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Michael Scherman

Lagoon and Triffid Celestron C6 Hyperstar4

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Posts Made By: Stephen Winston

September 26, 2005 10:30 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Horsehead and Flame in Ha

Posted By Stephen Winston
Wow - absolutely beautiful! How many exposures did you take? Or is that AP1200 of yours capable of doing 160 minutes straight through :-)

Steve

October 8, 2005 05:45 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Schiller and Bayer

Posted By Stephen Winston
Hi Wes,

Beautiful image (as always smile!

I recently just started imaging with a dob and I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind smile

- Are you focusing manually or using a motor focus?
- How do you handle image drift? Did you do anything to improve the tracking on the scope?
- What software do you use to merge your images after the multipoint alignment?

Many thanks!

Steve

February 14, 2006 11:49 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

RCX400 12" vs. Mewlon 250

Posted By Stephen Winston
Not really answering your questions, but I'd say that both of those scopes are aimed more at imaging rather than pure "visual observing".

For the kind of money you would have to spend on the Mewlon (including a suitable mount), or even for the cost of the 12" RCX, you could get a *lot* of aperture in the form of a big, high quality, goto Dob. The big dob should easily outperform either of those scopes for deep sky visual observing.

Just my $0.02 :-)

Steve.

March 21, 2006 03:21 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Loose SCT secondary

Posted By Stephen Winston
Hi David,

There were a couple of threads on this topic over on the Cloudy Nights forum too (search in the SCT forum). Lot of discussion but no real consensus :-)

My own personal experience found that two things were required:
1) Center the secondary w.r.t. the primary mirrors' axis
2) Collimate :-).

Steve

September 17, 2006 07:13 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Deslandres 09/14/06

Posted By Stephen Winston
Incredible, Wes! Do you have any idea what kind of scale you are resolving with these images?

thanks!

Steve

October 17, 2006 12:53 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

2" Barlowed Laser vs. 2" Laser/2" Autocollimator

Posted By Stephen Winston
Hi Doug,

My understanding is that a barlowed laser is basically equivalent to using a cheshire and so is not as sensitive as using the autocollimator.

From the sounds of your setup (all triangles stacked in your autocollimator) you don't need a barlowed laser :-)!

Steve

October 18, 2006 03:33 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Upgrade Finder Scope!?

Posted By Stephen Winston
Hi Judson,

I have the Russell Optics 80mm finder - it fits in a standard 50mm mounting bracket (it's tapered like a binocular). Highly recommend it :-).

Steve

November 4, 2005 10:54 PM Forum: Polls

Allow HOTMAIL and YAHOO on AstroMart

Posted By Stephen Winston
I currently use my work email address (my other a/c is with gmail). I'm not sure if/how that is tied/verified to my home address (maybe Herb has greater powers than previously suspected :-) - anyway, my point is that allowing users to provide a CC# + associated address, even if they are with a free-mail ISP, probably provides more security than we currently have.

Steve

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