Posts Made By: Stephen Stoffer

Thanks people I appreciate the help. Especially to Jon Isaacs for the advice regarding the laser collimator. Yes, it appears mine is out-of-alignment. I only need to find out how to collimate a Meade laser collimator. Information is almost nonexistant. I notice there appears to be three holes 120 degrees apart in circumference around the body of the collimator tube. Each has hex screw set inside the hole. I take it this is to adjust the laser beam. Someone somewhere must have some information how how to achieve this. In the meantime I will collimate the optics another way.

- Stephen

- Stephen

8) I appreciate all the information that you people on this forum are providing me. So far it seems to be working. I hate to think the $70.00 I spent on the Meade collimation laser was a waste of money, yet all that matters is the telescopes optics are aligned. I have located most problems and are solving them, yet, I have one that is concerning me. It appears one of the top truss lock knobs will not firmly hold the front optical tube assembly on the Lightbridge. I tighten it, but grabbing the scope from the front I can feel it jimmying around. The knobs or the holes in the upper OTA don't appear to be stripped. Is this considered normal? The only thing I can think of that did this is the knobs that come with JMI's transporter kit. I only hope that some metal was not removed. I have been very careful not to cross thread anything.


- Stephen

I just bought a pair of Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars. I held my breath when ordering them for other astronomy forum posts complained of uncollimated optics (I ignored these warnings because the Skymasters have great eye relief). I even paid an extra twenty dollars to get them in time for a weekend star party. So for $92.00 I got a decent pair of well collimated and ergonomically pleasing binoculars. I just hope they are rugged enough to last me for many years. I am considering getting a better case than the one provided by Celestron. I want these things to last I love them a lot!

Oh, yes, I glanced through a pair of 100 mm binoculars this summer at a local club star party. There was no tripod for them so I handheld them when observing the Double cluster in Perseus. It wasn't easy but the view was indescribably gorgeous. Eventually I hope to get a pair of these really big ones.

I've seen the transit of Io last night. It only looks good when the atmospheric seeing settles down for a second or two. I love that crisp, dark shadow on the face of Jupiter.
This fall I experienced the best views of this planet in a very long time. The only thing I have not done with Jupiter is view it through various filters. It is painfully bright in a 12 inch scope at low power. But at 304x the view is spectacular!

:S Oh yes, I forgot to mention I may have seen the moon Triton when observing Neptune. It was to the lower left of the planet when viewing at the eyepiece of my Lightbridge newtonian. I say I may have seen because my 5mm Baader Hyperion displays a halo around the planet when using averted vision. This complicates things. I sat observing continuously for an hour to allow my eyes to be completely dark adapted.
I find it hard to believe people can see the satellites of Uranus and Neptune with telescopes as small as 8 inches. I can barely see these objects with my 12 inch from my backyard. But then again I live near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Will really dark skies make a difference? Please tell me, I want to know.