back) thinks "GEM? no way..."

But i guess gem vs alt-az is a side issue--my main question is, how good is that giro--in particular, will I miss slo-mo controls at high power (200-250X), and will the vibration be significantly reduced?

Sorry for the ramble.

--george

August 12, 2008 04:35 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

ganymede transit

Posted By George Golitzin
I don't recall ever having had such a clear view of a Jovian moon crossing the face of the planet--(8/12 4:40 UT)--just got my sv102ed back from stellarvue a few days ago, with a new optic, very well corrected--ganymede is approaching the CM of the planet, in the latitude of the NTB, and clear as day at 160X. Anybody else seeing this? Shadow transit to start in about 2 hours. Well, back to the eyepiece!

-george

September 2, 2008 12:29 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

stephan's and other faint fuzzies

Posted By George Golitzin
Finally got up to my dark site: http://cleardarksky.com/c/HympmCAkey.html?1

and conditions were especially good Friday. I was observing with a 13" f/4.5 dob and mostly using my 11mm nagler. And I finally managed to split the close pair in Stephan's quintet, 7318AB! So all five were clearly visible. I think it must take a combination of seeing and transparency to do, because I've tried before in larger scopes. So I'm curious what's the smallest scope you've seen all five in.

Well I also managed the 4 companions to the east of 7331, and got 12 members of the 383 group. That group and the 507 group are among my favorite galaxy clusters, but I never bothered to make a map of them before. So last night (sunday--not quite as good as friday but still nice), I mapped out a sequence of FOVs in the 11mm, without the benefit of a chart. When I came back in, the agreement with the image of this cluster in NSOG vol 1 (p. 324, if you're curious) was very gratifying. This has become my preferred method when dealing with a tight galaxy group--trying to work through a chart in the field while preserving night vision is just too difficult--charts seem to require both eyes. But I can draw with my left eye open, and observe with my right!

George

September 2, 2008 01:19 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Contrast in 17mm T4 Nagler

Posted By George Golitzin
I love my 17T4, but lately it seems increasingly evident that it does not have the contrast of the 16T5 on faint fuzzies. Case in point, a week ago I had fairly decent transparency in my backyard, about mag 5, and was looking at the pretty pair 7332-7339 in pegasus, in my 10" f/5.6. 7339 was fairly easy to hold in direct vision in the 16mm T5, and more or less required AV in the 17 T4. Any other DSO observers have a similar experience? Granted, it was not an exhausting comparison, and I need to check them at a dark site on a variety of targets.

Given that the two together should fetch a 13mm ethos...hmm... Wonder how that compares in contrast to the other two in an f/5 to f/6 scope...(the grass is always greener, etc.)

--george

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